WSC Newscenter | WSC Named Groundwater Guardian Green Site

Wayne State College was recently named a 2010 Groundwater Guardian Green Site by The Groundwater Foundation in recognition of its groundwater and environmental stewardship. The college earned this exclusive designation based on its current practices related to water use, pesticide and fertilizer management, and pollution prevention. Wayne State is now the third Green Site within Wayne, joining Bressler Park and the Summer Sports Complex.

"Wayne State College is honored to be named a Groundwater Guardian Green Site and we are proud of our efforts to protect the groundwater of northeast Nebraska," said Kim Schramm, Wayne State arboretum and landscape manager.

"Kim Schramm has brought a good number of green concepts to the campus," said Curt Frye, interim president of Wayne State. "His judicious use of native vegetation as well as low water use plants has made a big difference in the amount of water resources as well as chemicals necessary to sustain our campus environment. Not only do we conserve but our grounds look terrific."

Groundwater Guardian Green Sites are essentially places with a lot of green space, such as golf courses, ball fields, educational campuses, and residential, recreational, and office parks, that implement groundwater and surface water-friendly practices to maintain the site. To earn the exclusive Groundwater Guardian Green Site designation, site managers complete a simple application that uniformly evaluates and documents their site's groundwater-friendly practices.

The Green Site program began in 2007 to recognize good stewards of groundwater by encouraging managers of highly-managed green spaces to implement, measure, and document their groundwater-friendly practices. Potential sites are encouraged to get involved in the Groundwater Guardian Green Site program by downloading the program application at www.groundwater.org/gg/greensites.html, e-mailing guardian@groundwater.org, or calling 1-800-858-4844. The Groundwater Guardian Green Site program is supported by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and Cargill.

The Groundwater Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Lincoln with a mission to educate people and inspire action to ensure sustainable, clean groundwater for future generations. Since its inception in 1985, the Foundation has offered educational programming for youth and adults.

To learn more, visit www.groundwater.org.