Join us on August 15^th at the Skaneateles Library to learn how to install a rain garden on your property, doing your part to create a “sponge” to soak up polluted water in the watershed. Rain gardens help slow the flow of stormwater, often carrying pollutants, to filter and help protect water quality, including in Skaneateles Lake, the drinking water source for Syracuse and lakeside communities.

Rain gardens, filled with native perennial plants, are food and home for declining insect populations – including pollinators. At this program, you will also learn more about how rain gardens can also support pollinators presented by Molly Jacobson, Pollinator Ecologist with the SUNY ESF Restoration Science Center. Molly will share a brief overview of native pollinators in New York, their habitat requirements, and how rain garden plants can fill these requirements.

After these brief presentations, attendees will walk over to the Gatehouse Garden, a demonstration garden located down the street from the library in front of the City of Syracuse Water Department building (20 West Genesee Street, Skaneateles). There will be a short garden tour and time for questions and answers and discussion.

This program is part of a collaborative series that focused on several types of landscaping practices that help protect Skaneateles Lake – including lawns, meadows, rain gardens, and more. Through this series, property owners will hopefully find one or more ways to landscape and manage their properties to protect water quality.

This program and series are a collaboration between Cornell Cooperative Extension Onondaga County (with support from the City of Syracuse), SUNY ESF Restoration Science Center, The Skaneateles Library, Go Native! perennials, and the Skaneateles Lake Association.

Session Details:

• Rain Gardens: One Solution to Stormwater Pollution and Pollinator Protection, Thursday, August 15^th from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
• Location: Skaneateles Library, 49 East Genesee Street, Skaneateles, NY, 13152
• Speakers: Camille Marcotte, Water and Ecology Educator, Cornell Cooperative Extension Onondaga County and Molly Jacobson, Pollinator Ecologist, SUNY ESF Restoration Science Center

For more information and to register, visit: www.skanlakeinfo.org/events/raingardens.

Questions? Contact Camille Marcotte, Water and Ecology Educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County, at [email protected] or (315) 424-9485 ext.232.