Comments from some previous class attendees:

“I'd been on nearly a dozen tours with city designers, and I live downtown so I'd been by the facilities we visited many times--so I thought I knew so much.  But this class extended my knowledge greatly.” Mary Vogel, CNU-A (Planner) of Plan Green

“I enjoyed your insights, technical information, and the range of sites that we visited.” Bill Long, P.E. (Civil Engineer)

" I learned a lot, and had fun, too.  It was great to be able see the projects and then discuss them with someone who knows how they were built, as well as the intent behind them." Laura Erlich (Landscape Architect)

“I was skeptical that we could spend five hours talking about rain gardens in Multnomah Village, but this class was so informative and enjoyable, I want to attend the biking version downtown, too.” Peter Field (Contractor)

There are four (essentially identical) field classes scheduled for you to choose from.

Time: 10 am - 3 pm

Dates:

Aug 5th by bike in downtown Portland Meet at Portland Bicycle Tours at 345 NW Everett St. (driving directions //// biking directions) Please arrive 15 minutes early if you're renting a bike If you're driving, the cheapest parking is at the Smart Park between NW 1st and Naito and Davis and Everett.

Jul 8th & Jul 19 by foot in Multnomah Village Meet at Multnomah Arts Center at 7688 SW Capitol Hwy (driving directions /// biking directions) If you're driving, there should be parking availble on the street or at the Arts Center.

Cost of class: $75 pre-registration, $85 day of class

Cost bike rental (optional): $25 (You're welcome to bring your own bike or join us for one of the walking tours!)

$40 Scholarships available to students. Contact Maria Cahill at 503.334.8634 or email to discuss.

Registrations may be pre-paid via Pay Pal or by check (make payable to "Green Girl" and mail to 7345 SW 29th Avenue, Portland, OR 97219). You may pay for the bike and class at the same time. If you are renting a bike, email Maria Cahill with your height so we can have your bike ready the day of the class.

Rain Gardens 201 Field Class

Jul 8 class $75.00 Jul 19 class $75.00 Aug 5 class $75.00 plus optional bike rental $25.00 student scholarships $40.00

If you're unsure if this is a class that will teach you something new, take a look at this web page I created called "Rain Garden Sustainability Considerations". This is just a smattering of the kind of info you'll hear on the class. I'm also going to share my talking points document with participants, which is a in-depth matrix of design, construction, and operations & maintenance considerations for each facility component.

Here's what you'll learn:

1. How choices about inlet & outlet structures, soil depth and type, and other rain garden components affect the ability of the facility to function.

We’ll talk specifically about the design, construction, and maintenance alternatives for: Inlets Outlets Soils (both native and bioretention soil mixes) Vegetation Mulch Geotextile Check Dams Pretreatment Existing infrastructure undercut protection Flow splitters & bypass structures Irrigation Artwork & lighting

2. How design, construction, and O&M choices relate to sustainability and cost. 3. What is meant by sustainable stormwater and the average annual water balance. To holistically restore watersheds, a holistic approach based on average annual rainfall and the hydrologic cycle must be assessed as those natural processes are impacted by urbanization. We’ll talk about combined sewer overflows and how they affect choices about infiltrating appropriate volumes.

4. How to collaborate in an interdisciplinary team.

Because the ecological system we’re trying to restore with rain gardens (and other measures) is complex and the social structures of the communities they’re being built in are diverse, everyone has a piece of important knowledge about how best to implement a low impact development program.

This isn't a general tour on low impact development in Portland or an introduction to the Gray to Green program; there are lots of tours for that. Facility sizing, hydrologic modeling, and choosing plant species are all also covered in excellent detail in classes all over the state held by Oregon State University Extension Service, soil and water conservation districts and others. Mostly, learning objectives that don’t lend themselves to learning by standing around a stormwater facility won’t be included.

Lunch will NOT be provided. Attendees are welcome to bring a brown bag lunch.

For the bike classes downtown: we’ll visit the Ecotrust building rain gardens around lunch time and take a lunch break. or at at the Laughing Planet (burritos) or Hot Lips Pizza at the Ecotrust Building.

For the walking classes in Multnomah Village: We'll be within easy walking distance of several restuarants including Grand Central Bakery, Marco's, the Village Hut (Bento), the Lucky Lab and others. Click here to plan your lunch if you don't want to bring your own.

I looked into offering continuing education credits and it was going to cost me thousands of dollars to become certified with three different organizations. You, however, as a professional should be able to copy the learning objectives from this page, paste them into your paperwork and get approved for your credits quite easily.