Land Tending with Crystal Springs Partnership

Crystal Springs Partnership is hosting a land tending volunteer day at Errol Heights Park in Crystal Springs on Saturday, October 17, with the Johnson Creek Watershed Council on board. It's one of those mornings where you get your hands dirty for a good reason.

The work is all about the creek. Crystal Springs is home to coho and Chinook salmon as well as steelhead trout, and all three are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Because of that, the creek is designated as critical habitat, which is a fancy way of saying it's a place that really needs our attention if those fish are going to keep coming back.

What you'll actually be doing is straightforward. The day's work continues the Partnership's commitment to creating healthy salmon habitat in the watercourse, and volunteers will be handling revegetation, selective plant removal, and trash pick-up along the banks. It's a mix of putting new plants in and taking the wrong ones out, with a good bit of cleaning up in between. If you've never done this kind of work before, don't worry—it's a volunteer event, so you'll be working alongside others who know the ropes.

The whole thing is in Portland, at Errol Heights Park in Crystal Springs, on Saturday, October 17. It's a chance to spend a morning outside doing something that makes a tangible difference for the fish that still call this part of the city home.