This Cookie Policy explains how Bioswale.org uses cookies and similar technologies when you visit our website. This page is written to help you understand what cookies are, why they may be used, how advertising-related cookies may work, and how you can control cookie settings through your browser or device.
Last Updated: May 4, 2026
About This Cookie Policy
Bioswale.org is an independent educational website about bioswales, stormwater runoff, green infrastructure, native planting, and related landscape drainage topics. We are not a government agency, engineering firm, contractor, public works department, or official stormwater authority.
This Cookie Policy applies to your use of Bioswale.org. It explains how cookies and similar technologies may be used to support website functionality, improve user experience, understand general site activity, and display advertising.
By using this website, you understand that cookies and similar technologies may be placed on your browser or device, depending on your settings, location, consent choices, and the services active on the website.
What Cookies Are
Cookies are small text files that a website or third-party service may place on your browser, computer, phone, tablet, or other device when you visit a page. Cookies can help a website remember certain information about your visit, such as basic preferences, session details, or interactions with website features.
Cookies do not usually identify you by name on their own. However, cookies and similar technologies may be linked with other information by advertising providers, analytics services, browser tools, or third-party platforms. This can help those services measure activity, show ads, limit how often ads appear, or understand how users interact with a website.
Similar technologies may include pixels, tags, local storage, device identifiers, and other browser-based tools that perform functions similar to cookies.
Why We Use Cookies
Bioswale.org may use cookies and similar technologies for several general purposes. These purposes may include keeping the website working properly, improving page performance, understanding how visitors use the site, supporting security, remembering basic choices, and displaying advertising that helps fund the website.
Because Bioswale.org is an informational website, cookies are mainly connected to website operation, advertising, basic measurement, and user experience. We do not use cookies to provide engineering services, approve drainage projects, inspect bioswales, or make site-specific decisions for readers.
Types of Cookies That May Be Used
Different cookies may be used for different reasons. Some cookies are set directly by this website, while others may be set by third-party services such as advertising providers or website tools.
Essential Cookies
Essential cookies help the website function correctly. These cookies may support basic page loading, security, form protection, spam prevention, consent preferences, or other technical features needed for the site to operate.
Without essential cookies, some parts of the website may not work as expected. These cookies are usually not used for advertising personalization.
Preference Cookies
Preference cookies may remember choices you make while using the website. For example, they may help remember cookie consent choices, display preferences, or other basic settings that improve your experience during future visits.
Performance and Measurement Cookies
Performance and measurement cookies may help us understand general website activity. They may show which pages are visited, how users move through the site, which content is useful, and whether technical issues affect the reading experience.
This type of information can help improve Bioswale.org by showing which bioswale, stormwater, plant selection, maintenance, or green infrastructure topics readers find helpful. Measurement data is generally used to understand patterns, not to personally identify individual readers.
Advertising Cookies
Bioswale.org may display advertisements to support the cost of operating the website. Advertising cookies may be used by third-party advertising providers, including Google, to serve ads, measure ad performance, limit how often an ad is shown, prevent repeated ads, and help make advertising more relevant.
Advertising cookies may use information from your visit to this website and other websites to help show ads that may be more relevant to your interests. Depending on your location, settings, consent choices, and the advertising provider’s systems, ads may be personalized or non-personalized.
Advertising shown on Bioswale.org does not mean that we endorse every advertiser, product, service, claim, contractor, or offer that may appear. Ads are separate from our editorial content.
Google AdSense and Third-Party Advertising
Bioswale.org may use Google AdSense or similar advertising services to display ads. Third-party vendors, including Google, may use cookies or similar technologies to serve ads based on a user’s visits to this website and other websites.
Google’s use of advertising cookies may allow Google and its partners to serve ads to users based on visits to this site or other sites on the internet. These cookies may support ad serving, ad measurement, personalization, frequency capping, fraud prevention, and reporting.
Some advertisements may be selected based on the content of the page you are viewing. For example, a page about bioswale plants, stormwater runoff, drainage systems, or landscape design may display ads related to those general topics. Other ads may be selected based on broader advertising signals handled by the advertising provider.
Personalized and Non-Personalized Ads
Depending on your location, consent choices, browser settings, and ad provider settings, you may see personalized or non-personalized ads on Bioswale.org.
Personalized ads may use information about your previous visits to websites, general interests, or advertising-related activity to help show ads that may be more relevant to you. Non-personalized ads are not based on past browsing behavior in the same way, but they may still use basic information such as page content, approximate location, device type, language, or time of visit.
Even when ads are non-personalized, cookies or similar technologies may still be used for basic advertising functions such as ad delivery, frequency capping, fraud prevention, aggregated reporting, and measurement.
Cookies Set by Third Parties
Some cookies on Bioswale.org may be set by third-party services rather than directly by us. These third parties may include advertising networks, analytics providers, security tools, embedded content providers, or technical service providers used to operate and improve the website.
Third-party cookies are controlled by the third party that sets them. Bioswale.org does not control every cookie, tracking method, retention period, or data practice used by third-party providers. Those providers may process information according to their own privacy policies, cookie policies, terms, and user settings.
If you interact with an advertisement, embedded feature, external link, or third-party service, your activity may be subject to the privacy and cookie practices of that third party.
How Cookies May Affect Your Experience
Cookies can improve your experience by allowing pages to load correctly, remembering choices, supporting security, and making ads or site features work as intended. However, you are not required to accept all cookies in order to read basic content on Bioswale.org.
If you block or delete cookies, some features may not work properly. For example, the site may not remember your preferences, some advertising functions may change, embedded tools may not load correctly, or consent choices may need to be selected again.
Cookie Consent
Depending on your location and applicable requirements, you may see a cookie notice, consent banner, or privacy choice tool when visiting Bioswale.org. This tool may allow you to accept, reject, or manage certain categories of cookies.
If a consent tool is available, your choices may be stored so the website can remember them during future visits. You may need to update your choices again if you clear cookies, use another browser, use another device, or if the website changes its cookie tools.
Where required, advertising cookies and similar technologies may depend on your consent choices. If you do not give consent for certain cookies, some advertising or measurement features may be limited.
How to Control Cookies
You can control cookies in several ways. Most browsers allow you to delete cookies, block cookies, reject third-party cookies, receive alerts before cookies are stored, or manage cookie settings for specific websites.
Your browser settings may also allow you to clear browsing data, block tracking technologies, limit cross-site tracking, or use private browsing modes. The exact steps depend on your browser, device, operating system, and version.
You can usually find cookie controls in your browser’s privacy, security, site settings, or preferences menu. If you use more than one browser or device, you may need to adjust cookie settings separately on each one.
Deleting Cookies
You may delete cookies already stored on your device through your browser settings. Deleting cookies may remove saved preferences, consent choices, login states on other websites, and other browsing data connected to cookies.
After deleting cookies, Bioswale.org and other websites may treat you as a new visitor. This means you may see cookie notices again, certain preferences may be reset, and advertising systems may need to rebuild basic non-identifying signals.
Blocking Cookies
You may block some or all cookies through your browser settings. Blocking cookies can reduce tracking and limit certain advertising functions, but it may also affect how websites work.
If you block all cookies, some website features may not load correctly. If you block only third-party cookies, basic website content may still work, but advertising, measurement, embedded media, and third-party tools may behave differently.
Do Not Track and Browser Signals
Some browsers may offer “Do Not Track” or similar privacy signals. Because there is no single universal standard for how all websites and third-party services must respond to these signals, Bioswale.org may not respond to every browser signal in the same way.
We recommend using the cookie controls available in your browser, device, consent banner, and advertising settings to manage your privacy choices more directly.
Cookies and Children
Bioswale.org is intended for a general audience interested in bioswales, stormwater runoff, green infrastructure, and landscape drainage topics. The website is not directed toward children as its main audience.
We do not knowingly use cookies to collect personal information from children for our own direct marketing purposes. However, third-party advertising or technical providers may use cookies according to their own policies and applicable requirements.
Cookies and Educational Content
The educational content on Bioswale.org can generally be read without creating an account. We do not require readers to register in order to access basic articles about bioswales, stormwater runoff, plant selection, maintenance, drainage comparisons, or green infrastructure terms.
Cookies used on the site do not change the educational nature of the content. A cookie cannot decide whether a bioswale is suitable for your property, whether your design meets local requirements, or whether a drainage issue has been solved. Those decisions require site-specific review and, in many cases, qualified professional advice.
Advertising Is Separate From Editorial Content
Bioswale.org may earn revenue from advertising displayed on the website. This helps support hosting, maintenance, writing, editing, and general operation of the site.
Advertising cookies may help make those ads function, but ads do not control our editorial purpose. Our pages are written to explain bioswales and related stormwater topics in a clear and practical way. We do not present advertising as engineering advice, official guidance, or a professional recommendation.
Changes to This Cookie Policy
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time. Updates may be made when website tools change, advertising services change, cookie practices change, legal requirements change, or we improve the wording of this page.
The “Last Updated” date near the top of this page shows when this Cookie Policy was last revised. We encourage readers to review this page occasionally to stay informed about how cookies may be used on Bioswale.org.
Contact Us About Cookies
If you have questions about this Cookie Policy or cookie use on Bioswale.org, you can contact us by email at support@bioswale.org.
Please remember that Bioswale.org provides general educational information only. We do not provide legal advice, engineering advice, construction services, official stormwater approvals, or regulatory interpretations.