As a Metro scientist, Kate Holleran sees nature's biggest challenges and most glorious surprises – and she has the muddy boots to prove it. Read her latest reflections on restoring the land protected by Metro's voter-approved Natural Areas Program.
By Kate Holleran, Metro Scientist
Conserving nature, one acre at a time
Take a field, subtract the horse and what do you have? Tall weed, compacted trails and a reforestation challenge. Metro recently purchased a new natural area along North Abbey Creek on the west slopes of the Tualatin Mountains, outside of Portland.
An old pasture – or, depending on your perspective, a weedy field – occupies about five acres of the property. The former owners used the field as a pasture for their horse, and now we had the opportunity to re-start the native plant community.
Add to those challenges, we also had large mounds covered by blackberry.
“What do you think are under those blackberries?” I asked my colleague Jeff.
“I don’t know, what do you think?”
Massive clumps of blackberries are common on old farms, and figuring out what lies beneath is a common question – one we try to resolve before purchasing the property. In this case, we enlisted Metro’s ultimate problem-solver, Laurie Wulf.
Using an excavator, she gently picked through the blackberries. To our genuine relief, the blackberries hid piles of soil and an occasional rock and chunk of wood. Laurie broke up the piles, spread the soil out and topped off the restoration day by removing an old, unnecessary culvert from a dry creek bed.
Sometimes, Laurie says, “Happiness is a nice big toy and a pile of dirt.”