Neighbors get Wild at New Columbia

Written by: Lisa Libby, Watershed Community Outreach, Bureau of Environmental Services

In February the NatureHood Festival in North Portland drew more than 70 New Columbia and Portsmouth neighbors together to hear storytelling with an environmental twist, enjoy refreshments, and learn about natural resources close to home.

BES was excited to teamed up with the New Columbia Youth Council to host the NatureHood festival. City Commissioner Sam Adams welcomed neighbors and talked about the importance of community volunteers to successful restoration projects and storyteller Will Hornyak shared tales of watershed health.

Over a dozen organizations participated in the festival. The Portland Office of Transportation was on hand with bike and pedestrian resources and the Columbia Slough Watershed Council shared information on upcoming recreation and stewardship activities in the area. The Audubon Society even brought a peregrine falcon to the festival to show off!

There are lots of natural areas within easy walking and bicycling distance of the Portsmouth area, and this year the city's Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) will team up with community volunteers to make some of those areas more people and wildlife-friendly.The Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant Natural Area just north of New Columbia is a good example. It's one of six Columbia Slough watershed project sites where Environmental Services will remove invasive, non-native weeds and replace them with native plants. That will improve water quality and protect wildlife habitat. Money from the Portland Watershed Investment Fund makes these projects possible.

For more information on bicycling, canoeing, walking and other recreational opportunities in the Portsmouth Neighborhood - along with upcoming stewardship activities - call Ethan Chessin at 503-823-8225, email ethan.chessin@bes.ci.portland.or.us or visit www.columbiaslough.org.

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