Posts by WMSWCD Admin
Be ready to evacuate during wildfire
Many of the woodland owners in the Tualatin Mountains have deep roots in Oregon. We’re sure many of you have close family and friends who have been greatly impacted by our recent wildfires. It’s warmed our hearts to hear stories of people on the hill taking in friends as well as livestock owned by loved…
Read MoreA community approach to native bee research in Portland
If you were to guess how many species of native bees there are in Portland, how many would that be? And where do these bees prefer to nest? Local emerging entomologist, Stefanie Steele, a Master’s student at Portland State University (PSU) studying native bees in the Portland area, is working to answer those questions. At…
Read MoreMonitoring Understory Seeding Project Plots
By Hannah Spencer, West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District, Field Conservationist Intern One of the first projects I worked on as a new intern with West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District (WMSWCD) was the Understory Seeding Project headed by staff conservationists Laura Taylor and Michael Ahr, and I was absolutely ecstatic at the…
Read MoreYou can create reptile habitat in your small forest
Photo by Pat Welle, Western painted turtle Article by Michael Ahr, Forest Conservationist, West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District Woodland owners are increasingly being encouraged to build brush piles for wildlife. At West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District, we often discuss their importance for an array of wildlife. Mammals can live in the…
Read MoreSturgeon Lake Restoration Project update, June 2020
By Scott Gall, Rural Conservationist It has been over a year since the completion of construction on the Sturgeon Lake Restoration Project. After a decade of partnership building, planning, fundraising, and engineering, and just over four months of construction over the summer and fall of 2018, led by Columbia River Estuary Study Task Force (CREST),…
Read MoreUpdate on restoration of Lower McCarthy Creek wetland and oak habitat
By Kammy Kern-Korot, Senior Conservationist McCarthy Creek flows from NW Skyline Boulevard to Multnomah Channel across from Sauvie Island. This creek is unique to the area in that it is considered essential salmonid habitat, especially for coho and Chinook salmon. At the bottom of the watershed is 121 acres of privately owned land – most…
Read MoreMy First Garlic Mustard Season (during quarantine)
By Cole Carr, GIS & Field Conservation Intern A global pandemic hits, putting the world in quarantine. The streets of Portland are at a standstill, minus the occasional bicyclist. What does that mean for a soon-to-be college graduate? Three months of doom, doing homework, staring longingly out the window? There’s no time for that, not…
Read MoreGearing up for Garlic mustard
Conservation staff are getting ready for this season’s invasive weed field work. Garlic mustard is at the top of our list again this year for special attention. Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is an aggressive invasive species in the Pacific Northwest. Originally introduced in North America for culinary uses, it has escaped cultivation to become a…
Read MoreSpring forest maintenance in the Tualatin Mountains
(Photo: Ivy vines cut from a tree.) Spring inevitably brings on the urge to get outside and work the land. Our forest and habitat restoration work often encompasses invasive species control, planting of native trees and shrubs, and control of any competing vegetation that might threaten our desired plants. This spring, we encourage you to…
Read MoreFormer holly orchard will nourish a new forest
Guest post by Laura O. Foster In a blue-sky week in early November, a Rayco track mulcher began chewing up mature holly trees in a 13-acre orchard on McNamee Road. With the last commercial harvest from the orchard almost 10 years prior, the property owner, Dr. Ivan Law, had decided to repurpose his land. “I…
Read MoreUnderstory Seeding Project Update
Two of our conservation staff – Michael Ahr, Forest Conservationist, and Laura Taylor, Conservationist and Education Coordinator – are in the second year of a forest understoryUnderstory The area under and around trees seeding pilot project that kicked off in September of 2017. We are working on trial sites with eight landowners in the Tualatin…
Read MoreSturgeon Lake Restoration Project Dedication
In June, alongside many partners in the Sturgeon Lake Restoration Project, we celebrated the completion of the decades-long project to reconnect Sturgeon Lake to the Columbia River. West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District and partners restored a stream system that allows natural flow from the Columbia River through Dairy Creek channel into the lake…
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