JULY 26, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3
KeizerCommunity
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Turning back time at Willamette Mission
Riverkeepers spearhead
effort with substantial
community support
By LAUREN MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
Willamette
Mission
State Park has a lot to offer:
equestrian trails, a disc golf
course, picnic areas, and thanks
to the efforts of the Willamette
Riverkeepers and their many
partners, a beautiful, native
fl oodplain forest.
Willamette Riverkeepers
is a non-profi t organization
that have been working to
restore the Willamette River
for nearly 20 years. They have
partnered with Oregon State
Parks to restore native habitat
within the natural areas of the
park that were overrun with
weeds and blackberries.
They are working on more
than 600 acres of land, a task
that would be impossible
for their small organization
without help.
“We used a local farmer
to sow the seed, we used
a contractor based out of
Tigard called Ashcreek Forest
Management to do all of the
site prep and planting, we had a
local farmer that leases within
the park help us do some
of the initial site prep,” said
Marci Krass, the Riverkeepers’
program manager.
They use contractors to
remove the invasive plants that
have taken advantage of the
bare ground out at the park,
such as: Himalayan blackberry,
reed canarygrass and clematis.
After the weeds are removed
the Riverkeepers plant native
plants: cottonwood trees,
ninebark, or red elderberries
“All of our restoration work
is happening in the natural
area,” Krass said, which means
other parts of the park will
not be disturbed. “It’s a public
park, what we’re trying to
do is make the forest higher
quality.” She pointed out bare
patches of ground along the
path that used to be covered in
blackberries, removing them
not only makes the park more
enjoyable for horses, bikers,
and hikers, but it also helps
restore habitat for native fi sh
and wildlife.
“Historically, this was most
likely a forest and it was cleared
for agriculture at one point,”
she said.
Before the space became a
state park it was a mission. It
was the fi rst Methodist mission
on the west coast, established
in 1834 by Rev. Jason Lee.
“They tried to farm it and
then they realized it’s not good
focused on the more danger-
ous weeds.
A project like this requires
collaborative partnerships and
grant funding. Willamette
Riverkeepers applied for
funding through the Willamette
River
Anchor
Habitat
Investment Program, which
is jointly funded by Meyer
Memorial Trust, the Oregon
Watershed
Enhancement
Board, and Bonneville Power
Administration.
There are many other
funders, as well as in-kind
donations, that make a project
like this possible, including
the Salem-Keizer REI, which
has given $69,000 to the
Riverkeepers since 2014.
In addition to the funds, the
Riverkeepers have opportuni-
ties for volunteer work, which
can be found on their website,
willamette-riverkeeper.org/
volunteer. They’ve partnered
with the community on sev-
eral projects in the park.North
KEIZERTIMES/Lauren Murphy
In addition to planting native trees and other plants like the cottonwood seen above, the River- Salem High School students
keepers and volunteers place temporary cages around the trunks to protect them from deer helped with a project to pro-
scratching antlers against them. While it’s part of a natural cycle, the damage can kill young trees.
tect young cottonwood trees
from deer by placing plastic
for farming and that’s because root systems, you get different time it can make a big differ- netting around the tree trunks.
we now know it fl oods pretty bugs, different insects that are ence,” Krass said, though it When trees are young deer will
utilizing the plants,’” she said. is trickier in some areas. She come by and scratch their ant-
often,” Krass said.
The land was cleared for More plants mean more bugs pulled back a clump of weeds lers against the trunks, which is
farming but the mission had and, when the river fl oods, the that had surrounded a rose, “It’s damaging to the bark and can
been abandoned, leaving bare fi sh can eat well because there tough because you don’t want kill young trees. The cages de-
ter the deer so
nega-
ground, the perfect place for is enough to go around. When to
the trees can
you have a monoculture of tively affect
invasive species to grow.
grow and es-
“A lot of the problem, I weeds it’s not as complex of a the rose but
tablish.
you want to
think, in this park is invasive habituate,” Krass said.
Willamette
When it comes to removing get rid of
species,” Krass said. “If you let
R ive r ke e p e r
invasive species do what, they the invasive species the the grass,”
are not the
is
Riverkeepers have several which
want they’ll usually win.”
only
group
Invasive species compete tactics: cutting the weeds, when a cut-
trying
to
with and usually kill the native mowing them down, and ting treat-
restore
the
ment would
plants. The overall impact occasionally using herbicides.
river,
and
in
“Sometimes we’ll use some come
is reduces the amount of
— Marci Krass W i l l a m e t t e
herbicide, like spraying, be- handy.
biodiversity in the forest.
Program manager
Mission
is
In a proj-
“You have diverse plants cause it’s a tool and if we use
Willamette Riverkeepers
not the only
with different, more complex it in the right way at the right ect like this
site they are
it’s import-
working on.
ant to prior-
“More than 50 organizations
itize what needs to get done,
“Some weeds can have a big- up and down the Willamette
ger impact on changing the are concerned about water
ecology of the area, like weed quality and habitat availability,”
canary grass,” she said. “But this she said.
The end goal is to have a
annual aster, it’s kind of annoy-
ing and ugly, but the reality is native forest that Oregon State
it’s not going to stop a native Parks can manage themselves,
plant from growing,” which is or better yet, a self-sustaining
why most of their efforts are forest.
“What we’re
trying to do is
make the forest
higher quality.”