Hope Episcopal Church Green Infrastructure Master Plan and Rain Garden Installation

The Center for Watershed Protection (CWP) is a collaborator in the Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake (IPC)’s One Water Partnership, a network of faith communities coming together to care for local waterways. As a member of the One Water Partnership, the congregation of Hope Episcopal Church in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, has pledged to serve as good stewards of the land and waters of the Chesapeake and have begun to engage in the care of their 17-acre property comprised of wooded, agricultural, residential, and sacred spaces.

CWP evaluated the Hope Episcopal Church property to identify opportunities to increase green infrastructure on site, educate the congregation, and support the congregation’s goal of environmental stewardship with improved water quality. The assessment is summarized in a Green Infrastructure Master Plan that provides a prioritized list of green stormwater infrastructure projects. This plan serves as a roadmap for the church to implement projects in the future.

One of the projects identified by CWP was a rain garden that would capture and treat stormwater runoff from the existing gravel parking lot for the church. With funding from the Lancaster Clean Water Partners and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, CWP partnered with IPC and Hope Episcopal Church to design and construct the rain garden. CWP engineers designed the rain garden to capture runoff from the parking lot and promote infiltration into the soil over a 48-hour period. The rain garden soil media was mixed with biochar and planted with three native species: Dwarf Summersweet, Swamp Rose Mallow, and Winterberry Holly. The side slopes of the rain garden were seeded with a grass mixture. Additional native plantings were added around the rain garden and curb stops were placed in a row in the parking lot. In addition, an educational sign was installed.

On March 26, 2025, Hope Episcopal Church held a celebration of the rain garden that included CWP and partner organizations IPC, Lancaster County Conservation District, Chiques Creek Watershed Association, and Penn State Extension.

“It has been such an honor to see this transformational work on this land and all the hard work that went into this project with all the partners and the collaborative work.” - Pastor Bradley Mattson, Hope Episcopal Church

To learn more about this project, contact Julie Schneider, Watershed Planner, at jas@cwp.org.