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Neighbors from Oregon City and round larger Portland celebrated the grand opening of Newell Creek Canyon Nature Park on {a partially} sunny Saturday. More than 400 park-goers attended the gathering that featured guided hikes, mountain biking excursions, geology talks, nature actions and loads of meals.
Metro opened Newell Creek Canyon and Chehalem Ridge nature parks in late 2021. The opening celebration at Newell Creek Canyon was saved for a hotter, dry weekend when the park can be inexperienced and blooming.
And the park delivered. Hikers and mountain bikers have been welcomed with new leaves on the park’s signature big-leaf maples and flowering pink currant bushes. Every returning hiker reported seeing and listening to many hen species.
Garret Dayfield and his son, Bryce, drove down from northeast Portland for the celebration. “We wanted to explore a new area, get us into a new space, some place we hadn’t been before,” Dayfield mentioned. “The trail wasn’t overly steep, nice views, nice places to sit down and just listen to the bird activity.”
The Dayfields walked to Tickle Creek Falls, the place a wood-frame bridge spans a small, spring-fed creek that comes down the canyon wall. “The falls was just about the right distance with a 5-year-old,” Dayfield mentioned. “You want to have those things that you can get to, that aren’t strenuous, but still get you off the beaten path.”
A younger park customer holds a bigleaf maple leaf, one of many park’s finest fall options.
Newell Creek Canyon Nature Park covers 236 acres of forest. Along with Newell Creek, dozens of smaller seasonal and spring-fed creaks run by the park. Many of those may be seen on the park’s trails. The park options 2.5 miles of climbing trails and almost 2 miles of devoted mountain biking trails.
Plans to create a nature park from the pure space in Newell Creek Canyon started in 2014. Voter investments within the 2013 local-option levy, which they renewed in 2016, and within the 2019 parks and nature bond measure funded the planning and constructing of the park, which price $3 million
Metro Councilor Christine Lewis, whose district covers most of Clackamas County on both facet of the Willamette River, helped welcome the attendees.
“We now have five nature parks in Clackamas County,” Lewis mentioned, citing Canemah Bluff Nature Park in Oregon City, Graham Oaks Nature Park in Wilsonville and Mount Talbert and Scouters Mountain nature parks close to Happy Valley. “And I don’t think you’re supposed to choose amongst your children, but I have an only child, so this is my favorite.”
Reflecting on the a number of many years of neighborhood involvement in creating the park, Councilor Lewis mentioned, “We’ve been working with neighborhood, we’ve been working with companions, and we’ve been on the poll a number of occasions. We’ve had three bond measures and two levies that assist us do that work and keep these lovely locations.
Metro’s work at Newell Creek Canyon started in 1995 when voter handed the primary greenspaces bond measure that requested Metro to start defending pure areas by the area. Some of the primary property purchases have been within the canyon.
Metro Council President Lynn Peterson thanked workers from the area’s parks and nature businesses and departments, “Getting parks like this open takes a lot of hard work.” Peterson then praised the neighborhood members who advocated for Newell Creek Canyon, “It starts with very special people who feel there is a very special place that needs to be saved.”
She then handed the microphone to Sha Spady, one of many canyon’s first and fiercest advocates.
Sha Spady, left, and Metro Council President Lynn Peterson maintain a map of Newell Creek Canyon created within the 90s.
In the early 90s, Spady noticed the canyon’s habitat degrading and unwise developments on the horizon. She informed the gathering, “I said, I’m going to do everything in my power to save this beautiful canyon that has supported me with so much love for so many years.”
As she spoke, Spady held up a home made map of Newell Creek Canyon that she had made to make use of on excursions of the forest with native elected officers, scientists and conservationist. “What we are celebrating today is kind of like a relay race,” she mentioned, then held up the rolled-up map, “And this is the wand that I passed off after the bond measure passed…Then Metro took it on, they had the facility, they had the charge, they had the energy. I don’t know how many times this baton has been passed, but look where we are today.”
When Spady was advocating for the canyon, a lot of the forest’s understory was lined by invasive blackberry and English ivy was hanging from the bushes. Both of those vegetation choke out native species, creating weak ecosystems with few sorts of vegetation. Strong habitats depend on dozens and typically a whole lot of species to thrive. Much of Metro’s work within the canyon over the previous quarter century was serving to the forest regain that complicated, wholesome vegetation.
“We saw several trillium. There’s miner’s lettuce blooming down there, Oregon grape,” reported Greg Sullivan after ending a hike along with his household. Sullivan, who lives in Oak Grove, mentioned, “When we were down there I said I’d be here every day if I lived closer, just to see it change. To see the Oregon native plants, we have amazing plants and we should appreciate it.”
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