This was an amazing year for the Forest Park Conservancy! Thanks to your support, the Forest Park Conservancy is ensuring that our children, city and region can continue to live a healthy and active life, where we have clean air and water and nature right at our doorstep.
Community, nature, and a commitment to a healthy environment is what sets Portland apart from other cities. Forest Park is our City’s greatest treasure and it deserves to be cared for and protected.
With the planet warming and development increasing in our region, it’s so important that we work tirelessly to further our mission and aspire to be the generation that will see Forest Park restored.
What can be done to ensure Forest Park is healthy for future generations?
To address the threats to Forest Park, we launched the Greater Forest Park Conservancy Initiative (GFPCI) in November, 2013. This is a collaborative effort designed to tackle the toughest environmental challenges facing Forest Park is going strong. Thanks to community support and many partners working together, the Forest Park Conservancy is leading this 20-year vision to bring the greater Forest Park ecosystem back to health. The GFPCI will result in more land restored, healthier habitat on more properties, and greater connection between Forest Park and the coast to support wildlife. This initiative will ensure our region’s largest greenspace remains a place that provides access to nature, cleans our air and water and is home to many native plants and animals.
In the last fiscal year, we made great strides towards meeting our goal of restoring Forest Park. Here are just a few of our many accomplishments:
•Recruited and trained 700 volunteers who logged 7500 hours in the Park•Maintained 30 miles of trail reducing runoff into streams and increasing public access to the park. •Initiated, in partnership with Portland Parks & Recreation, the largest restoration project in Forest Park, focusing on 217 acres in Balch Creek.•Freed 4,326 trees of ivy on private land which helps prevent invasive plants from spreading into Forest Park.•Worked with our GFPCI partners to develop a unified monitoring protocol to track the effectiveness of our restoration work and then monitored 185 acres using the new protocol.•Received support from nearly 1,000 individuals, businesses, foundations and government agencies who contributed more than $500,000.•Launched the “Getting Green to Work” project to improve the environmental health in the Northwest Industrial Area.
What’s happening in the year ahead?
•Repair more than 4,000 feet of trail by adding retaining walls and improving drainage. •Maintain 30 miles of trail within the Park. •Recruit and train 800 volunteers to support restoration and trail projects in the park.•Partner with Portland Parks & Recreation to continue to restore 217 acres in the Balch Creek Watershed.•Design and construct a new 1.2 mile trail in FPC’s Ancient Forest Preserve.•Free up to 4,000 trees of ivy on private land.•Continue to work with businesses in the industrial are to promote green infrastructure to help improve air and water quality and habitat corridors.
Your financial support ensures these projects are successful and we continue to restore Portland’s most beloved and important natural area. You can sign up to volunteer and make a gift to the Forest Park Conservancy and be a part of making sure Forest Park is healthy for generations to come.
Make your donation online today.
Follow our progress on social media: @PDXForestPark on Twitter and Forest Park Conservancy on Facebook.
If you have any questions, comments or want to get more involved, please contact us.