Greater Forest Park Conservation Initiative

A Greater Vision for a Great Park

Called the Greater Forest Park Conservation Initiative (GFPCI), Forest Park Conservancy and its partners have created a visionary roadmap to restore and protect not just Forest Park, but the surrounding ecosystem totaling more than 15,000 acres. The initiative looks at the park not as an “island” but as a critical component of a larger ecosystem.

The initiative does much more than just guide the Conservancy’s work in helping to restore and protect Forest Park. It is a visionary effort to look not just within but also beyond the boundaries of the park, to consider how Forest Park benefits from and contributes to the ecological health of our region, and to marshal the forces necessary to work at that scale.

At its core, the GFPCI is a 20-year collaborative strategy that prioritizes programs and projects that will have the greatest positive impact on improving the health of Forest Park. Public and private partners have committed to work together to achieve the goals of the program and address critical ecosystem threats facing Forest Park and the greater Forest Park ecosystem, including infestation of invasive species and non-native plants (understory and canopy weeds), climate change (increased temperatures, wildfires, droughts, runoff conditions changes), and wildlife habitat fragmentation (effects on connectivity and species diversity).

The GFPCI focuses on those actions partners have identified as having the most impact on the 5 main goals of the initiative:

Streams: Protecting and improving water quality in the Park’s more than 30 miles of streams, to safeguard watershed functions and human health
Connectivity: Protecting and improving the connectivity between Forest Park, the Tualatin Mountains, the Coast Range, and the Willamette River
Forests: Maintaining and improving forests to support diversity, environmental integrity, connectivity, and complexity
Wildlife: Maintaining and protecting native wildlife diversity
Community and Outreach: Expanding the GFPCI’s social and ecological scope

The GFPCI is a significant undertaking in many ways. In addition to identifying needed restoration efforts inside the Park, the GFPCI recognizes the importance of the larger connection between Forest Park and the Oregon Coast Range. The GFPCI also calls for protection and restoration efforts in areas immediately adjacent to the Park, to help stop the continual re-infestation of invasives and other threats from the outside of the Park’s boundaries.

Partners participating in the GFPCI are referred to as the Forest Park Alliance: a coalition of local organizations dedicated to conservation, protection and restoration of the Greater Forest Park ecosystem, through collaborative action.

GFPCI partners work together to identify key projects, collaborating on solutions and bringing individual resources to bear to help accomplish specific GFPCI goals. These efforts range from such vital activities as invasive species removal and native re-vegetation projects, to environmental quality monitoring and public education and outreach; and are memorialized in a 5-Year Strategic Action Plan.

The GFPCI Report

The GFPCI Map

Partnerships

GFPCI Strategic Action Plan

Impact

Launched in 2013, the GFPCI has proved to be a successful collaborative framework for partners to complete projects with relevant and measurable impacts on the ecosystem. But there is more to protecting and restoring this landscape than the ecological benefits, there are also social and economic benefits that can come from this initiative. Partners have agreed on the need to identify and build relationships with local communities that will be served by the GFPCI.

Led by Forest Park Conservancy, our growing network of public and non-profit GFPCI partners are already making a difference, both on the ground in Forest Park and in the surrounding area. GFPCI partners include:

Some of the most relevant achievements to date include:

3,600 acres restored and treated for restoration
90,000 trees, shrubs and herbs plants
30,000 trees freed from canopy weeds
Over 17,000 volunteers engaged

Highlights

Unified Monitoring Protocol
Canopy Weeds Program
Balch Creek Restoration Partnership
Powerline Pollinator Program
Backyard Habitat Program
Firewise Community Program

Land Conservation

As part of the programs under the GFPCI 5-Year Strategic Action Plan, Forest Park Conservancy has been actively working on land conservation in the greater Forest Park ecosystem through the stewardship of conservation easements and through fee title ownership.

To date, the Forest Park Conservancy holds 14 conservation easements on over 1,000 acres of public and private properties whose primary uses are residential, natural areas and extractive use. As holder of these easements, we are legally bound to stewardship the terms of each easement agreement, making sure that the conservation values of each property are preserved.

Additionally, the Forest Park Conservancy owns approximately 40 acres within the GFPCI landscape that are managed for conservation.

To learn more about the GFPCI and the programs and projects that are part of the initiative, you can email us with your questions.

Get Involved / Support FPC

By giving to the Forest Park Conservancy, you can help advance essential GFPCI projects and efforts to ensure a healthier Forest Park. A special thanks to the many caring individuals and organizations who have already committed to supporting the GFPCI, including KEEN Footwear, Bill Healy Foundation, Maybelle Clark MacDonald Fund, The Standard, New Outlook Financial, and others.

But to achieve the vision of a healthy Forest Park, we need everyone’s help. If you are interested in contributing, please donate. Business sponsorships of GFPCI projects also are available.

To learn more about philanthropic giving to support the GFPCI, please please email our Development Manager, Josh Rentschler.

You can learn more about our trails and restoration projects on our website. To learn more about volunteer opportunities and to sign up for one, please visit our Events Calendar.