RORG’s 2024 Year-in-Review

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By the RORG Team

Welcome to RORG’s Year in Review — our fifth one! Before we start, we’d like to express our gratitude to all of the volunteers who gave us their time and talent. We also thank the University of Illinois Extension, Extension’s Natural Resources, Energy, and Environment program, and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant for their leadership and University of Illinois Facilities & Services for their continued support. And thank you to everyone who follows and interacts with us throughout the year! From the renovation’s start, Eliana’s goal for RORG is to combine vibrant engagement with education and we hope you see that in everything we do. Hope you enjoy our look back!

Before we reflect on 2024, we’d like to celebrate a milestone: it’s been five years since our rain garden renovation! We’re excited to share the impact we’ve made since then.

Red Oak Rain Garden has had a big impact over the past 5 years!

LATE WINTER

Public Engagement

RORG’s fifth annual native plant competition, Rain Garden Rumble, kicked off in March 2024 and wrapped up with Butterflyweed taking home the championship title for the second time since our 2020 inaugural competition. Sixty brackets were submitted this year, with a $20 gift certificate awarded to whoever had the most correct picks. Amy Moore’s winning bracket successfully predicted 22 out of 27 matchups! During the three weeks of the tournament, our content promoting native plant literacy reached more than 16,000 people!

Late Winter Presentation

RORG Director Eliana Brown kicked off our 2024 presentations on January 31, delivering a webinar as part of the Wilderness Wednesday series hosted by the University of Illinois Extension for Grundy, Kankakee, and Will counties. She shared insights on stormwater management and the role of native plants, drawing on the valuable experiences we’ve gained at the Red Oak Rain Garden.

In the Rain Garden

Another abnormal season of weather

The rain garden is no stranger to dramatic weather swings, and the beginning of this year was no exception. CoCoRaHS rain gauge watchers Katrina Kotowski and Karen Folk reported a near-record of 5.15 inches of rain in January—more than double the average. In stark contrast, February started with two completely dry weeks, ending the month with just 0.53 inches of rain, far below the 2.13-inch average.

On top of the bouncing precipitation patterns, warm spring temperatures arrived early, prompting an earlier-than-usual cleanup in consultation with Extension’s State Pollinator Associate Brodie Dunn. While waiting for temperatures above 50°F is ideal for overwintering pollinators, the dense Sycamore leaves in the rain garden decompose so slowly that they risk smothering plants, making cleanup a priority. So, we scheduled our spring cleanup event.

Thirty-five student and community volunteers gained hands-on experience with rain garden stewardship during the cleanup. Five student organizations participated, including the Society of Women in Engineering, Illini Wildlife and Conservation Club, Illinois Solar Decathlon, American Society of Landscape Architects, and the UIUC Horticulture Club. 

Members of the RORG Team were joined by community and student volunteers for the annual spring cleanup in March.

SPRING

Public Engagement

Spring 2024 saw our outstanding RORG student team playing a pivotal role in raising awareness about the rain garden! They represented us at two campus outreach events: the Monarch and Pollinator Fair and Sustainapalooza. These events allowed us to engage with the community, share the story of the rain garden, and inspire new involvement. The team connected with hundreds of attendees and successfully welcomed 35 new folks to our growing list of volunteers.

The RORG Student Team staffed a table at Sustainapalooza 2024.

Did you know that RORG is a favorite photo spot for graduating seniors? Two of our RORG Student Team members are a perfect example! At the end of the spring semester, both Volunteer Coordinator Maddy Craft and Communications Coordinator Abbey Ascolani celebrated their graduation from the University. Maddy earned a B.S. in Sustainable Design with minors in Landscape Studies and Natural Resource Conservation, while Abbey completed a B.A. in Communication and a minor in Legal Studies. Both continued to contribute to the team through the summer.

Maddy Craft, RORG Volunteer Coordinator, B.S. in Sustainable Design and minors in Landscape Studies and Natural Resource Conservation
Abbey Ascolani, RORG Communications Coordinator, B.A. in Communication and a minor in Legal Studies

RORG’s Spring Tours and Presentations:

In the Rain Garden

The spring 2024 gardening season began with a fresh layer of mulch in selected areas and updates to the planting design. As part of these updates, volunteers carefully relocated plants that were struggling in their original spots or had spread beyond their intended places, moving them to more suitable locations where they would flourish. In April, we installed our newest set of ceramic tiles from our ongoing collaboration with Unit One/Allen Hall‘s ARTS 252 course. As rogue weeds started to sprout up, volunteers were poised and ready to pull them throughout the garden while Maddy burned them off our granite border with the garden torch. We also deep-cleaned our inlet in the sunny cell to better capture the stormwater from those April showers!

Our Bluebells and Tulips reached peak bloom in mid-April, a few weeks earlier than usual, perfect timing for Mom’s weekend on campus. Other species in bloom included Bloodroot, Shooting Star, Woodland Phlox, Rue Anemone, Plantain-Leaved Pussytoes, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Foamflower, Prairie Alumroot, and Wild Geranium. Thanks to abundant spring rainfall, the garden flourished, with our groundcover plants filling in beautifully and creating a lush, green mulch that covered much of the rain garden.

SUMMER

Public Engagement

Our Volunteer Coordinator, Maddy Craft, developed an iNaturalist project for the Red Oak Rain Garden, allowing us to gather observations from the public. As of the time of this blog post, there are 266 observations documenting 165 species of plants, insects, and more! Check out the project!

RORG’s Summer Tours and Presentations:

Summer Blogs:

In the Rain Garden

Unlike the moderate to severe droughts of the past few summers, this year, the rain garden benefited from several well-timed rainstorms. With only a few dry weeks, these rains kept RORG’s plants lush, vibrant, and thriving, leading to a stunning display of blooms throughout the summer! By June, the rain garden’s sunny areas were alive with Purple Poppy Mallow, Butterflyweed, Coneflowers, and more, while shaded spots showcased Joe Pye Weed, ‘Rozanne’ Geranium, and Nodding Onion.

During the summer of 2024, the RORG Team focused on adaptive management, refining our design to maximize biodiversity and aesthetic appeal. Notably, Maddy and the RORG volunteers tackled Emory’s Sedge in the basin. While effective for stormwater management, its overgrowth shaded out other plant species. Following botanist Henry Eilers‘ advice, the team cut it back to encourage upright growth and better sunlight access for nearby plants. Stay tuned for updates on this experiment!

Assistant Director Layne Knoche also led the biggest planting design edits since the 2019 renovation of the rain garden. RORG follows the principle of adaptive management, where we continually monitor plants and adjust as needed. While most plant species from the 2019 renovation have performed wonderfully, some didn’t perform as expected, and others were impacted by the droughts of 2022 and 2023, leaving some bare patches. As many of our supporters know, RORG’s planting design aims to create a natural ‘green mulch’ across the garden, where carefully chosen plants shade out weeds and minimize maintenance. This is successful in most areas of the rain garden except for those where plants didn’t fill in or didn’t survive, and weeds found an opportunity to take hold, as they will.

To address these challenges and further our adaptive management goals, Director Eliana Brown identified and pursued applications for two grants from the Student Sustainability Committee and the American Water Charitable Foundation. Happily, we received both grants, which allowed us to plan for planting design updates with an autumn installation (and other initiatives that support RORG’s mission of outreach).

FALL

Public Engagement

RORG Team and Student Team Updates

This fall, we welcomed Maddy Craft to a full-time position as an Extension Outreach Associate, and added student Joe Hinsberger as RORG’s Sustainability Intern enrolled through ENVS 491: Sustainability Experience. We bid a heartfelt farewell to RORG Student Communications Coordinator Abbey Ascolani, who graduated, and we’re excited to have Erin Schimenti take over communications for her senior year at Illinois before her graduation. Senior Chantal Korde continues to do stormwater work for us, too!

Extension Outreach Associate and RORG Volunteer Coordinator Maddy Craft
RORG Sustainability Intern Joe Hinsberger
RORG Assistant Director Layne Knoche and Volunteer Coordinator Maddy Craft pictured with Student Team Members Erin Schimenti, Chantal Korde, and Joe Hinsberger during the fall plant installation.

Plant Installation

September 2024 was a standout month for volunteering at the Red Oak Rain Garden. Toward the end of the month, the RORG team successfully coordinated the installation of nearly 1,000 new plants with the help of Landscape Architecture students, the Society of Women Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, Illinois American Water staff, and our dedicated Champaign County Master Gardeners and East Central Illinois Master Naturalists. We thank Facilities & Services for their continued partnership at the rain garden and Rosie Metallo, Monte Flack, and the rest of the ACES Plant Care Facility greenhouse staff who cared for our plants while they awaited installation. Check out the “In the Garden” section below for more details on the installation, which was funded by the American Water Charitable Foundation and the Student Sustainability Committee.

Campus and community organizations joined the RORG Team and our regular volunteers for the installation of nearly 1,000 plants in late September.

Guest Presenters

At the start of stewardship events, guests like Extension’s Horticulture Educator Ryan Pankau and Forestry Specialist Justin Vozzo, as well as Facilities & Services Landscape Architect Brent Lewis, provided our volunteers with mini-lessons that broadened their knowledge about native plants, trees, and the history of campus ecological landscapes.

Illuminating Art in Nature

In late October, we welcomed the campus and community to join us for Illuminating Art in Nature, a celebration of art, sustainability, and the beauty of nature in autumn. The garden became an outdoor art venue featuring unique sculptures crafted by Art & Design students using natural materials. Creatively carved jack-o’-lanterns, made by Unit One/Allen Hall students, added to the display and were judged by Illinois Extension Assistant Dean Dr. Shibu Kar, Illinois Student Council President Rudy LaFave, and Champaign County Design and Conservation Foundation board member Mary Ellen Wuellner. Congratulations to Link Lee for carving the winning pumpkin! 

RORG visitors experienced the rain garden in a new way during Illuminating Art in Nature.
Photo by University of Illinois/Fred Zwicky.

Throughout two evenings, RORG staff hosted a booth on-site, sharing insights into our zero-waste event approach and offering tips on hosting sustainable events while promoting green stormwater infrastructure. The glowing jack-o’-lanterns, paired with the nature-inspired sculptures, created a warm, vibrant ambiance, showcasing the talent of Illinois’ student artists while emphasizing our commitment to sustainability.

Photos by University of Illinois/Fred Zwicky.

As part of our sustainability initiatives, pumpkin carving refuse was sent to the University’s Grind2Energy Program, converting food waste into energy. Following the exhibit, Facilities & Services collected the spent jack-o’-lanterns and delivered them to Urbana’s Landscape Recycling Center, where RORG Team members and East Central Illinois Master Naturalists smashed them to jump-start their transformation into garden compost. The Art & Design students, with guidance from their professors, dismantled their sculptures, which were composted as well.

Event partners included Illinois Extension, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment, University Housing, College of Fine & Applied Arts, Facilities & Services, Illinois Student Council, and the Champaign County Design and Conservation Foundation.

RORG’s Fall Tours, Events, and Presentations:

Fall Blogs:

In the Rain Garden

The completion of the plant installation in late September marked the culmination of nearly a year of careful planning. New plantings will help address the challenges posed by recent droughts and ensure a healthier, more resilient landscape. This enhancement strengthens the rain garden’s role as a green stormwater infrastructure model by improving plant coverage and infiltration ability and introducing a diverse array of blooming species that will add even more seasonal interest throughout the year, benefiting people and pollinators!

EARLY WINTER

Public Engagement

As the growing season came to an end, so did many of our volunteer opportunities at the rain garden. However, we closed out the season with one final event: our annual Fall Cleanup! Maddy Craft led student and community volunteers in raking some of the leaves out of RORG. While it’s important to provide cover for overwintering insects, the leaves from our Sycamore tree decompose slowly and can form dense mats that smother our plants, preventing them from thriving. To support healthy plant growth and protect the overwintering insects, we remove a portion of the leaves and only from certain areas. These are then collected in rows for Facilities & Services to mulch into the Allen Hall lawn. Read more about our fall leaf approach.

In December, Pizzo Native Plant Nursery, a foundation donor for the 2019 Red Oak Rain Garden (RORG) renovation, highlighted RORG in a blog and on social media. Jack Pizzo, President of Pizzo Native Plant Nursery, has a special connection to the University of Illinois, where he discovered his passion for working with plants. As a University of Illinois alumnus, Jack earned a Bachelor of Science in ornamental horticulture and a Master of Science in natural resources with a focus on restoration ecology. Both Jack and his sister were members of the university’s Horticulture Club. Pizzo Native Plant Nursery is proud to support the University of Illinois Extension and encourages others to join in efforts to restore our planet to its natural beauty, highlighting not only the aesthetic appeal but also the critical ecological benefits of restoration. 

In the Garden

Although our beautiful blooms ended with hard November freezes, there is still so much to admire at RORG! Our shrubs, such as Winterberry, Red Chokeberry, and Red Twig Dogwood, hold on to their berries, providing pops of color and food for birds plumping up for winter. Seedheads from Wood Betony, Pale Purple Coneflower, and Orange Coneflower stay up in the rain garden as well. They provide visual interest for visitors and food for birds, as we have recently seen goldfinches stopping by for a snack on the Orange Coneflower!

We got our first snowfall on November 21st, partially covering the garden in a thin coat of frosting. The fluctuating weather of early winter quickly melted it, but it snowed again just before our Fall Cleanup. That did not stop our volunteers, though, who worked hard to help out at our last event of the year. Now, RORG will stay unbothered until spring, when it starts growing again!

WRAP-UP

Public Engagement

RORG’s Engagement Continues to Grow

RORG’s online engagement continued to grow this year, with over 12,250 website views and more than 4,500 blog and newsletter reads. Our social media presence expanded as well, with nearly 800 followers on Facebook and more than 900 on Instagram. We also launched into YouTube Shorts, and our Generations Video was viewed nearly 11,000 times! The RORG Team delivered seven presentations, reaching 138 people through virtual, in-person, and hybrid formats. Additionally, over 300 visitors took part in rain garden tours across 23 events throughout 2024. More than 100 students and trained volunteers provided dedicated stewardship of the garden throughout the growing season.

We tabled at four campus outreach events, connecting with 525 people. At the rain garden, Illuminating Art in Nature attracted nearly 400 visitors. As always, our biggest virtual event of the year, Rain Garden Rumble, was a huge success, with more than 16,000 online views.

We’re excited to continue growing these fun and educational events in the years to come!

In the Rain Garden

For the most part, 2024 was a year of precipitation extremes. The good news is that it broke a string of drought years at the rain garden, thanks to well-timed rainstorms that eased dry spells and benefited the plants. However, weather extremes were still evident, with two daily rain events in July and November, each exceeding 4 inches—the highest storm totals recorded since the garden’s 2019 renovation. In contrast, February and October experienced near-record dryness. Thankfully, these months coincided with plant dormancy or the transition to dormancy, minimizing the impact on growth.

Grants and Fundraising Updates

Research Grants

Starting with the brochure series, Eliana has always envisioned the Red Oak Rain Garden as a demonstration site that supports Extension’s statewide outreach initiatives. This year, she’s led our team on collaborations with university researchers on two projects focused on helping communities improve disaster preparedness using green stormwater infrastructure.

GIST: RORG is part of a project that was awarded a grant by the Center for Advanced Climate Solutions Joint Climate Solutions Program. The “Green Infrastructure Solutions Toolkit (GIST): Pathway to Rural Climate Resiliency” project team is developing a decision support tool to provide rural communities with a practical pathway for scalable and effective resilient development. GIST is a collaboration among Illinois Extension, Illinois State Water Survey, and Civil and Environmental Engineering, the latter of which will establish monitoring equipment at RORG to demonstrate rain garden hydrologic benefits.   

TEND: USDA has funded a project to develop an online training curriculum that teaches RORG’s maintenance model along with other exemplary maintenance strategies. “Training for Enacting Nature-based solutions for Disaster mitigation (TEND)” will assist municipalities with overcoming the barriers to adopting nature-based solutions and to prepare them for flood-related disasters and is being created in partnership with our colleagues in Extension’s Community and Economic Development team.

Infrastructure Grants

Thanks to grants from the American Water Charitable Foundation and the UIUC Student Sustainability Committee, our team is able to make improvements at RORG that help us expand our educational mission. This fall, we installed replacement plants, and in spring 2025, we’ll be establishing signage, which we are very excited about!

Interpretive signage is crucial to connect the rain garden’s environmental significance with public understanding. A pedestrian survey conducted by RORG student Chantal Korde showed that an average of 180 people pass by the rain garden hourly. With support from these grants, signs can educate passersby about the rain garden’s role in stormwater management, water quality improvement, and local ecosystems.

Thus, in 2025, we will actively work to design interpretive signage that is as innovative as the rain garden, and we look forward to sharing our plans with you as they develop!

Gifts

Because of your generosity, we see continual growth in the Red Oak Rain Garden!

RORG began 2024 with great news about our Maintenance Endowment fund and that has recently continued with a successful GivingTuesday in November. We’re excited to share that we are more than halfway towards meeting our Maintenance Endowment fund goal of $75,000!  Our Maintenance Endowment is a dedicated fund to support ongoing care of this crucial ecological landscape. RORG is fortunate to have incredible volunteers as well as a strong partnership with the university’s Facilities & Services Grounds department. Some tasks extend beyond their regular scope and require additional resources, which this fund can provide.

Help us close out the year on a high note with your support, by clicking the button below and selecting “Red Oak Rain Garden” from the drop-down menu. Contact Scott Burnsmier at 217-520-4634 or srb@illinois.edu for more information about giving.

Donate to the Red Oak Rain Garden

Your tax-deductible donation helps ensure the future of the Red Oak Rain Garden. Together, we can preserve this lovely space and continue its positive impact on our community. Thank you for your consideration!

In memory of Henry Eilers (1934-2024), a renowned Illinois botanist, mentor to Layne, and friend of the Red Oak Rain Garden.

Botanical artwork of Rudbeckia subtomentosa ‘Little Henry’ by RORG Student Team member Erin Schimenti