attaining a past ideal than about changing
people’s perspectives. The city’s metal
fences, he says, send the wrong message.
“It’s alienating. It’s saying: “The creek is
dangerous. Don’t play here.’ It’s very indus-
trial.” On the other hand, says Pringle, mak-
ing the creek beautiful causes people to view
it differently.
Pringle’s biggest concern is that neigh-
bors aren’t willing to put forth even a mini-
mal effort to improve the creek. “I come out
here for 20 minutes, I see a problem, I fix it
and I move on,” he says, tugging at the bill of
his visor. “Politics gets us nowhere. I think
it’s a shame that we want to preserve what’s
beautiful, but let what’s in our backyard fall
apart. The Amazon speaks volumes.”
the Northwest Youth Corps and local
schools, donate labor. Rogers says that FBP
volunteers, ranging from students to busi-
nesspeople to senior citizens, contributed
more than 600 hours to FBP projects last
year, representing about $85,000 of labor and
doubling the work capacity of FBP’s paid
crew.
“I’ve always felt that restoration work is
about more than restoring a piece of ground,”
says Rogers. “It’s more about restoring the
relationship between people and nature. My
personal experience as a volunteer coordina-
tor is that people are craving that, because
they’re constantly relating to computers and
machines and other people. But to come out
here and relate to plant and sun and wind and
hawk and fish and water — it’s just a differ-
ent perspective on what’s real.”
AMAZON CREEK:
FAIRGROUNDS ALLIANCE
AMAZON PARK
Tom Pringle is antithetical to the stereo-
type of the pansy environmentalist. He has a
blunt tongue, sun-toughened skin, and white
chest hair that puffs out of his shirt, and he
scoffs at the rosy-cheeked joggers bouncing
along Amazon Park trail. “I grew up in the
Midwest, where there’s a stronger work
ethic,” says Pringle. “Down by this trail, I
see all these healthy young people going by,
and I think, ‘I’ve got some cardio for you.
I’ve got some stretching for you.’” He flash-
es a mischievous grin.
Pringle, a 59-year-old geneticist and the
chair of the Native Plant Society, has
removed two and a half tons of blackberry
from Amazon Park between 31st and 33rd
avenues and planted 52 species of native
trees and shrubs — 495 plants total — at a
personal cost of $1,200.
HENDRICKS PARK
For years Pringle, who’s lived up the hill
from Amazon Park since 1978, felt disturbed
by the tangles of invasive plants choking the
creek. “It was not restful, visually,” he says.
“I realized that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy
my walks unless something happened here.
And something wasn’t going to happen here
unless I did it.”
Determined to get his hands dirty restor-
ing the creek, Pringle hooked up with a
neighborhood group founded in 1994 by
local environmentalist Nancy Schafer. The
group, Miracle on 33rd Street, operates with
support from city agencies such as the
Eugene Stream Team, NeighborWoods, and
the Parks & Open Space division. But in
Pringle’s view, the city manages the creek
primarily for flood control. “I know the
plants will get blamed if it does flood,” he
says. “The whole flood culture is sort of a
boogeyman. I think the city has been schizo-
phrenic about it for a long time. It has noth-
ing to do with property damage; it’s about
man controlling nature. It’s a war against
nature. You can look back and say, ‘Mistakes
were made,’ but I prefer to look forward to
see what can be done.”
For Pringle, restoration is less about
Farther west along Amazon Creek, anoth-
er dedicated Eugene resident is working to
green the creek. Jon Belcher, a straightfor-
ward man with curly white hair, gazes at
Amazon’s slow flow from a pedestrian
bridge on the Lane County Fairgrounds.
Belcher is the head of the Jefferson-
Amazon Greenway Committee, a neighbor-
hood group that aims to convert the Amazon
into a more natural waterway from the
EWEB substation at Jefferson Street to Van
Buren Street. The short-term goal, says
Belcher, is to naturalize the north bank of the
creek “chunk by chunk” by replacing inva-
sive species with natives. The long-term goal
is to excavate the south slope of the creek,
widening the channel and allowing for a
more natural flow.
Belcher says that the greenway project
represents a successful alliance between a
HOW LOCAL GROUPS ARE HELPING
THE EUGENE STREAM TEAM
One of the most prominent city restoration programs is the Eugene Stream Team, an
agency funded by stormwater fees that aims to improve the stewardship of Eugene’s water.
The Stream Team forges partnerships with local groups working to enhance the watershed,
often providing volunteers and plant materials for restoration projects.
Lorna Baldwin, a silver-haired woman with piercing brown eyes and a no-nonsense man-
ner, is the Stream Team’s environmental volunteer coordinator and its only full-time employ-
ee. Baldwin says that because invasive species, coupled with continued development, are the
biggest threat to native habitats, restoration efforts focus on removing invaders and replacing
them with native species.
The Stream Team’s two native plant nurseries are run completely by volunteers. Plants
from the nurseries go to restoration sites across Eugene, and the agency supplies tools for
local environmental groups like the Walama Restoration Project. “The Stream Team has no
budget for direct funding of another group, so we help however we can,” says Baldwin.
“Tools and plants and word of mouth are all I can do.”
Volunteer info: 682-4850.
CURRENT CITY PROJECTS
The city is completing a $6.5 million wetlands restoration project on Meadowlark Prairie,
funded in partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers. The recently completed, $800,000
Greenhill Tributary Wetland Enhancement Project was funded by city stormwater fees. The
next big priority project, says Natural Resource Manager Scott Duckett, is the restoration of
Delta Ponds, a $3.7 million project undertaken in partnership with Army Corps as well as the
Eugene Rotary group and Oregon State Parks. And this summer, the city and the BLM will
begin work on the Dragonfly Bend Stream Enhancement Project and the Dragonfly Bend
Wetland Mitigation Project. The projects, overseen by city project managers, will eventually
incorporate volunteers from the Stream Team.
Another city program that encourages native vegetation is NeighborWoods, a partnership
of city employees, local businesses, and community volunteers who share the common goal
of planting and caring for native street trees in public spaces. According to the program’s web-
site, volunteers for NeighborWoods — led by city’s urban forestry staff at the Public Works
Parks and Open Space division — have planted almost 5,000 trees since the program’s found-
ing in 1992. Volunteers agree to water and weed the trees they plant, and the city commits to
pruning.
NeighborWoods volunteer info: 682-4800.
WALAMA RESTORATION PROJECT
Local activist Yotokko Kilpatrick founded the Walama Restoration Project in 2001 to sup-
port the rehabilitation and native revegetation of local watersheds. The organization’s stated
purpose is to restore high-priority native habitats in the Willamette Valley, including oak
savannas, wetlands, upland prairies, and bottomland hardwood forests. Walama focuses on
community involvement, engaging students in habitat rehabilitation projects. With support
from the city, volunteers, paid staff members and local nonprofits, Walama has restored habi-
tats in 10 local parks.
Unlike the neighborhood restoration groups, Walama’s scope encompasses restoration
work in a spectrum of public open spaces. “We work with local watershed councils doing
stewardship projects throughout Lane County,” says Walama outreach coordinator Stephanie
Schroeder. “Our mission is to conduct ecological stewardship within the Willamette Valley.”
Walama has a staff of about 10 paid crew workers and about 700 members throughout Lane
County.
Walama’s funding comes from private donations, grants, and work contracts from the city.
Its five main stewardship sites — in Lafferty Park, Maurie Jacobs Park, Berkeley Park, the
Butterfly Meadow in the Whilamut Natural Area, and the Gudu-kut restoration project (which
it runs with the Westmoreland Advocacy Group) — are run primarily by volunteers during
seasonal “work parties.” Walama crew members removed invasive species to enhance a wet
prairie habitat in Amazon Park, and in partnership with the city and the Nature Conservancy,
the organization rehabilitated oak-savanna habitats at Skinners Butte and in the Coburg Hills.
Volunteer info: 484-3939.
See this story online at www.eugeneweekly.com for more of volunteer organizations.
— Kera Abraham
JULY 1, 2004 11