A North Portland community protects one of Oregon's last oak savannahs

From the Portland Tribune:

Published Dec 20, 2012, 10:25am

By Tamara Feingold

Image: Courtesy Friends Of Overlook Bluff

 

Tucked into a bend on tranquil N Willamette Drive, just south of the University of Portland, a single tree stands on a steep green embankment, its branches reaching out toward the railyards below. Nailed on its moss-covered trunk is a plate reading, “Portland Heritage Tree, Oregon White Oak.” But this is no shield against the creeping encroachment of developers and the nearby university—emboldened by relaxed city zoning codes.

Friends of Overlook Bluff is the collective name of the 15 volunteers who are stepping up to preserve the oak, and convince the city of Portland to acquire the land from its private owner. In a city with about 19 trees per acre, the quest to save a single tree may seem odd, but the lone oak extends its roots into one of the city’s last undeveloped, privately owned properties east of the Willamette River. Before 1850, oak savannas like Overlook Bluff formed a corridor and migratory pathway stretching from British Columbia to California. Today, only 20 percent of this original riparian land in Oregon’s Willamette River Basin remains forested. And that percentage is shrinking fast. In 2010, with the city’s blessing, UP bought up 55,000 square feet of previously protected land on the bluffs to build a parking lot.

“I think the focus at first is this one tree, this one acre,” says Friends founder and neighborhood resident Ruth Oclander, “but all of a sudden the significance is so far reaching.” 

Oclander, a descendant of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of Boston’s greenbelt (and uncle to the author of Portland’s 1903 parks plan), believes that saving the tiny outcropping will be the first step to building a network of urban wilderness trails from the bluff to St. Johns. The single acre of untouched land is a stitch in the larger ecological fabric that supports deer, coyotes, red-tailed hawks, and great-horned owls. 

“We have to think that if we preserve this land,” Oclander says, “there will be something there one hundred years from now, and it won’t be just houses.”

Riparian restoration along McMinnville’s Cozine Creek

From the YamhillValley News Register:

Oct 27, 2012 

 Restoration work is protecting the city-owned riparian area along the Cozine Creek corridor and hillside behind the McMinnville Police Department building on NE Adams Street. it's an important project in removing growth of an invasive plant species and clearing areas overgrown with blackberries and other weeds.

Restoration began about 18 months ago. Tim Stieber, former Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District executive director, and I approached Jay Pearson, city parks and recreation director, about partnering on the project. We wanted to remove the invasive weeds and restore the area by planting native trees and shrubs.

YSWCD was especially interested in the project because patches of invasive Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) were growing near the stream but were unreachable behind the 6-foot-tall blackberry brambles.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture identifies Japanese knotweed as a native of Eurasia that was introduced to the United States as an ornamental. These plans, according to ODA, "grow vigorously along roadsides, waste areas, streams and ditch banks; create dense colonies that exclude native vegetation; and greatly alter natural tree regeneration. Established populations are extremely persistent and do not respond to mowing or cutting. Large infestations can be eliminated with approved herbicides, but treatments are costly and time consuming. It poses a significant threat in riparian areas, where it disperses during flood events, rapidly colonizing scoured shorelines, islands and adjacent forest land."

City and YSWCD staffs decided to apply for a small grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. We planned to mechanically remove the blackberries, chemically treat and kill the knotweed, and replant the 1.2-acre area with native trees and shrubs. The OWEB small grant program, designed to fund small-scale projects that improve watershed health, is competitive, so it was good news when our proposal was accepted.

Last fall, YSWCD hired a contractor to mow the blackberries with a skid-steer mower, and we removed a small amount of concrete fill that had settled into the bottom areas. Because of the steep slope on part of the site, the Yamhill County corrections crew assisted us, using weed-whackers on hard-to-reach areas. It took more than three days to remove the blackberries and knotweed.

After the first mowing, weeds were allowed to grow back partially. Once green re-growth appeared, it was chemically treated with a herbicide approved for use on stream sides.

Knotweed is particularly invasive and known to re-sprout from small stem segments. Therefore, YSWCD staff decided to pile and burn the mowed plant material before winter flooding could flush plants downstream, preventing establishment of additional invasive patches. In the spring, we re-treated the entire site chemically for the knotweed and blackberries that came back.

For the re-planting portion of the project, district staff and local volunteers potted up bare root plants purchased at the 2011 YSWCD native plant sale and grew them out another year at the Miller Woods native plant nursery. The extra grow-time should make the plants hardier and give them a greater survival rate once they are in the ground.

Sunrise Rotary Club members had been instrumental in successful development of the wetland at Joe Dancer Park, so Pearson asked them for help with re-planting along the Cozine. The club believes this restoration project is another important public improvement of natural resources within the city.

The restoration planting will include Oregon white oak, Douglas fir, big leaf maple, Oregon ash, Nootka rose, Oregon grape, red-flowering currant, Douglas spirea and Pacific ninebark. Also, the area will be seeded with blue wild rye, which typically is used for restoration because of its hardy growth. Plants will be surrounded by chicken wire to protect them from the deer that frequent the area.

Unfortunately, because of the dry fall weather, we were forced to postpone the final planting until early November. Look for public announcements inviting community members to participate in the work party.

And thanks go to all our partners for making this restoration project possible.

Guest writer Marie Vicksta has been a conservation planner with the Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District for more than two years. She works primarily with private landowners to implement projects that improve water quality, reduce erosion and enhance wildlife habitat.

Submitted photos
The hillside behind the McMinnville Police Department’s parking lot borders Cozine Creek. Patches of invasive Japanese knotweed, upper right, had to be removed carefully. A skid-steer mower, above left, cut down the blackberry brambles and other brush to prepare the site for replanting with native plants and grass.

USFS Honors Oak Habitat Restoration work

Honoring Some Conservation Partners (excerpted)

Posted At : October 19, 2012 8:10 AM

Yesterday the Department of the Interior had a ceremony to honor some of our partners and their extraordinary work.

In the Pacific Northwest, the Central Umpqua-Mid Klamath Oak Habitat Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative is restoring more than 2,000 acres of Oregon white oak habitat by removing encroaching conifers, reseeding native grasses and applying prescribed fire.  The exclusion of fire had degraded and highly fragmented oak habitat, which is important for terrestrial neo-tropical migratory birds.  In addition to restoring habitat, this partnership provides local tribal employment in up to 90 percent of the on-the-ground work.

Note: The whole article is here.

Also, in the Mail Tribune:

Lomakatsi wins conservation award
Group has worked to keep region's ecosystems healthy
By Paul Fattig
Mail Tribune
October 22, 2012 2:00 AM

A collaborative effort to restore the natural oak habitat in Southern Oregon and far Northern California, led by the Ashland-based Lomakatsi Restoration Project, received a national conservation award Thursday.

Lomakatsi Director Marko Bey, along with several representatives of other partners in the ongoing effort, were on hand to receive the Partners in Conservation Award when it was presented by U.S. Department of Interior officials in Washington, D.C. The effort includes a 23-member partnership to restore more than 2,000 acres of oak woodland ecosystems in Jackson and Douglas counties in Oregon and Siskiyou County in California.

Known as the Central Umpqua-Mid-Klamath Oak Habitat Conservation Project, the work includes removal of encroaching conifers, reseeding native grasses and using prescribed fire to restore oak environments.

The work began a year ago and is expected to be completed next year.

Less than 10 percent of the oak habitat that once existed in Oregon and Northern California remains, according to Interior Department estimates.

"The Partners in Conservation Awards offer wonderful examples of how America's greatest conservation legacies are created when communities from a wide range of backgrounds work together," said Deputy Interior Secretary David J. Hayes, in a prepared statement.

"These awards recognize dedicated citizens from across our nation who collaborate to conserve and restore America's great outdoors, to encourage youth involvement in conservation and to forge solutions to complex natural resource challenges."

The effort is different because of its unique approach, added Robyn Thorson, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Pacific Region.

"The strength of this initiative is that instead of taking a piecemeal approach to resource management, the partners are focusing their efforts toward restoring oak habitats through connected landscapes and corridors," she said.

"Their collaborative approach brings in expertise and good science from all participating partners and helps leverage funding to achieve better restoration," she added.

Bey cited the partnership approach for the success of the project.

"This cutting-edge, collaborative, conservation effort brings together a coalition of nonprofit organizations, landowners and federal and state natural resource management agencies who share a collective mission and interest in improving the condition and function of oak woodland habitats," he said.

"This project demonstrates a model for accomplishing landscape-scale ecosystem restoration where project partners share resources and expertise for conserving a critically important habitat for wildlife," he added.

The project includes working with 20 private landowners to restore the health of the oak habitat, creating an important connection to surrounding federal lands for wildlife, officials said.

Scientists have identified oak habitat as the primary habitat in the Pacific Northwest for terrestrial neo-tropical migratory birds. In Oregon and California, oak woodlands and savannahs are richer in wildlife than any other terrestrial system, providing habitat for more than 200 species, plus many plants and other organisms.

However, because of development and the exclusion of wildfires, the oak habitat that once blanketed much of the region has become one of the most threatened ecosystems, officials said.

The U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service provided $1.8 million in funding, and project partners brought in more than $2 million in other funds and contributions for the collaborative effort. Participating property owners receive financial benefits for embracing conservation practices on their properties that protect, enhance or restore declining oak habitats.

In addition to Lomakatsi, core members of the partnership include the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the nonprofit Klamath Bird Observatory.

Other partners include The Klamath Tribes, Northern California Resource Center, Douglas County Soil & Water Conservation District, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, The Nature Conservancy, California and Oregon Departments of Fish and Wildlife, California and Oregon Departments of Forestry, Oregon State University Extension Service, Jackson Soil and Water Conservation District, Defenders of Wildlife, Colestin Rural Fire Department, Jackson County Small Woodlands Association, Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, Oregon Oaks Working Group and private landowners.

For information about the oak habitat restoration project, see lomakatsi.org/oak-habitat-restoration/.

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 541-776-4496 or email him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.

De-paving, North Portland, Oregon

Friends of Baltimore Woods and DePave held a volunteer “food, music and sledge hammers” party on Saturday, July 28, 2012 to remove a two-acre parking lot in North Portland.

The groups are working to protect and restore the Baltimore Woods area, and prepare the land under the parking lot to become part of a native Oregon white oak prairie.

From Friends of Baltimore Woods:

Portland, Oregon, has a valuable yet little known natural resource that is in danger of being lost:

The 30-acre Baltimore Woods Connectivity Corridor fills a critical gap in the Willamette Greenway and regional 40-Mile Loop bicycling and walking trails, situated between Cathedral and Pier Parks in North Portland. This unique urban greenway, recognized for its special habitat value to plants and wildlife, faces threats from invasive species and development pressures that could eventually spoil its natural value. The Friends of Baltimore Woods is dedicated to preserving and restoring this corridor, and we encourage you to join us.
This remnant native woods features such trees as Oregon white oak, madrone, and broad-leaf maple and provides food and shelter for a variety of birds, mammals, and other species.

Restoring Baltimore Woods will:

• Improve the Willamette River watershed’s health by filtering storm runoff so pollutants are not carried into the river
• Keep a natural buffer between residential and industrial neighbors
• Provide excellent views of the Willamette River, St. Johns Bridge, Forest Park and the vibrant working harbor
• Enhance native habitat
• Offer trail users opportunities for recreation, education, and a natural experience for walkers and bicyclists, away from auto traffic

 For more information: friendsofbaltimorewoods.org or depave.org.

Cutting firs, saving oaks in Canemah

from the June 7, 2012 Oregonian

Over the next year, Metro will remove firs that are gradually crowding out a small patch of Oregon City oak savanna.

The restoration of a once-dominant, now-vanishing Willamette Valley habitat is a cornerstone of Metro's restoration effort at the Canemah Bluff natural area. The agency bought about 120 acres of forest land next to Oregon 99E about a mile south of downtown Oregon City.

Plans call for a looping trail system and an overlook providing views of the river and Willamette Falls. The work will be done next year.

"We're trying to balance restoration with recreation," said Brian Vaughn, a Metro senior natural resource scientist.

The Metro land is adjacent to Canemah Neighborhood Children's Park, which serves as the entry point to the trail system. Oregon City recently improved the park, which includes a playground and picnic area.

It is unlikely that anyone will stumble across Canemah Bluff and its eight-space parking lot. Getting there requires maneuvering narrow streets through a neighborhood that includes Civil War-era homes.

But Metro's efforts will certainly draw some attention.

About 150 firs will be removed this summer to improve the oak habitat. Firs grow faster and taller than oaks and crowd them out. Other trees will be topped or girdled and the snags left standing.

The 15-acre patch of white oak and grassland that remains will give visitors a view how the area looked in the mid-1800s, when the former town of Canemah was born and flourished.

"This is what the (early) settlers saw when they came through here," said Jonathan Soll, who oversees Metro's natural area restorations. "This is special."

Neighbors aren't happy with Metro's decision to cut the firs or the agency's refusal to add more visitor parking, said Howard Post, Canemah Neighborhood Association chairman.

"We have kind of a running battle" with Metro, Post said. Canemah residents support more trails but don't want the forest disturbed, he said.

Many in Canemah don't trust Metro. They blame the agency for excessive tree-cutting and for damage to a historic road a few years ago.

Metro owns about 160 acres south of the Canemah site. The two parcels are separated by privately owned land. If the private property comes on the market, Metro hopes to acquire it.

Camille Park oaks

Excerpted from the Beaverton Valley Times, April 19, 2012

Just east of Highway 217 and accessed by Southwest 105th Avenue or Marjorie Lane, Camille Park is a 12-acre oasis with amenities both the young and old can enjoy.   A 700-foot plastic-decked boardwalk system provides year-round wetlands access, which right now includes a lower-lying camas lily meadow that blooms in spring.

The park’s rare Oregon white oak habitat – one of the most endangered environments in the Pacific Northwest – was enhanced by thinning some fast-growing ash trees, opening the canopy and providing more light. A wetlands meadow was also replanted with native species, and invasive plants and shrubs were removed.

 

District Park Ranger Kyle Spinks said the restoration of native plants and the boardwalk through the park’s marshier areas should prove popular among nature lovers of all stripes.

“We sought to turn it into an interactive wetland/shrubland,” he noted. “The idea is you can walk in and see what (Oregon) wetlands are all about.”

Lonely Tree

Milwaukie, Oregon filmmakers highlight movie on Three Creeks Area

By Ellen Spitaleri - The Portland Tribune, Apr 9, 2012

Steve Berliner, director of the Friends of Kellogg & Mt. Scott Creeks Watershed, and Eric Shawn, work to protect the Three Creeks Nature Area recently vandalized by BMX riders. Police placed branches on the trail to try to discourage riders. Becca Quint / TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO

Forget the red carpet treatment.  Two local filmmakers think a green carpet would be more appropriate for the first showing of their movie, “Lonely Tree,” part of Milwaukie’s Watershed Event, on Friday, April 13, at the Masonic Hall in downtown Milwaukie.

The film’s title is actually, “Lonely Tree — Old Growth in Peril at 3-Creeks,” noted Greg Baartz-Bowman, the director and editor, and the producer, along with cinematographer Mark Gamba, both Milwaukie residents.

“If we keep cutting down all the trees,” like the Oregon white oaks at the Three-Creeks Natural Area near the North Clackamas Aquatic Park, “then all we will have are lonely white oaks spread around the county, like the one oak tree at the roundabout that is all by itself,” Baartz-Bowman added.

The event will also showcase three other films: “Greatest Migration,” by Andy Maser, which follows the wild salmon as they travel into Idaho; “Trout on the Wind,” by Sam Drevo, a dam-removal film about Trout Creek on the Wind River in Washington state; and “Of Forest and Men,” a United Nations film, culled from a larger film called “Home,” that is narrated by actor Edward Burns.

The point of all four films is that “watersheds and forests need each other to survive,” Gamba noted.

MUST takes action

Milwaukie’s Watershed Event is co-hosted by MUST — Milwaukie Understands Sustainable Transitions — an organization founded by Gamba, a member of the city’s planning commission and a professional, internationally known photographer, who has worked for The National Geographic.

“I decided to get together a group of people more forward thinking and more sustainably minded, to be a voice to the City Council,” he said.

Baartz-Bowman, a MUST member as well, has been employed in the film industry in Los Angeles, working on screenplays, feature films and corporate training films for Logolite Entertainment. He and his family moved to Milwaukie in 2007, and he founded Straw Bale Films in 2011, because he wanted to establish a film company in Clackamas County that would focus on sustainable practices and environmental concerns.

The film is completely self-financed, Baartz-Bowman noted, and Milwaukie’s Watershed Event is free. Seating is limited, but if there is enough demand to see “Lonely Tree,” another showing may be arranged, he said.

Trees in peril

The two men decided to make “Lonely Tree,” as they became aware of the Sunnybrook Boulevard Extension project, a proposed less-than-one-mile road from the intersection of 82nd Avenue and Sunnybrook, cutting through the natural area behind the Clackamas Community College Harmony Campus and the North Clackamas Aquatic Park. 

The county wants to build the road to give increased access to the college campus and to push traffic onto Harmony Road. To do that, many of the 200-year-old oak trees and surrounding vegetation would have to be cut down.

Baartz-Bowman said he first became aware of the Three-Creeks Natural Area through reading news stories, and then took a tour of the area.

“There is a legacy oak forest in my backyard. When I went out there and saw how beautiful the trees are, I decided the best way to stop the road was to make a film. Those trees are so special, and when I saw how much we have neglected and abused them, I had no choice,” he said.

Gamba also toured the Three-Creeks area, and called it “an amazing little piece of original Willamette Valley habitat.”

He is generally opposed to spending money to build roads, and pointed out that we cannot continue to burn the amount of carbon fuel that we do today, not to mention how much we will burn in the future.

There is a very real chance oil resources will be totally depleted, and the county is proposing to cut down 200- to 300-year-old trees to build a road that will only be good for two decades at most, Gamba said.

‘Rare pockets’

The two men spent more than 100 hours of their spare time making “Lonely Tree,” which Baartz-Bowman called an “advocacy documentary.” The overall goal of the film is to acquaint the audience with the road project, which was shelved in May 2011, but could return.

The two men hope that people will contact the county commissioners and ask them to keep the Sunnybrook Extension permanently off the table.

Books have been written as to why it is imperative to preserve dwindling natural areas within urban areas, Gamba said.

“Studies show that people in cities value nature, parks, green areas,” he said. “Those are rare pockets these days. To build a road to nowhere through one of the last remaining green spaces is ridiculous.”

Baartz-Bowman pointed out that the state has less than 1 percent of legacy white oaks left, and “we need to maintain our native landscape to save it for us and future generations — we have to take positive action, or it will be gone.”

It is ironic, he pointed out, that Metro is spending millions to recreate natural areas, “when here in Clackamas County we already own an oak forest. And it is in the watershed, important to drinking water, clean water and fish. The ultimate goal is to create a wildlife sanctuary, and getting the road off the books is the first step.”

A local band called The Old Light provided some of the music for the film’s soundtrack. The title song, “Lonely Tree,” was written and recorded by Baartz-Bowman’s younger brother 20 years ago.

“He was in a reggae band called The Ravers, and he wrote and sang a song called ‘Lonely Tree.’ The lyrics are: ‘There stands a lonely tree where a forest used to be. Can you tell me what can we do?’ Now, with this film, I feel like I have answered his question,” Baartz-Bowman said.

Magic of nature

Hundreds of words have been written about the Three-Creeks Natural Area, but both men noted that they experienced something that goes beyond mere description as they interacted with the site.

“I had a magic moment when I stumbled on two deer that did not run away. They wanted to be filmed — it was special. I felt honored,” Baartz-Bowman said.

“Nature enters you in a way it doesn’t when I am on a sidewalk. Ways you can’t predict — suddenly you are different, in a good way.”

“It is the same thing I have experienced in other groves of old growth — something not discernible by eyes, ears or nose. The best word is magic. Old growth everywhere has a power that you have to experience. Three-Creeks is somewhat diminished, but the old trees are still there,” Gamba said.

Audience members will see many familiar residents voicing their opinions about Three-Creeks, the two men said, including Chris Runyard, the head of the Tsunami Crew, a group of volunteers dedicated to the preservation of the site.

Others include: Metro Councilor Carlotta Collette, an Ardenwald resident; former Milwaukie City Council member, Deborah Barnes; Milwaukie Mayor, Jeremy Ferguson; Jim Labbe, an urban conservationist with the Audubon Society of Portland; many Clackamas County residents; Tsunami Crew members and more.

Shaun Lowcock, a Milwaukie resident, helped with the production of the film and provided the narration, Baartz-Bowman said.

‘Un-Dam-It’

Baartz-Bowman and Gamba are now hard at work on the next project for Straw Bale Films, “Un-Dam-It,” another advocacy documentary, designed to make the removal of the dam at the mouth of Kellogg Creek a high priority. The city has $1 million from the federal government earmarked for the project, but Gamba estimates that the overall cost would be closer to $4 million.

“The big holdout is all the sediment around the dam is heavily polluted, with DDT and more. That needs to be removed and/or treated, and that will cost an estimated $2.5 million,” he said.

Dam removal is critical for fish passage, he noted, saying that the Willamette River has almost no spawning grounds left, and Kellogg Creek was a big one in the past, with tens of thousands of salmon going up the creek.

Based on old records, the two men said that as many as 30,000 salmon could return to the creek, once the dam is removed. They noted also, that this could be a big tourist draw for Milwaukie; if the dam were removed, people could ride Milwaukie Max to the site, stand on the bridge and watch an enormous salmon run.

Gamba added: “My goal is to see that dam come out during or just following the construction of light-rail’s Kellogg Bridge.”

See the film

Straw Bale Films and MUST present Milwaukie’s Watershed Event

Doors open at 7 p.m. on April 13

Venue: Milwaukie Masonic Lodge, 10636 S.E. Main St.

The event is free, but seating is limited, so patrons must RSVP to info@strawbalefilms.com.

To see a clip of “Lonely Tree — Old Growth in Peril at 3-Creeks,” visit www.strawbalefilms.com.

How to stop spread of Sudden Oak Death

From Oregon State University Extension Service:

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A newly updated publication outlines how the public can help stop the spread of a disease that has killed more than a million oak and tanoak trees in 14 coastal counties in California and thousands of tanoaks in Curry County, Ore.

"Stop the Spread of Sudden Oak Death" (EC1608) is available for free online.
Sudden Oak Death is the common name for the disease caused by a pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum.

"No one knows where the pathogen came from or how it was introduced in Oregon," said Dave Shaw, an Oregon State University plant pathologist. He and Ellen Goheen, plant pathologist with the U.S. Forest Service, are authors of the publication.

Other hosts for the disease are California black oak, Douglas-fir, grand fir, coast redwood, Pacific madrone, Pacific rhododendron, evergreen huckleberry, and many other tree and shrub species common in Oregon and Washington forests. The disease also causes branch and shoot dieback and leaf spotting on a large number of woodland and nursery plant species.

Hosts in the nursery trade include varieties of rhododendron, camellia and Pieris. A complete host list is on the USDA-APHIS website.

P. ramorum spreads naturally when mist and rain move spores within forest canopies – from treetops to stems and shrubs below, or across landscapes from treetop to treetop.

"Humans help spread the disease when they transport infected plants, plant parts or infested soil," Shaw said. "State and federal inspectors survey forests and nurseries in Oregon regularly to detect the disease. Infected plants and adjacent host plants are destroyed to slow spread of the disease."

State and federal quarantine regulations minimize the risk of new infections and prevent human-assisted spread. Complete texts of these regulations (ORS 603-052-1230 and 7 CFR 301.92) are on the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture websites.

People can spread Phytophthora ramorum across long distances by moving infected plants either purchased at a nursery or collected in the wild, or by moving infected wood, leaves, stems or soil.

The authors say there are things persons living, working, or visiting in the quarantined portion (map printed in publication) of Oregon's Curry County can do to help stop the spread. These include:

• Become familiar with the most recent regulations on Sudden Oak Death (websites in publication).
• Do not collect and remove host plants or plant parts from the forest.
• Do not collect or remove soil.
• Stay on established trails and respect trail closures.
• Before leaving infested areas, clean and disinfect equipment such as saws, shovels and pruning equipment you used in infested areas; wash soil off tires, wheel wells and the undercarriage of your vehicle; clean soil off shoes, mountain bikes, horse hooves and pet paws.
• For best protection, use a 10-percent bleach solution for cleaning.
• Buy healthy plants from reputable nurseries.

For more information, contact the OSU Extension foresters in local county offices, or a forester working with a state or federal agency.

OSU Extension, Curry County, 29390 Ellensburg (Hwy 101), Gold Beach, OR 97444, 541-247-6672 or 1-800-356-3986

Oregon Department of Forestry
USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region

Author: Judy Scott

Source: Dave Shaw

Ponderosa Pine: companion tree to Oregon White Oak

Loggers give unique Oregon Ponderosa pine a lifeline

by Catherine Ryan; From the March 19, 2012 issue of High Country News

On a gray February afternoon, rain falls in huge drops on Chuck Volz's 65-acre property near Springfield, Ore. It drips from the brim of his faded camouflage baseball cap and rolls off his tan jacket as he walks down a muddy path crisscrossed by deer hoofprints. He stops at a young ponderosa pine and frowns: "Horn rubbing," he says, fingering a sappy spot where a buck scraped off the bark with its antlers. He hates to see his trees under duress.

In the last decade, Volz, a retired engineer for the lumber company Weyerhaeuser, has planted roughly 1,500 Willamette Valley ponderosa pines -- a type of the ubiquitous Western conifer that's found only in this valley. Unique genetic characteristics have been discovered in the pine's chloroplasts, the part of a plant cell that conducts photosynthesis. And ponderosas taken from dry eastern Oregon and replanted in the soggy Willamette Valley usually die within a few years. With this evidence in hand, scientists are now in the process of getting Pinus ponderosa var. willamettensis formally recognized as a distinct variety.

Settlers decimated the trees when they built homes and cleared land for agriculture, and until recently, the pine survived only in scattered stands between Hillsboro and Cottage Grove. It suffered more than other species because it grew on the valley floor -- unlike Douglas fir, which occupy hillsides -- and was softer and easier to mill than hardwoods. Animals that relied on the tree for habitat and food -- including the Lewis' woodpecker and the slender-billed nuthatch, which both nest in the tree -- declined along with it. Today researchers believe that the persistence of ponderosa pine here depends on the survival of the remaining native stock.

The valley's ponderosas are beginning to rebound, thanks largely to former loggers like Volz. In partnership with the Oregon Department of Forestry, the Willamette Valley Ponderosa Pine Conservation Association -- a group composed mostly of timber industry retirees -- has worked since 1994 to preserve the tree's genetics, re-establish it on private and public lands, and create a commercial market for its lumber. They aren't ecologically motivated: "Some folks want to save every tree," says Bob McNitt, the group's executive director, who brags about the number of trees he used to fell. "We want to grow 'em and make products for people." Yet their championship of the valley ponderosa has been, in effect, an act of conservation.

By preserving its genetic diversity, the loggers have given this uncommon tree an evolutionary lifeline. Had the valley ponderosas been left to themselves, inbreeding within remnant stands containing only a few trees, coupled with pressures from development, could have led to the variety's collapse, explains Larry Miller, Oregon's state forest geneticist. "The association captured a solid sample of the genetic resources of valley pine," Miller says. "Now, landowners who plant the pine are expanding its range, and increasing the diversity within that range."
McNitt, who retired from industrial forestry partly because he didn't "want to deal with that crap with the environment or environmentalists," did much of that genetic reconnaissance and preservation. He spent nine months in the mid-'90s roaming northwestern Oregon with a GPS and a notebook, recording the locations of roughly 450 native pine stands -- drastically fewer than what once grew here, according to 19th century surveys. There were still enough to constitute a genetically viable pool, but the distance between stands prevented the trees from cross-pollinating, so their seeds were likely to be inbred and unfit for survival.

McNitt and others collected seed and scions -- branches cut from adult trees and grafted onto rootstock -- from many of those sites, then partnered with the Oregon Department of Forestry to raise them. The fruits of that effort now grow on a 14-acre seed orchard. When the trees flower, wind carries pollen from the unrelated individuals throughout the orderly rows. Once the fertilized flowers become pineapple-shaped cones, orchard employees break them open to get at the seeds, which are distributed to nurseries where landowners can buy seedlings. The state also plants a small number on public lands.

When the association began its crusade to save the pine, before the economic downturn, individuals and lumber companies were thrilled by the variety's potential. Valley ponderosa thrive in poor soils where timber staples like the Douglas fir tend to falter. They also grow fast, ensuring a relatively quick turnaround from planting to harvesting, and their lumber can be sold for shavings or even biofuel. And though the initial fervor has cooled as the timber market at large teeters, McNitt remains optimistic. "My feeling is that demand will cycle around again," he says. For now he's focused on increasing supply, urging friends, neighbors and strangers to plant the tree with an almost evangelical zeal.

Hundreds of thousands have been planted in the last decade, though the sluggish economy means fewer seedlings are bought these days. At the same time, the recession is indirectly protecting established pines. The real estate bust halted the feverish construction of the mid-2000s, and for the time being, forested land -- including ponderosa stands -- is less likely to be sold and converted to housing or strip malls, Miller explains.

Still, the reforestation effort hasn't been a definitive victory for habitat restoration, cautions David Hibbs, professor of silviculture at Oregon State University. Historically, the pines grew widely dispersed among other species, particularly oak. Now, people are mainly planting them in tightly packed mini-plantations. "You don't want to mistake this with restoration," Hibbs says. "They're not creating the habitat that the pine used to be a part of."

It's better than nothing, though, says research wildlife biologist Joan Hagar. "They certainly couldn't (bring back the habitat) if they weren't replanting the ponderosas," she says. If McNitt and other loggers get their way, some will be cut down. But others will thrive and reproduce. And the future lies in those seeds, says Hagar: "They're preserving options by keeping the pine in the ecosystem."

© High Country News

Coyote Spencer Wetlands - saved

A public land trust buys the Coyote Spencer Wetlands

By Adeline Bash; The Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon)
Saturday, March 17, 2012

Oregon white oak and white ash trees grow side by side in a swampy, forested wetland along Coyote Creek west of Eugene — a type of soggy ecosystem that’s on the decline in the Willamette Valley.

The endangered northern red-legged frog has been seen along the banks of this creek that, come summer, will be blanketed in purple Camas blooms — a flower whose roots were a staple food of the valley’s Native Americans.

Now, thanks to the purchase of the 161-acre plot by the McKenzie River Trust, the Coyote Spencer Wetlands — home to an assortment of some of Oregon’s most important and threatened plant and animal species — will offer sanctuary.

“We’re a public trust,” said Ryan Ruggiero, land protection manager for the local nonprofit land trust. “We do this by protecting special lands that have unique value. This is a really special place.”

The land, along Crow Road west of Eugene, contains over three miles of streams winding through mixed forest and wet meadows that the trust has been working for nearly a decade to protect.

The nonprofit organization first tried to acquire the property in 2003 but was beaten out by another buyer, Ruggiero said.

In the following years, Ruggiero said, the area was targeted by housing developers.

However, those projects went nowhere, giving the trust the opportunity to buy the land now.

For years, the property was owned by Roseburg resident Stanley Stevens, who about a decade ago sold the land to a Eugene development group. The development group, however, failed to make purchase payments to Stevens.

So in 2009, he took back the land through foreclosure, according to land records filed with Lane County.

That same year, the trust again sought to buy the property. But the deal was delayed when the trust learned that the property had been under investigation by the state since 2005 for unauthorized waterway filling activities.

The Oregon Department of State Lands had issued an enforcement order and potential fine of $3,000 against the development group for building several roads and a bridge in the wetlands without permits.

Last fall, as the enforcement order was being resolved, the trust contacted Stevens once again about purchasing the property. As part of the enforcement resolution, the state waived the fine, one of the access roads was removed, and a concrete bridge over Coyote Creek and some rock used to stabilize an existing access road were permitted to remain in place.

The trust paid Stevens $375,000 for the land, using federal and state funding. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided $225,000 and the Department of State Lands the remaining $150,000, the trust said.

The purchase was finalized March 1.

Since its founding in 1989, the trust has been acquiring and preserving important tracts of land across Lane County.

Between 1994 and 2005, the Willamette Valley suffered a net loss of 3,932 acres of wetlands, according to the trust. Many wetlands in the Long Tom Watershed — of which Coyote Creek is part — have been converted to farming, making large, intact expanses of wetland such as the Coyote Spencer Wetlands increasingly rare, the trust said.

“It’s a new anchor site,” Ruggiero said of the property. “From here, we’ll work with private landowners to grow a network of protective lands.”

The trust wants to continue to acquire land through voluntary conservation easements and donations from landowners, as well as purchases. The hope, Ruggiero said, is to protect a big swath of land from Fern Ridge Lake south to the upper reaches of Spencer and Coyote creeks.

So far, the trust has identified, in addition to the red-legged frog, at least one federally endangered plant species — Bradshaw’s lomatium — at the new site.

In the next few months, the trust will enlist the help of local botanists to identify more rare plants in the area as well as any invasive plants that might need to be removed. Much of the work will be fueled by volunteers, Ruggiero said.

The property attracts a diverse animal population, including coyotes, bobcats, bears and several bird species, he said.

“In the springtime, this place is just going to be alive with bird activity,” Ruggiero said. “There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on.”

The trust will host guided public tours of the area starting this summer. Several University of Oregon classes will visit the property throughout the year. In the spring, Ruggiero will lead his UO wetlands landscape architectural design class that will take at least two trips to the property.

Because of the trust’s limited staff, the wetlands will not be open to the public apart from the guided tours.

To help manage the area and prevent trespassing and littering, Ruggiero plans to meet with residents in the surrounding neighborhoods to encourage them to keep an eye on the property.

So far, Ruggiero says, “We’ve experienced a lot of support for what we’re doing out here.”

Efforts by developers to put housing on the property most likely would have gone nowhere, Ruggiero said.

Still, he said, the trust made a good move buying the property.

“Leaving something be and hoping for the best is not the same as proactively protecting it,” he said.

“Now, there are so many opportunities for doing good things with it,” he said. “You miss that if the property doesn’t enjoy some sort of protective status.”

Salem, Oregon's urban OWO forest

From Willamette Live, by Helen Caswell

Englewood Forest is a term given by urban foresters and naturalists to a unique stand of trees in Salem and the life that accompanies it.The heart of the grove is Englewood Park, a 7-acre city property situated between 19th Street and 21st Street, and Nebraska Avenue and Virginia Street – in an older northeast neighborhood of town.  But Englewood Forest extends beyond official boundaries, across street divisions and into the civic life of Salem and its ecology and history.

The park in the forest’s center is historical and beloved.  Englewood is Salem’s oldest, located on land purchased in 1926 from the Kay family.  Its trees are primarily Douglas fir and Oregon White Oak, with two varieties of cedar intermixed in small numbers.  It contains paths, play equipment and a splash fountain and is tended by a band of passionate residents in the Northeast Neighborhood Association (NEN) as well as the City of Salem Public Works Department.

Jude Geist, Parks Operations Supervisor with the City of Salem, admires the “unique band of Douglas fir and oak of Englewood Park, because you seldom find that density of forestry stand in any city.”  Kristin Ramstad, urban forester with the Oregon Department of Forestry, highlights the tract’s importance further; “Englewood is what urban foresters call a ‘Native Remnant Park’ which means it is an area of older trees that are actually remnants of native forests.  They aren’t “old growth” but are certainly trees that predate settlers.“

“The value of an area like Englewood Park, from an urban forestry perspective, typically doesn’t focus on timber but instead on the value the trees give a neighborhood, and the environmental services they provide.  Mature trees like Native Remnants intercept greater rainfall and are good for mitigating steam water run-off.  They intercept particulates like smoke and pollution in the air.  They also have wildlife habitat values, since critters live in the canopies of mature trees that can’t exist in younger trees.”

Kasia Quillinan is a member of NEN and has been active in Englewood Park’s well-being for many years.  She also understands the ecological value of Englewood.  “Parks are important to our city,” she says, “because of all the oxygen they produce.”   Quillinan’s husband, David Engen, another dedicated park supporter, adds, “Cities raise the area temperature of regions like the Willamette Valley.  A city park serves as an “urban heat island,” because its trees cool and modify the warmer temperatures of concrete and buildings.”

The couple has picked up trash daily in the park and up and down 21st Street between Nebraska and Market, for more than three years.  When six Douglas fir were lost in 1996 rains, the two were part of a neighborhood effort to dig holes for replacement trees.  Another NEN member, Laura Sauter, actually donated a post-hole digger to the project.   When one tree didn’t make it to 1997, schoolchildren from Englewood Elementary, which occupies the same block, dug another.  Episodes like these account for Quillinan saying “the whole area community is involved.”

After the felled trees were cut by park staff, Engen took the opportunity to study the rings.  His count verified that the Douglas fir would now be between 80 and 100 years old.  The Oregon White Oak may be even older, according to foresters who say the taller, faster-growing fir may have shaded them over the decades.

The unique forest atmosphere draws neighbors in, Quillinan says.  “Practically everyone who has a child or dog in the area goes there.  Mothers take young children and it’s also great for middle school kids; there aren’t too many things Salem neighborhoods offer middle school kids, but this is definitely a positive one.  The toys are well used, and in summer the basketball court is well used.  And there’s almost no graffiti because it’s so beloved.”

Englewood forest is larger than just Englewood Park, because Native Remnants still live and grow in streets neighboring the park and extend to 21st Street, to along D Street, across D Street into the Jason Lee Cemetery and onto State Hospital grounds.  Residents have large trees in yards that they haven’t cut down, and those are part of the forest, too.  These trees can be seen clearly; they are distinct from surrounding buildings and younger trees, organisms of an earlier era.

Kristin Ramstad explains how a forest can extend beyond boundaries; “The way urban foresters view things, urban forests include street trees, riparian growth such as along the Willamette River, yard trees and the oaks you see in Bush Pasture Park.   Most people consider each part just a mini-forest, but they’re are all part of the urban forest.  But the Native Remnants are special.  It really is unique here to have an older conifer stand in a neighborhood.  The trees are extremely important to nature and the city.”

Englewood Forest contributes to the urban ecosystem in ways younger trees in new developments can’t.  The life it supports is varied.  Birds come down from the hills in winter and fly back in summer.  Native squirrels, opossums and skunks thrive.  A few of the many birds NIN members have seen include; Varied Thrush, Robins, Stellar’s and Western Scrub Jay, Oregon Junco, Black-caped chickadees and Chestnut-backed Chickadees, owls, Red-tailed Hawks and Ring-necked Pheasants.

The grove shows poignantly when it crosses D Street, which is almost lined with the tall old fir,  and into historic Jason Lee Cemetery.  The graveyard, established in 1842, has its west and southern edges still populated with Native Remnants.  The trees were already standing when Salem residents were buried on the grounds a hundred years ago.  Ramstad appreciates the qualities of the grove here.  “Often graveyard trees grow in the open, so we can see the natural form of them, the way they want to genetically express themselves.  It’s a wonderful metaphor for life; a place an organism can reach its best self, like all who were buried aspired to.  The forest (in Jason Lee Cemetery) conveys a sense of place and really connects us to our history.”

Englewood Forest has myriad facets. It gives Salem value by keeping our atmosphere cooler and our rainwater better managed.  It exists in the affection of elementary school children and in the respect of city park managers.  Its neighbors give it their energy and care.  Many of our ancestors are buried beneath it.  It is intertwined with Salem’s ecology, with its history and with its future.

Arborist has a say in an OWO's fate

Arborist has a say on oak’s fate: Report could save old tree in the path of light-rail project

By Raymond Rendleman 

The Clackamas Review, Feb 8, 2012, Updated Feb 8, 2012

A 60-foot Oregon white oak has been at the center of a debate in Milwaukie over the look of a TriMet light-rail line through the city. 

The city of Milwaukie will hire an arborist to determine if the 60-foot Oregon white oak in Kronberg Park is healthy enough to survive light-rail bridge construction.

The tree was going to be removed to make way for the bridge project that is part of the Portland-to-Milwaukie light-rail work, but citizens came forward with an alternate arborist report.

Milwaukie City Manager Bill Monahan will select an arborist to deliver a report by Feb. 17. TriMet plans to begin rail construction activities in Kronberg Park, and enacting a plan to protect the tree, if required, on March 1.

“The city and TriMet are working with local residents in the selection of the arborist,” said Milwaukie spokesman Grady Wheeler. “The arborist’s report will not only weigh the biological health of the tree, but just as importantly, whether the tree poses a risk to personal safety or property, as it has been determined the city is liable for any harm or damage the tree creates.”

“This is a mighty good compromise,” said Councilor Dave Hedges. “If the tree is savable, I thought it should be saved.”

The process was put into motion when City Council made Milwaukie’s final decision on the Kellogg Bridge land-use application at its regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 17. Milwaukie’s elected officials, acting without Mayor Jeremy Ferguson who stepped aside because he is employed by TriMet, unanimously voted 4-0 to affirm the Planning Commission’s approval of the bridge with revised findings and conditions of approval specific to TriMet’s use of Kronberg Park for construction staging.

If the arborist determines the oak is healthy enough to survive construction and all possible safety issues can be addressed, TriMet will be required to take reasonable and necessary measures to protect it from harm during construction.

If the arborist recommends removal of the oak, the city is requiring that TriMet reuse wood from the tree in or near Kronberg Park. Also, TriMet would have to plant 24 trees and 116 shrubs in Kronberg Park — primarily along the bank of the Kellogg Lake — to mitigate for the loss of the tree.

That also doesn’t include other mitigation plantings required in the area for bridge construction impacts.