BT Announcement
E. Storey
A Blue Thumb’s Up
This winter while we were all longing for green in the landscape, a group of people who care about clean water were thinking in hues of blue.
Blue Thumb™ is a program originally developed by Dawn Pape of Rice Creek Watershed District as an outreach program to meet water quality goals and to help watershed cities meet federal Clean Water Act mandates. Now, Blue Thumb is a collaborative of professionals from local governmental units (watershed and conservation districts, cities, counties); non-profit and community organizations; the University of Minnesota Extension; and nursery and landscape professionals.
Through native plant gardening, raingardens, and shoreline stabilization Blue Thumb programming encourages citizens of local watersheds to reduce runoff from their home landscape in an effort improve water quality. Since all partner organizations have the same goal - clean water – the Blue Thumb partnership helps create a unified public education message.
Partners may use the Blue Thumb™ logo on print pieces, purchase promotional materials co-developed by field professionals, and more effectively collaborate with agencies and organizations with shared goals. A partnership like Blue Thumb minimizes duplication and increases the strength of our reach to watershed residents. Retailers benefit from the increased exposure that results from association with Blue Thumb, and will also receive technical support and opportunities for professional development through trainings and workshops.
One element of the Blue Thumb program is an easy-to-use website for homeowners seeking native plant gardening information. The website is currently being redesigned, but still offers help if you’re creating a native plant garden, a raingarden or a shoreline restoration. Check out http://www.bluethumb.org.
Blue Thumb meets regularly at the Capitol Region Watershed District office. Contact Dawn Pape for more information about becoming a partner, dpape@ricecreek.org.
Grey box Stay tuned! A brand new how-to raingarden installation manual currently being co-developed by Minnesota landscape ecologists Dan Shaw and Rusty Schmidt will be available later this summer.
Posted: August 7, 2007