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)

Time: 10 am - 3 pm

Date: Monday, Sep 12, 2011

Meet at Portland Bicycle Tours
345 NW Everett St
Portland, OR 97209
(Driving directions * Trimet)

The cheapest parking is at the SmartPark on NW Davis between NW Naito & 1st

Cost of class: $75, $85 the day of

Registration is through Pay Pal (below) or you can mail me a check, made payable to "Green Girl".

Rain Gardens 201 Field Class

Sept 12 professional $75.00 Sept 12 student scholarship $40.00 Optional bike rental $25.00 Certificate of Completion $5.00

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.

Lunch will NOT be provided. Attendees are welcome to bring a brown bag lunch or we'll stop at the Ecotrust Building where you can buy some very yummy burritos or pizza.

This class is eligible for 5 continued education hours by the Oregon Landscape Contractors Board.

I looked into offering continuing education credits for other professional certifications 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.