Written by Marlee Eckman
On March 1st Portland got its first taste of spring, well what we would call false spring as it dramatically dropped in temperature again a week later, but nonetheless we had blue skies and 65 degree weather for our Annual 2025 Watershed Wide Event.
This year, in collaboration with our partners, we spread out at 7 different sites across the watershed in Milwaukie, Portland, and Gresham. I was lucky enough to spend the morning at the Luther Road site, managed by North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District. The site has an interesting history of restoration! Years ago there used to be a sewer pipe that had been exposed by years of erosion that needed to be taken care of and Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services worked to restore the portion of Johnson Creek that flows through the property, reconnect JC to its floodplain, and restore habitat. Now there is a healthy beaver population that uses the site and we also got to hang out with some red tailed hawks as we planted over 400 willow stakes to keep adding to the native habitat.
Every year we ask our community to come together on this day to tend the land across the entire watershed and every year I am so impressed with our community’s answer to the call. This year we had 226 volunteers that planted 2,980 native plants, removed 450 sq ft of unwanted vegetation, and removed 230 cu ft of trash from parks and natural areas. We were joined by groups from Portland General Electric, Ethiopian and Eritrean Culture and Resource Community, Wolf Water Resources, and the Troutdale American Heritage Girls (Troop OR-0613). After finishing up our work in the morning volunteers enjoyed delicious tamales from Salavdor Molly’s. Thank you so much to our wonderful volunteers for making this day so impactful. Keep scrolling to see photos from the sites!
Thank you to all of our funders and supporters for making this event possible. The Mintkeski Family Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, Clackamas County’s Water Environment Services, Portland General Electric, East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District, Clackamas Soil & Water Conservation District, Portland Parks & Recreation, City of Gresham, City of Milwaukie, Friends of Tideman Johnson, The Brookside Apartments, North Clackamas Parks and Recreation, and Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services.
