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Fall Projects
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| Creating a Rain Garden
Creating a rain garden is an excellent fall activity. By planting in the fall, plants are able to establish root systems before their winter dormancy and you avoid having to replace plants that die during the harsh summer period. Spring is an alternate time to plant a rain garden, but spring rains can make a spring planting event iffy.
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| Collecting Native Seeds
Collecting native seeds is a great way to help provide tree stock to be planted along streams as buffers and to help regenerate our region's forests. The majority of eastern hardwood trees drop their seeds in the late summer into the fall, making the fall the ideal time for this event. The seeds collected from native seed collection events are donated to state nurseries, where they are grown into seedlings. In the spring, volunteers can then plant seedlings grown from seeds collected two to three years prior along rivers and streams throughout the watershed.
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Storm drain stenciling is a warm weather project and one ideally done during dry periods. Stencils, which carry slogan such as “No Dumping. Drains to Stream,” need time to dry and set. For this reason, we placed this activity in the fall section of the toolkit, but it could just as well be done in the spring or summer.
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| Creating a Watershed Model
Imagine a permanent, colorful sculpture that you can jump around on, that shows your local geography, and can be used to teach your community how to keep its creeks and lakes clean! It is an ideal project for the start of the school year because students can help with its construction while learning about geology, watershed concepts, local history, the water cycle, and map reading.
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| Planting Trees from Containers or Ball and Burlap
Containerized trees need some time to grow before being planted. Once they are planted they need to have some time to reestablish their roots before going dormant. For these reasons, plantings such as these work well in the fall. They can also be done in the spring, but are not recommend for the summer because newly-planted trees can be stressed by hot temperatures and dry conditions.
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