Bioswale Demonstration Project Takes Off

The Sarasota Board of County Commissioners today unanimously approved our Neighborhood Grant to install a demonstration Bioswale in our neighborhood! -Our thanks to the County Commissioners for their support and also to Vicky French of the Neighborhood Grants program and to Rob Wright of the Neighborhood Environmental Stewardship Team for all their help and hard work on our behalf.-

So what is a Bioswale and why are we so excited about it?

A Bioswale is essentially a vegetated channel or swale that is planted with native plants. Bioswales provide a multitude of benefits to water quality and the environment:


-Improve water quality by reducing pollutant loads in stormwater runoff including excess nutrients -and heavy metals.
-Increase infiltration and groundwater recharge (very important in Florida’s ongoing drought)
-Reduce incidence of flooding
-Reduce application of pesticides (including mosquito treatment), herbicides and mowing costs
-Provide an aesthetically-pleasing landscape feature
-Provide habitat for birds, butterflies and other wildlife


Bioswales are not only good for our own water supply, but are good for the bay as well. If you stop to think about it, everything that applied to your yard and your neighbor’s yard (including fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides) makes its way into your stormwater ditch during heavy storms. Coupled with the contaminants that flush off of roadways, driveways and other impervious surfaces, stormwater becomes a contaminate stew that can be toxic to our bay and to the wildlife that call it home.


Our Bioswale project is set up as a demonstration project so that other individuals and neighborhood associations can see what one looks like installed and can learn how to do something similar in their own neighborhood. The more people that are able to participate, the greater the impact to our water quality. We will be documenting our Bioswale project with step by step photos, so that the process can be easily repeated in other areas. Stay tuned for more information as the project progresses including photos and the upcoming date for our volunteer planting day. If you would like more information, or would like to be more involved, feel free to leave a comment on this post.