Metro teams up with Mt. Hood Community College’s SEED program
For more than a decade, international students at Mt. Hood Community College have helped nurture the natural area next door: Metro’s Beaver Creek property, which provides rich habitat for mammals, song birds, owls, waterfowl and fish. That partnership continued last weekend, when 35 students planted 650 native trees and shrubs and picked up 10 bags of garbage.
Known as SEED, the Scholarships for Education and Economic Development program brings students from Latin America and the Caribbean to the college to study natural resources and environmental technology. They have a ready-made learning laboratory, thanks to the 60-acre natural area located just outside their classrooms. Metro protected the land using funds from the region’s 1995 natural areas bond measure.
During the last 11 years, SEED students have volunteered thousands of hours to improve stream health by restoring riparian areas, removing invasive species and planting more than 10,000 native trees and shrubs at the natural area. Their work has added significance this year, because the City of Troutdale recently transformed the natural area into College Nature Park. Visitors are welcomed by a new walking trail, benches, signage, a picnic area and two trailheads – funded in part by the region’s 2006 natural areas bond measure.
At the end of a muddy planting project on Saturday, SEED students told Metro natural resources scientist Kate Holleran to let them know when the natural area needs more help. That kind of dedication is an inspiration, said Holleran, who worked with student volunteers as an instructor at the college before taking a job at Metro.
"They are planting a legacy for generations of people and wildlife to enjoy," Holleran said. "The really cool thing is, now some of the students return to the United State bringing their families for a visit, and they take their children to see the trees they planted. That is so rewarding."