We’ve got way too much impervious surface. It’s making our cities flood and our streams unhealthy. Let’s do something about it. Let’s turn parking lots into paradise!

The training is a curriculum of 4 successive classes, 3 hours each class, and you need to attend all of them to get your certificate!  The classes are scheduled for Wednesday February 8, 15, 22, and March 8 from 5:00pm to 8:00pm at the Watershed Stewardship Center at West Creek, 2277 West Ridgewood Drive, Parma. The course is free, and a light dinner will be provided.

SESSIONS #1, 3, and 4 will start with live online training by Eric Rosewall, the founder of Depave in Portland, Oregon, and finish with local Northeast Ohio information, discussion, and resources. Session #2 will be all local, identifying areas and properties that are in the greatest need of depaving and re-greening.

SESSION 1: Overview of depave project/process; finding potential sites, developing relationships with hosts, recruiting site partners, community scoping/survey, site selection

SESSION 2: Hands-on training using online resources, apps & map tools, and local knowledge, to identify sites, ownership, potential for stormwater runoff reduction, etc.

SESSION 3: Project planning & budgeting; site investigation, soil testing, infiltration testing, drainage area, site plan development, post-depave site elements, excavation & post-depave process, contractors vs. volunteers, hauling and disposal, planting budgeting, insurance, power-tools, roles of site hosts

SESSION 4: Depave event planning, permitting, funders and sponsors, site design, community outreach & volunteer engagement, event promotion and publicity, post-depave site monitoring

THE FINAL TRAINING AND DEPAVING EVENT will take place on May 6 & 7, where we’ll put all we’ve learned into practice and turn a little bit of paving into a little bit of paradise.

Learn more about the Depave organization. Get inspired by what depave.org has done in Portland. Get excited about what we can do here.

Register today – space is limited!  Call Kacey at 216-241-2414×255 or email [email protected]g