On Wednesday, August 21st, nearly two hundred member company representatives and friends came together to give back to the outdoors through their volunteer action.
At Wallace Park we welcomed friends from Yakima, Icebreaker, Merrell, KEEN, REI, Nau, Horny Toad and BrandLive. Volunteer teams migrated to Forest Park to remove invasive species, construct and improve trails. A few miles away at Columbia Headquarters, buses were being boarded by scores of additional folks ready to tackle a variety of projects in Sellwood Park, Baltimore Woods and Johnson Creek.
With beautiful sunshine and abundant energy, our volunteers got busy around the city with project leadership from Forest Park Conservancy, SOLVE, Johnson Creek Watershed Council and Portland Parks & Recreation.
As a collective, our volunteers:
- Removed 700 cubic feet of invasive bamboo
- Cleared 1 mile of trail corridor
- Repaired 20 feet of turnpike constructed/muddy trail
- Removed 15,000 square feet of invasive species including clematis, armenian blackberry and morning glory
- Mulched over 200 plants
- Removed 2000 square feet of blackberry to improve streamside conditions
- Removed 250 square feet of ground ivy
Following their efforts, volunteers gathered for a lunch celebration in the park joined by grantees from Wild Salmon Center, Water Watch, Oregon Wild as well as our allies at North Coast State Forest Coalition and Portland Parks Foundation. Project partners from SOLVE, Johnson Creek Watershed Council, Forest Park Conservancy were also on hand to provide updates on their successes and current initiatives.
We also enjoyed visits from Woods Wheatcroft and Grant Gosch who were on hand to document some of the day's stories. Look for more photos on our Facebook page.
Many thanks to Columbia for providing lunch and bringing out 100+ volunteers, to the mighty Yakimites for joining in the fun and bringing the next largest group, to KEEN for rocking it with the PA and games, and to all of the amazing folks who planned and organized from Marrell, Nau, Horny Toad, Icebreaker and BrandLive.
The Portland Backyard Collective has become a high mark for our season which will culminate this October in Boulder after our NE event hosted in Concord, MA by Vibram in September.
Through volunteer action, celebration and conversation, the Backyard Collective is one expression of our gratitude to member companies. We appreciate all the ways in which they support the noble work of preserving wild places in Oregon, and across North America.