Drizzly and delightful! 16th Annual Watershed Wide Event

Our mid-March 16th Annual Watershed Wide Event went really well! This is always an all-hands-on-deck, partnership-filled event and this year was no different. It was forecasted to be entirely rainy… but things cleared up during the first part of our work parties!

Across nine sites, we had 121 volunteers who planted 431 native plants, removed invasive plants from .52 acres, and ivy vines from 24 native trees and shrubs.

Volunteers from most sites joined the pizza party hosted at the Flying Pie Pizzeria afterwards (special thank you to WMSWCD and LC SEED, and volunteers attending, for donating towards the pizza expense!)

Above: Marshall Park, with Portland Parks & Recreation and BES. Here, 22 volunteers planted 301 native plants, removed about 5,000 sq ft of ivy and freed 7 trees of ivy too, and removed some trash. Highlights included working along the flowing creek, and some salamander sightings!

Below: Tryon Creek State Natural Area, with Friends of Tryon Creek. Here, 24 volunteers (including 13 youth!) planted 120 native plants along the creek

Above: Lewis & Clark College, led by SEED Students and West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District. At this site, volunteers planted sword ferns, then switched to invasive plant removal. A highlight here was super-volunteer Stephanie Pan, who brought her own weed wrench which allowed this group to remove a significant stand of Scotch Broom!

Below: Lake Oswego United Church of Christ. The newly-named Spirit Creek, a tributary to Nettle Creek, runs through this site and LOUCC members work regularly to tend the land in this natural area. There were twenty-one volunteers (majority from the LOUCC community!) at this site, and they removed about 6,025 square feet of invasive plants.

…after!

Above: Tryon Life Community Farm. Goats for morale! At this site, volunteers worked to remove blackberry along a perennial stream.

Below: Salamanders spotted at Jackson Middle School with the Westside Watershed Resource Center!

Above: Neighbors at the Squire Crest HOA work in the active restoration area that’s being funded through OWEB Small Grants, where Mosaic has implemented invasive removal and planting

Below: Boonesferry Terrace HOA, a longtime partner for Watershed Wide Event and with Riverdale High School for year-round volunteer stewardship events, particularly with the National Honors Society.

Below: Lake Oswego High School with Oswego Lake Watershed Council. Partnering with the LOHS Green Team has helped this become a consistent site for Watershed Wide; campus straddles the watershed boundary between Tryon Creek and Oswego Lake watersheds! A quirky highlight for this site includes the consistent removal of tennis balls… this year, six bags were removed! As you can see, Jack led the group also on Garlic Mustard identification/removal.