Restoring Forest Park

Forest Park is unique in that it is connected to a vast forested ecosystem, yet is located entirely within a major metropolitan area. Forest Park sequesters carbon and provides cool, clean water important to help support healthy fish and other wildlife populations in the Lower Willamette River watershed.

This location is what makes Forest Park such an important component of our region's ecological well-being, but it also exposes the park to environmental pressures that come from dense human population.

Habitat restoration in Forest Park and the surrounding area focuses on re-establishing native plant communities where invasive plants have taken hold. Common landscaping plants such as English Ivy and invasive weedy trees like English Holly have found their way into the forest by way of birds, pets and people. These unwelcome invaders can dominate areas of the forest, supplanting the native flora that supports wildlife and disrupting the fragile web of biodiversity the area's fish and other wildlife rely upon.

Forest Park Conservancy's restoration work is a central component of our 20-year plan, the Greater Forest Park Conservation Initiative. If you want to get more involved and volunteer, please contact our Director of Programs & Community Engagement.

An important part of restoring Forest Park and the surrounding ecosystem is removing invasive species, planting native trees and shrubs, and maintaining the trails. The Forest Park Conservancy has been working in close partnership with Portland Parks & Recreation for many years to remove the threat of these invasive species and support an environment that is welcoming not only to native plants and animals but to people as well.

We will continue to remove invasive species within Forest Park. Through FPC's Canopy Weed Program, we will remove invasive tree ivy and English holly to promote native habitat for ground-nesting birds and small mammals that frequent areas around the park. The Canopy Weed Program will enhance property adjacent to Forest Park, creating more wildlife habitat outside of the park and keeping more invasive species from getting inside the park.

Surveying, mapping, and monitoring vegetation and forest structure are key activities in measuring success and achieving the goals of the Greater Forest Park Conservation Initiative; these goals include improving forest conditions and protecting native flora within the ecosystem. As a result, FPC and its partners collaborated to develop a unified monitoring protocol designed for use in documenting changes in plant species composition and coverage in areas of the ecosystem that are being managed for conservation. The protocol presents a standard methodology for collecting data that can be implemented in the same manner by the many organizations involved in conserving the Greater Forest Park ecosystem, from volunteer groups to public agencies staffed by professional scientists and environmental managers. Using the same monitoring protocol will improve data quality, so that information collected by many different organizations can be compiled and analyzed. The overall goal is to provide a more complete, reliable picture of the health of the Greater Forest Park ecosystem.

Along with removing invasive plants, FPC works with volunteers to plant native trees, plants, and shrubs to ensure Forest Park's habitat continues to thrive and be home to native wildlife.

Your financial support is always welcome to help fund our work!