Growing Greener Streets – Lower Merion Conservancy

Traditionally, the response to the flow and buildup of water during storms has been to redirect and channel it toward streams for a quick fix. The redirected water carries pollutants from roofs, roads, cars, and lawns into our waterways. Our polluted streams drain into the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers, which serve as drinking water sources for millions of people. The large quantities of water combined with the inflexible nature of underground pipes also makes our roads susceptible to flooding, as you can often observe during storms.

There are a variety of approaches needed to address our stormwater issues, since runoff comes from public properties, private properties, streets, and sidewalks. Each source of runoff is important address but some changes are easier to make than others. The Conservancy has focused a lot of our work on private properties because simple, inexpensive adjustments can make a big difference.

The Conservancy has offered House Call programs – most recently Stream Smart, funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation – to give advice to residents looking to reduce the amount of stormwater coming off of their properties. We enjoyed connecting with interested individuals and wanted to make the program more hands-on. Factoring in our experiences through Stream Smart and our observations of the Hav-A-Rain Garden program in Havertown, we applied for and received funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to start the Delmont Avenue Green Street in Ardmore. The intention was to strategically re-direct downspouts, remove pavement, re-grade soil, replace lawns and plant native plants to reduce runoff and create habitat for pollinators on Delmont while also providing examples for other properties.

After the success on Delmont Avenue, we sought to expand the program. We received funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to expand the program to tight geographic areas in Narberth and Ardmore. The Growing Greener Streets program implements the same kinds of projects as the Delmont Avenue Green Street program on a larger scale. We have been planting new gardens in a variety of spaces in 2021 and 2022 and are excited to continue moving forward in 2023.

Common projects include creating new native plant gardens, expanding existing gardens, re-directing downspouts from paved areas to planted areas, removing unnecessary paved areas, and planting rain gardens. Actions as simple as maintaining existing trees and planting new ones have wide-reaching benefits.

If you are interested in joining the Green Streets project or want to learn more, email [email protected].

Thank you to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for funding Growing Greener Streets.

Thank you to the National Fish and Wildlife program for funding Stream Smart.