Welcome Stormwater Stars & Rachel

We have good news; Stormwater Stars is here! Stormwater Stars is a program that was formerly run out of the Westside Resource Center. The District supported the program with grants, as did other community partners. Now, it’s moving house to become a program of West Multnomah SWCD.

The core of the program hasn’t changed. It consists of a coordinator facilitating site visits and fall and spring workshops to help District landowners and community members. Attendees learn how to manage stormwater runoff (i.e. rain) in their yards and around their homes. The change means that the program will reach all of the District’s service area, and not just Portland city limits.

Over the past decade (as we reported in 2024 at the 10th anniversary of the program), Stormwater Stars has improved 43 sites, covering over 29,635 sq ft. It has engaged over 470 volunteers and installed over 3,000 Willamette Valley native plants.

And more good news: Stormwater Stars is looking for sites to host workshops in the spring and fall. If you need help with rain management, check out the details and apply. If you’d like to attend a workshop, sign up for our list and get updates when registration opens.  

Welcome Rachel!

Coming to our office with the Stormwater Stars program is its leader and West Multnomah SWCD’s new Stormwater Specialist, Rachel Dvorsky. (Rachel is above with a stormwater stars volunteer crew, she’s on the left in green). Rachel got familiar with Stormwater Stars first as a community member, then as a volunteer. Since 2022 she has worked as the program’s Stormwater Programs Specialist organizing community events and training volunteers and community members. 

Rachel has a passion for caring for natural spaces whether it be a designated forest, local community space, or her own backyard. She has a degree in environmental engineering and worked in the field of engineering for 10 years as a consultant designing green streets and working on other water resource and stormwater management projects. She has a strong personal interest in edible landscaping and native plants. In recent years she has started exploring medicinal plants and forest foraging.

Through the Stormwater Stars Program, Rachel enjoys building community while working with volunteers on ways to improve landscape spaces with a focus on watershedwatershed an area of land that channels rainfall, snowmelt, and runoff into a common body of water, such as a nearby lake or river. Multiple streams can be part of the same watershed area, such as the Tryon Creek Watershed which is fed by Oak Creek, Park Creek, Falling Creek, and others. health and native plants.

In her spare time, Rachel enjoys being active whether it be hiking, backpacking, skiing, kayaking, paddle boarding, roller skating or neighborhood walks with her family and two dogs.