Learn to manage the rain that falls around your home!
Work with your fellow community members!
Improve your watershed!
Thanks to the over 50 community members who joined us for our fall Stormwater Stars workshops! Be sure to check back in a couple months as we'll have more workshop opportunities available in spring.
Stormwater Stars workshops provide ideas on how to manage rain that falls around your home, school, workplace, or place of worship. You’ll receive an overview of the best ways to handle stormwater issues, and get plenty of hands-on practice in restoring soils, naturescaping with native plants, creating pervious pathways, and more. If you live, work, or play on a site that has excessive mud, pooling water, or compacted soil, then these workshops are for you!
For questions, contact Erik Horngren
(watershed@swni.org, 503-823-2862)
or Lorena O'Neill (stormwater@swni.org)
Subscribe to the Westside Watershed News to be informed about future workshops and other resources.
Check out highlights from the 2018-19 Stormwater Stars Season here.
Stormwater Stars workshops lead participants in hands-on planning and installation of yard-scale stormwater management techniques, including soil amendments, permeable walkways, pavement removal, lawn reduction/replacement, native landscaping, and biodegradable erosion control to reduce the volume of stormwater runoff and sediment pollution generated by their property.
These practices reduce stream bank erosion, pollution, habitat degradation, and flooding in local streams while creating backyard habitat and reducing the need for harmful lawn and garden chemicals. Stormwater Stars practices may also help with minor drainage issues such as damp lawns, low-lying soggy areas and surface erosion.
Workshops and home visits conducted through this program DO NOT include recommendations for drainage piping or plumbing, basement flooding, foundation problems or foundation drains, French drains, retaining walls, landslide prevention, mitigation of high groundwater, or the capture and infiltration of runoff. We recommend that property owners consult a qualified licensed engineer to address such issues.
Additional Stormwater Management Resources
Portland Bureau of Environmental Services
Stormwater Starts at Home!
For a brief overview of the science, regulation and management of stormwater, and stormwater practices for challenging sites, check out the Stormwater Starts at Home presentation (PDF) from the March 2017 Sylvan Highlands neighborhood meeting. If you are interested in hosting a similar presentation for your neighborhood association, faith community or other group, please contact watershed@swni.org or 503-823-2862.
You can also get a basic overview of simple stormwater management strategies by checking out our Stormwater Stars 101 slideshow.
