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Mimi Wagner, associate professor of landscape architecture at ISU, thanked the Emerson Drive neighbors for their willing participation in the project, though none were able to attend the open house.
"I have to thank the homeowners - they had to consent to this. They didn't know me, and I came with students and started moving dirt."
Bill Ehm, from Iowa Department of Natural Resources Watershed Improvement, also congratulated the community on the participation level.
"I'm not sure we ever see a 75 percent participation rate," he said. "The fact you got that level is huge."
The storm water gardens are designed with specially excavated beds and native plants with long root systems, in order for the soil to absorb as much rain water as possible. It is entirely different from the traditional approach of downspouts designed to channel water directly to storm drains.
These projects tie in to larger stream edge plantings on city property adjacent to the creek. Trees, shrubs, native grasses and wildflowers were planted by volunteers, homeowners, ISU students and project staff. Wagner said the native prairie and flowers were seeded by the Story County Conservation Board.
The storm water management project is the first phase of rehabilitating the ailing College Creek, which suffers from collapsing stream beds and sediment pollution.
The creek has received a $304,335 grant from the Iowa Watershed Improvement Review Board, and will receive matching funds from the city of Ames. Iowa State University's Department of Landscape Architecture will lend technical assistance to that project as well, scheduled to begin in the fall. That project will reconstruct and stabilize the stream bed channel of the creek.
