When Scouters Mountain Nature Park opens this summer, visitors will notice towering Douglas fir trees and stunning Mount Hood views. But, as a natural resource scientist, I saw something entirely different the first time I explored this volcano rising above Happy Valley.
Conserving nature, one acre at a time
As a Metro scientist, Kate Holleran sees nature's biggest challenges and most glorious surprises – and she has the muddy boots to prove it.
I saw 20-foot-high invasive English hawthorn trees, with thorns an inch long and very unpleasant to walk through. One of many extinct cinder cones across east Multnomah County, Scouters Mountain provides valuable habitat to local wildlife and a critical place for migrating birds to rest. But, like many of Metro’s new natural areas, it needed a good dose of ecological science to nudge it toward better health.
Restoring a landscape means first getting to know the land before taking any significant action to change it. So I crisscrossed the property many times with a team of natural resources practitioners, picking their brains about possible restoration methods. We consulted with a geologist to identify any landslide issues, with the Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde for insights into Native American use. We talked with descendants of the first European settlers who homesteaded this land and the Boy Scouts of America, from whom we purchased most of the natural area. We checked in with our neighbors, ecologists, foresters and weed specialists.
As we walked and talked, we discovered more about Scouters Mountain: most of the extinct cinder cone is a healthy forest between 40 and 100 years old, with some trees more than 250. The northern slope was a mess, though, dominated by invasive plants with very limited value to wildlife. I did find a few gems hidden among the weeds: scattered Oregon white oaks (a hint about the historical vegetation) and some prime mountain beaver (Aplondontia rufa) habitat in drainages full of sword fern. The Oregon white oaks tell me that the slopes of Scouters Mountain probably burned frequently in the past, allowing these fire-resistant trees to become established. Then as humans controlled wildfire, Douglas fir trees moved in and outgrew the oaks, leaving just a few scattered on the warmer west slopes. The mountain beaver tunnels explained the lack of trees growing anywhere occupied by these prolific seedling consumers. I also discovered a yellow jacket nest the hard way: by walking through it. I hope to not find it again.
Using a cool analysis tool call Lidar tree canopy mapping, we created a map of vegetation heights. Interpreting the tree canopy image allowed me to identify and quantify areas dominated by weeds. Anything taller than 70 feet was likely native, anything shorter than 25 feet was likely non-native. With the map and a little more ground-truthing, we had an accurate measure of how much restoration we had ahead of us – and where. Time to get to work. Starting in 2012, Metro restoration contractors cut and sprayed the invasive trees and shrubs, spread native seed, thinned a dense stand of 50-year-old firs. We made habitat for wildlife like pileated woodpeckers, brown creepers, ensatina salamanders, western red-backed voles and big brown bats by creating snags and down wood. Finally, we planted more than 25,000 native trees and shrubs.
If you’re hiking at the new nature park someday, you might see me, so say hello. I’ll be walking through the woods from time to time to see how everything is growing. The obvious restoration work is done, but we’ll be caring for the young seedlings and checking for unwanted weeds for years to come.