On September 24 we visited the new Canyon’s Edge STREAM~N Center in Oregon City to clear ecologically disruptive plants from around young natives we had planted. A group of STREAM~N Team members requested this afterschool work party because it’s harder for them to join our weekend events. Some team members had to cancel due to illness, last-minute transportation challanges, or other commitments, but it was exciting to see how much our scrappy group of 8 could accomplish together.
Natalia, Wyatt, Ivan, Sawyer, Landon, Francesca, Neo, and Rick feeling great at the end of the work party amongst young new and mature native trees and shrubs at Canyon’s Edge.
Natalia, one of our original STREAM~N Team members, teaches newer member Ivan how to tell the difference between native trailing blackberry and ecologically disruptive Himalayan blackberry. It’s amazing to see how natives can sometimes quickly recover at Canyon’s Edge and our other restoration sites when we clear out the pesky plants. Often they are right at the edge–or covered up by–the troublemaker plants, ready to flourish when they are given the space, sunlight, water, and nutrients they need.
A native Oregon ensatina salamander discovered while we were burying food scraps in the upcycled composter the team made out of used wood pallets.
The developing Canyon’s Edge STREAM~N Center is nestled on the edge of Newell Creek Canyon, a biodiversity hotspot and important refuge for wildlife, with at least 18 species of amphibians (including threatened northern red-legged frogs), coho salmon, cutthroat trout, Pacific lamprey, 150+ species of birds (including nesting great-horned owls and Cooper’s hawks), multiple reptile and bat species, beavers, mountain beavers (boomers), and rare bobcats and mountain lions.
This young chokecherry tree was being aggressively browsed by our resident herbivores, especially deer. It was also being overtaken by Himalayan blackberry and other disruptive plants. Francesca and Neo first cleared the plants with hedge trimmers and a pick mattock. Here they are shown adding chicken wire fencing (attached to bamboo poles they installed) around the chokecherry, which will produce many berries for wildlife. We hope it will soon grow large enough to be safe from the deer, etc.!
Wyatt takes out invasive blackberry, thistle and reed canary grass with our electric weed wacker.
Most of the materials we’ve been using and native plants we’ve been planting were donated, and the team is earning stipends for the work here, at the Environmental Learning Center at Clackamas Community College, and other sites, paid for through an Oregon City Community Enhancement Grant. These funds were raised via small waste disposal fees at the Metro regional government waste facility in the city.
The project is an exciting win-win-win for the environment, youth, and community. On this site we discovered a buried historical landfill in a 1-acre area that we are working to clean up with partners, including Metro and the U.S. Environmental Projection Agency (EPA). After the cleanup is complete we are planning to create a regenerative community garden, agrisolar demonstration site, mycoremediation demonstration site, and more. In the meantime, the other 5.5 acres of the property, including a year-round flowing creek, are a wonderful playground for riparian restoration activities, environmental education, and wildlife sanctuary. Whenever we’re here, we feel renewed mentally and physically. Let us know if you would like a tour and/or you would enjoy volunteering with us!