ODF release – LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. – Residents of the Mountain Park neighborhood love living in the forested hills above the city. But the urban forests in those hills have become dangerously overcrowded with invasive plants that increase wildfire risk. Now, thanks to a $251,000 grant to the Oswego Lake Watershed Council (OWLC) from the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Small Forestland Grant Program, that risk is being lowered as invasives are removed and fire-adapted native species are replanted. The grant money originated with the 2021 Legislature’s passage of Senate Bill 762 to help Oregon modernize and improve wildfire preparedness. Three key strategies are being employed: Creating fire-adapted communities; Developing safe and effective fire response; Increasing the resilience of landscapes. The Legislature earmarked $5 million of the $195 million in the bill to help ODF fund projects that reduce wildfire risk through reducing hazardous fuels and restoring landscape resiliency. The project in Mountain Park is one of 23 projects ODF approved. Combined, the projects serve over 600 landowners and treat more than 4,000 acres. OLWC’s Executive Director Jack Halsey is overseeing the project in Mountain Park. The Mountain Park Homeowners’ Association owns more than 100 acres of meandering woods in ravines and hillsides that homes back onto. “Invasive ivy has smothered the forest floor, choking out native plants. In some areas what’s left is an ivy desert that offers little to native wildlife,” said Halsey. Worse still, this non-native vine climbs trees, making them more likely to topple in ice storms and serving as a ladder fuel that helps any fire that starts climb into the canopy. Such canopy fires are more likely to spread embers to catch nearby homes on fire. Over the summer, OWLC used grant funds to give paid employment and workforce development training to local youth through the Lake Oswego Teen Ranger Program. The highschoolers cut ivy clinging to trees. Some of the grant is also being used this winter to pay a crew of seasonal fire fighters and others from ODF to carry out the heavier task of cutting down holly, English hawthorn, European mountain ash, and English and Portuguese laurel. These exotics are displacing native plants. ODF Community Wildfire Forester Taylor Johnson manages the crew from the Forest Grove ODF office, which started doing the chainsaw and chipper work in November and will continue till spring. “The work our crew is doing is not only reducing the fire risk to surrounding homes and properties, it’s giving native trees, shrubs and other vegetation a chance to recover. It also helps a few seasonal firefighters continue contributing to fire safety over the winter until firefighting picks up again in the spring.” Once a week the Mountain Park Homeowners Association’s ground maintenance crew brings in their large chipper, turning the woody debris cut by ODF into a protective mulch they spread on the forest floor. “We leave native trees standing. With less competition for water and sunlight and a nice layer of mulch, they should be less stressed next summer,” Johnson said. Most of the fire reduction/forest health improvement projects ODF has supported are located in more rural areas. “This project has far more people living right next door to it,” said Johnson. “It’s great to help restore to health this forest because so many residents see and enjoy walking through it every day.” More than 15 acres have been cleared of invasives so far by the ODF crew, Halsey said. “We are working with our partners to develop a 5-year and 50-year management plant for land resilience. We’ll bring others into the cleared areas to hand pull ivy on the ground and other invasive weeds. Later we’ll plant a variety of native shrubs and trees, such as flowering currant, Oregon grape and – in newly sunny areas – Oregon white oak,” he said. “Our dream is to take a partially degraded woodland in a highly urban area and gradually restore it to a well-functioning, resilient forest ecosystem supporting healthy soils and watersheds,” Halsey said. In addition to ODF and the homeowners association, other partners on the broader project include Lake Oswego Fire Department and Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District. Johnson said they often are stopped by curious residents out walking their dogs or strolling with their kids and asking what they are doing. “Once we explain that we’re removing aggressive invasive plants to give the natives a chance to grow, people generally thank us and say it does look better.”
