Johnson County is recruiting gardeners to help prevent flooding in Kansas City

Traditional grass lawns are much less effective at absorbing and filtering stormwater than native plants and trees. The Contain the Rain program aims to increase the number of rain gardens across 16 Johnson County cities.
Kansas City sits at the intersection of many rivers — the Missouri River separating downtown from the Northland, the Kansas River in Wyandotte and Johnson counties, and Turkey Creek, the Blue River, Mill Creek and Brush Creek forming a spider web across the bistate area.

And this is no accident, said Heather Schmidt, the stormwater program manager in Johnson County.

“Whenever anybody develops or settles anywhere, they want to be by the stream,” Schmidt said. “It’s their water source, and it’s their source to get things away. And that’s always been problematic, because they also get flooded out.”