Madison's Engineering department partners with community groups and NGOs to actively promote rain gardens, rain barrels, and “rain garden streets” to complement traditional stormwater management in the city.

1,000 Raingardens
The city is well on the way to it's goal of 1,000 rain gardens and regularly posts a tally of rain gardens and barrels throughout the Madison area – 173 rain gardens and 539 rain barrels, and counting!

Madison's 1,000 Rain Gardens webpage
(external link)

Madison’s first “Rain Garden Street”
Inspired by Seattle’s “Street Edge Alternatives,” the Friends of Lake Wingra decided to investigate the potential sites for a similar low-tech solution to stormwater runoff in the Lake Wingra watershed. When the Friends proposed a rain garden street, "...not only did the city engineer not hang up, he attended meetings to hash out the details and co-wrote a grant proposal to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources." The money was awarded to the City of Madison, and the city engineered the project and hired local landscape designers who met with Adams Street residents to design gardens that suit them. In 2005, nine rain gardens were constructed along three blocks of Adams Street. The gardens were mulched over winter and allowed to settle before they were planted in June 2006. The City has since partnered with residents in another neighborhood, representing Madison's "...first effort to significantly broaden homeowner participation in rain garden construction."

Photos and videos of Seattle’s SEA helped to build support for the idea in Madison. With the hope similarly inspiring many more “Rain Garden Streets" for other watersheds, the Friends asked photographers, poets, artists and journalists to help “capture the spirit of this project before, during, and after construction.”

Madison’s first “Rain Garden Street”
(external link)

Sustain Dane’s Rain Barrel Project
To promote rainbarrels, the city relies on Sustain Dane, a community based non-profit organization with broad support in Dane County, Wisconsin. Sale of Sustain Dane’s rain barrels and kits support staff and programs of the non-profit organization. The "... Rain Barrel Program is a citizen-initiated effort that began in the fall of 2005, when a group of “Natural Step for Communities Study Circle” participants began installing rain barrels at residences in an effort to make Dane County a more sustainable place to live.”

Local artists have donated their talent to create one-of-a-kind rain barrels for auction in support of Sustain Dane’s programs.

Sustain Dane’s Artist Barrel Auction
(external link)

Sustain Dane's Rain Barrel Program
(external link)