The Zionsville Stormwater Department and Zion Nature Center will be co-hosting a rain garden workshop at the Zionsville Town Hall located at 1100 W. Oak Street.  The Stormwater Department is creating a rain garden at Town Hall which will alleviate drainage issues as well as provide a positive impact on water quality and create a beautiful landscape feature.  Myrene Brown, local rain garden expert, will present this hands-on workshop which will highlight a low maintenance rain garden with four season interest that will be attractive to humans and wildlife.  The excavation and landscaping has been completed and we will actually be planting the garden during the workshop. 

Any interested adult (ages 15 +) is welcome to attend the workshop and if you also want to participate in planting the garden, please wear appropriate clothing and bring your work gloves and gardening hand tools.  Space in the garden will be limited so not all attendees will be able get their hands dirty.  The workshop will be held at the Zionsville Town Hall in the Fireplace Room on Tuesday, May 9 at 1:00 pm.  Please register at znaturecenter@aol.com or 317-873-8950 and please indicate whether or not you would like to help plant the garden.  In case of rain, the program will take place at 1 p.m. on May 16.

The Zion Nature Center has teamed up with the Zionsville Stormwater Department to host a Basic Training session for the Hoosier Riverwatch program.  The training introduces citizens and educators to water quality monitoring utilizing hands-on habitat, chemical, and biological assessment methods. Participants gain experience and skills in the use of chemical monitoring kits and aquatic insect collection and identification. After completion of this training, participants become Certified Volunteer Monitors and are qualified to submit data to the statewide volunteer stream monitoring database. Any interested adult (ages 15 +) is welcome to attend, and once certified, may teach students how to monitor. The training will be held on May 12, 2012 from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm at the Zion Nature Center located at 690 Beech St., Zionsville. 

Teachers and Educators:  Hoosier Riverwatch topics and activities are correlated to Indiana's Academic Standards for Science and you may also receive Professional Growth Points for attending a workshop! 

The workshop is free, but pre-registration is required!  Please bring a sack lunch, water, creek shoes or waders and be prepared to be indoors and in the creek.  For more information, contact Gavin Merriman at the Zionsville Street and Stormwater Department at gmerriman@zionsville-in.gov or 317-873-4544.  To register, contact the Natural Resources Education Center at nrec@dnr.in.gov or 317-562-1338.

See flyer for details

Event Flyer: Cicero Spring Workshops