The Dane County Land and Water Resources Department has a limited supply of free native plants available for school and community projects. Native plants have tremendous benefits for water quality. In natural, native plant-covered landscapes, rain soaks gradually into the ground. However, today much of the land is covered by impervious surfaces – such as streets, parking lots, roofs, compacted lawns, and heavily tilled agricultural fields – where the water cannot soak into the ground. Instead, water runs off over the land, picking up pollutants, sediment, and nutrients along the way...