All across the state of Michigan, organizations and community groups have been working for decades to protect our beautiful state’s Great Lakes. In the face of shifting federal policies around environmental protection, it is more important now than ever to build grassroots power to ensure that protecting our natural resources remains a priority.
What is Sierra Club doing to protect Michigan’s water?
A crucial part of Sierra Club Michigan Chapter’s water protection work is our rain garden work through the Sacred Grounds program in collaboration with the National Wildlife Federation and Friends of the Rouge River. This program provides planning, technical and logistical support to community organizations and houses of worship for the installation of rain gardens at their sites.
Rain gardens are native plant gardens placed under or connected to the downspout of a nearby roof, in order to divert rainwater from storm drains into the garden. The water is then absorbed into the ground by far-reaching native plant roots in order to clean and replenish our groundwater. So far in 2026, the Sacred Grounds team has installed over 3,000 native plants in rain gardens across Metro Detroit. These rain gardens, combined, divert over 4,500 gallons of water from our stormwater system every time it rains.
How do rain gardens protect our water?
In southeast Michigan, we have 5 major watersheds that each of us lives within: the Huron, Clinton, Rouge, Raisin and Ecorse Creek. Each of these watersheds connects to both our smaller lakes and rivers and to our Great Lakes. Detroit and many of the surrounding cities and townships have what is called a combined sewer overflow system. This means that the water that flows down our drains at home and the water that flows down our drains outside all go to the same place.
In an ideal situation, this water flows to wastewater treatment plants where the water is cleaned and released back into the system. When we have heavy rain events, this system gets overwhelmed and there is too much water to flow into the treatment plants. When this happens, that untreated water simply gets released back into our waterways as is. This causes contaminated and polluted water in our lakes and rivers. Every gallon of water that goes into a rain garden helps protect our stormwater system from getting overwhelmed and polluting our waterways. As our global climate shifts and severe weather events become more common, developing the infrastructure to adapt to those environmental changes is crucial to build thriving and resilient communities. The Sierra Club Michigan Chapter is committed to helping build and support these communities in the Metro Detroit area and all across our state.
How can I get involved?
We are always looking for volunteers for tabling, rain garden installations or getting more involved in water advocacy work. Stay connected with us and check out our volunteer page HERE for upcoming opportunities you can get involved in!
Written by Zjalyn Carter, Sierra Club Community Organizer