This summer the Forest Park Conservancy is teaming up with Portland Parks & Recreation to make long-term improvements to Wildwood Trail between Wild Cherry and Dogwood, aka Ditch Trail.
This heavily-used stretch of Wildwood Trail has a unique feature, a wide and deep ditch along the uphill side of the trail. The ditch is remnant of an ambitious sluicing effort to fill in Guild’s Lake, the marshy lowland once at the confluence of Balch Creek and the Willamette River. While the ditch may have served its original purpose well enough, it complicates trail maintenance. The ditch fills and holds water, which seeps into and softens the trail. In the past, trail crews have installed special erosion control fabric to help hold the trail together, but now the fabric is becoming exposed and reaching the end of its lifespan.
Thanks to grant funding from Metro, the Forest Park Conservancy is mobilizing volunteers to help uplift the failing fabric and rebuild the trail with rock. This National Trails Day on June 6, REI and fifty-five Forest Park Conservancy volunteers got the rocks rolling. Together we wheelbarrowed in 1.5 tons of wall rock and started construction on 5 retaining walls (85 feet and growing).
There’s still plenty of work to be done on Ditch Trail! Join us on Saturday, June 27 and get in on the action. All ages welcome.
Questions about volunteering? Contact Stewardship Coordinator Mikala Soroka at mikala@forestparkconservancy.org.