Grass Swale: The waterway in your yard

Often inaccurately called ditches, swales are actually stormwater structures! Swales carry water away from roadways while promoting infiltration. Slowing down rain water and encouraging ponding is good because it allows water to soak into the ground, with soil and plant roots trapping water pollution.
If you have a swale on your property, you can help keep it working properly to protect our waters by:

• removing trash
• reporting any signs of water pollution to your municipality
• never replacing the grass or modifying the shape of the swale
• preventing off-street parking or other activities that may cause rutting or compaction of soil in the swale