Discover the answers to your questions about the Columbia Slough, the historic slow-moving channel of water running through Gresham, Fairview, and Northeast and North Portland.  The workshop covers community history, waterways, wildlife, fish, hydrology and current issues facing the Columbia Slough. Slough experts will lead classroom type and hands-on activities including a tour of a pump station and macroinvertebrate identification.

This Saturday, March 9, 2013 9:00 a.m - 1:00 p.m.

Free! Pre-registration is required.

Light refreshments will be provided. Suitable for adults and teens 14 & up.

Workshop Location: Multnomah County Drainage District office, 1880 NE Elrod Dr, Portland, OR 97211

Registration: Columbia Slough Watershed Council, 503-281-1132 Sheilagh Diez  or  www.ColumbiaSlough.org

Come out to Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge this Saturday, March 9^th from 10am-1pm to celebrate the grand re-opening of the Bluff Trail! This FREE, public celebration will include refreshments, a ribbon cutting, kids’ activities, bird watching with experts, guided nature walks, live education birds from the Audubon Society of Portland and a photo display.

Trail construction on this formerly very muddy and wet trail was completed on December 2012, with native plant re-vegetation, the final phase of the project, finished in early 2013. The project includes 500 feet of slip-resistant boardwalk, rock walls at the north and south trailheads, and an observation deck for wildlife and bird viewing.

The City of Portland created the city’s first wildlife refuge at Oaks Bottom in 1988. It is the largest remaining natural area within the lower Willamette River floodplain and provides important habitat for fish and wildlife, including threatened salmon and over 175 bird species.

Portland Parks & Recreation City Nature and the Bureau of Environmental Services are working together to design a large scale habitat enhancement project to benefit wildlife and people in the refuge. The project will enhance 75 acres of wetland habitat within the refuge by replacing an existing culvert with a larger box culvert to enhance fish passage and improve connectivity to the Willamette River, enhancing wetland habitats at the southern end of the refuge to provide off-channel refuge for ESA-listed salmon, removing invasive vegetation and more. Visit the project website for more information on the project.

One part of the exciting events around UN World Environment Day, for which Portland is the North American host city this year, is the International Children's Painting Competition for the Environment.

The entry deadline is extended to March 15.  See this announcement from the Office of Healthy Working Rivers for more info.

The theme this year is "Water: where does it come from?"  What an appropriate theme for Portland as the host city.  We've got 37 inches of rain a year, and a lot of community actions for healthy watersheds!

Staff from the Environmental Services' Willamette Watershed team shared some photos of recent work by a busy beaver in the Stephens Creek subwatershed.  This is at the site of a 2008 sewer repair and stream enhancement project,  just off SW Taylors Ferry Road.  Stephens Creek is one of the only remaining free-flowing streams in Southwest Portland to the Willamette River. Many other streams have been piped underground to allow for development over the course of Portland's history. Continued protection, restoration and enhancement of Stephens Creek is important to improve water quality and habitat, and to protect other infrastructure like sewer pipes and roads.

The beaver had just felled this large tree over the creek, and was at work on a second one.  Typically, trees and other large wood that fall naturally in and near streams is a good thing, creating habitat and shaded, cool water for native fish and other critters. Many urban streams and rivers lack large wood because development has cleared out trees that would have otherwise grown, died, and fallen naturally.  In some stream restoration projects, like the recent Columbia Slough Confluence project, and at the confluence of Stephens Creek with the Willamette River, Environmental Services intentionally places large wood to re-create these natural conditions. 

On this site in Stephens Creek, the second tree that the beaver was working on posed a potential safety risk to a nearby parking lot, so staff fenced the tree's base to prevent the beaver from finishing his job.

For more information on the Willamette River watershed and the Stephens Creek subwatershed, go here.  Can you tell the difference between a beaver (native to Oregon!) and a nutria (invasive species!)? Find resources on this Science, Fish and Wildlife program page.

Seventy-two green streets adopted, fifty trees planted, and more than 1500 adults and youth educated…. We’re the AmeriCorps-Confluence members at Environmental Services and we’re rolling up our sleeves and getting it done!

AmeriCorps represents an orchestrated and monumental effort to bridge the gap between top-down organizations and bottom-up community needs by engaging volunteers in non-military national service. Here at Environmental Services, we channel our AmeriCorps energy through the mission of Confluence Environmental Center to engage low-income and ethnically diverse communities in Portland,Oregon. We empower community members to be the kind of stewards they want to be in their urban ecosystem through education, face-to-face communication, hands-on activities, special events, and old-fashioned networking. We work to create partnerships between Environmental Services and members of the community including citizens, businesses, community action groups, and non-profit organizations, connecting interest with action.

Svetlana Pell, Green Street Steward Coordinator

Hello, my name is Svetlana and I love all plants… well almost all.  I serve as a Green Street Steward Coordinator with Environmental Services. In my work I get to talk to lots of people, make great connections, and share information about Green Streets with the community. In addition to volunteering as a crew leader with Friends of Trees and freeing the soil from concrete and asphalt with Depave, I serve on the boards of the Intertwine Alliance and Green Lents. 

In March, I partnered with the Community Watershed Stewardship Program (CWSP) to teach a rain garden class at the Franciscan Montessori Earth School. Students from the school shared their creative garden- and rain-themed poetry, which was superb.  Afterward, we held a native planting event to solve erosion problems at a local apartment complex.  Thank you to Mark Boucher-Colbert (Garden Specialist at Franciscan Montessori Earth School) and CWSP for making this great event possible and inviting me to be a plant geek and play with the kids.  I will be teaching classes this April and May so feel free to stop by and learn about your watershed and the Green Street Steward Program.

Lea Wilson, Community Urban Forest Coordinator

Hi!  My name’s Lea and I love trees!  I also love cities and I am stoked to serve as your Community Urban Forest Coordinator for the Environmental Services Grey to Green initiative.   I am halfway through my service term, and focused on empowering citizens to get to know their urban forest personally.  I work in existing relationships with Friends of Trees and Neighborhood Tree Stewards (NTS) while also seeking out new opportunities.  I’m especially excited to bring NTS to Multnomah County Libraries for tree education workshops and to engage students at David Douglas High School (Go Scots!) planting and monitoring trees on their grounds to shade classrooms, manage stormwater, and provide critical urban habitat.  In my own time, I volunteer with the Portland Fruit Tree Project and the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge.

If you see me around, don’t be shy – I’d love to talk to you about your urban forest!  Catch me at the Arbor Day celebration April 20th at the PSU Farmers Market.  I’ll also be leading tree walks this summer at Lents Park. Stay tuned on Green Lents for more info.

What does your community need? Check out http://www.serve.gov/ for ways to volunteer and templates for community action.

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”  - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.