Lenexa to offer green infrastructure workshop

The City of Lenexa’s Rain to Recreation program is sponsoring a workshop on green infrastructure installation and maintenance Feb. 18 and 19 at the Lenexa Conference Center.

Green Infrastructure: Connecting The Dots aims to demystify the common components and emphasize the importance of proper maintenance of these bio-engineered systems that capture and treat polluted runoff before it enters our streams, rivers and lakes.

Green infrastructure covers a range of practices, from rain gardens and bioretention cells to vegetated swales and green roofs. The U.S. EPA states green infrastructure generally refers to systems and practices that use or mimic natural processes to infiltrate or reuse runoff onsite.

The workshop focuses on the best ways to plan, bid, build and care for green infrastructure. The sessions will reveal that these structures aren’t complicated, simply different than traditional infrastructure such as gutters, pipes and storm drains.

Sessions on the first day feature 10 speakers that cover topics such as navigating the bid process, matching design plans with installation challenges and caring for native plants. The second day of the workshop is an optional field tour of eight sites in Lenexa, highlighting each project’s features and challenges.

The cost is only $20 for the workshop sessions, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 18 at the Lenexa Conference Center, 11184 Lackman Road. Lunch is included.

The optional guided field tour 9 a.m. to noon Feb. 19 is $10, which includes transportation.

Green Infrastructure: Connecting The Dots is intended for landscaping and lawncare professionals, facilities and maintenance personnel, landscape architects, nonprofit and government staff and others interested in the technical details of properly constructing and maintaining green infrastructure projects.

Pre-registration is required. For more information and to pre-register, visit www.raintorecreation.org.