By Volunteer Program Manager Courtney Beckel
I’m going to be honest. I’ve been having a love affair with summer. Naturally, when fall rolls around, I have a hard time saying goodbye to the summer. The river trips. The botanizing and camping with friends. The excitement of load after load of green beans and tomatoes from the garden. Eating all my breakfasts on the back porch, in the sun. The loooong days. And most of all, the Johnson Creek Clean-Up. So I’m going to be honest with you-fall hasn’t always been my favorite season, because it inherently takes away my beloved summer.
This year, I’m trying something brand new (shame on me for just starting this now, I know). What about experiencing fall for fall, without comparing it to summer at all? And guess what–it’s totally working! So when the days started getting shorter on September 22 this year, my attention was focused on intentionally letting it in instead of shutting it out. Fall has been gentle with us so far. The days are warm, the nights are crisp, and the light is stilted and saturated in a uniquely fall way that I love. We threw the comforters back on the bed. I haven’t heard any geese yet, but I’m definitely looking forward to having them back, and all the other birds that return during the fall migration.
And like the squirrels who are so busily caching their nuts, diving between cars and leaves, here at the council we are also hustling. When the trees drop their leaves, all the plant’s energy goes into the roots. The squirrels know, and we know, this is our time to act! For squirrels it’s time to gather nuts for the future of their litters. For us, it’s time to gather (and plant) trees for the future of the creek!
In fact, we will be doing our first planting on October 20, which will be a wetland infill project at Powell Butte. Being there for our events really keeps me charged for the work that we do, and in touch with the community, the watershed, and the season. I invite you to come soak up the fall with us at one of our fall events.
On Oct 27, we’ll have our annual No Ivy Day (and after many years tackling the site on SE 128th off the Springwater Corridor Trail, we graduated to a new site because…our volunteers decimated it-woohoo!) November 3rd will be a ravine planting at Clatsop Butte, and November 10 we’ll be planting more than 1,000 natives at Powell Butte. Save the date for a ribbon cutting restoration event at Hazeltine Park on December 1. We will wrap up the fall with Friends of Trees on Powell Butte on December 8.
I’m really looking forward to it. You can check out all of our upcoming events for the rest of 2018 right HERE. Hope to see you there!