Are you looking for volunteer work while also staying safe during the pandemic? Join Minnesota’s Adopt a Drain program and help keep your neighborhood clean!
Adopt-A-Storm-Drain is a metro wide program that seeks to keep debris from entering our rivers and lakes. Every year, leaves and grass fall into our city storm drains and flow into the nearest lake or river. Algae is fed by this organic matter and makes our water bodies thick and green. Fighting this problem is important work that keeps our lakes clean and biodiverse.
So far in Minnesota, 13,653 drains have been adopted and volunteers have prevented 251,422 lbs. of debris from entering our waters! But, there are more than 300,000 storm drains in the metro area. Imagine all the debris that we are missing which in a natural landscape would never reach our lakes. Help improve these numbers and adopt a nearby drain today!
Sign up Here: adopt-a-drain.org
Keep them out of the street
In addition, don’t sweep leaves into the street or the creek. Monitor your lawn care companies to make sure they are illegally dumping leaves or grass clippings into a water body or into your backyard forest. This can harm soil health, and may also harm the creek or lake. It’s better to mulch them into your lawn or garden, or compost them instead.
Adopt a drain
Check out this video from MN Water Steward Michelle Spangler!