Ting-Ting has been asking me all summer to write a blog post, but I’ve been hesitant to do it because writing a blog post naturally entails being inside at a computer, which is no fun at all. But since I’ve pretty much finished up all of my vegetation monitoring for the summer and am stuck inside on a computer anyways, figured I’d give it a go.
My work this summer has been somewhat different from everyone else’s, in that instead of working in an office on policy and administrative issues, I’ve been out in the field doing more hands on monitoring. I’ve been working for SOLV, an Oregon non-profit dedicated (amongst many, many other things– check out their website! solv.org) to invasive species removal and watershed health. SOLV has 77 creek and wetland restoration sites distributed all around the portland metro area and beyond. Most were at some point or another variously disturbed by some assortment of human activity (urban development, logging, agriculture) and now are overrun with invasive species like reed canary grass, himalayan blackberry, morning glory, and many others, and are generally unhealthy, poorly functioning, and poor habitat for native wildlife. SOLV has come in and, through partnerships with private and public landowners and tremendous volunteer support, attempted to restore these sites to their original, forested, native dominated, healthy, beautiful, environmentally productive glory. As an infinitesimally small part of that effort, I’ve been helping to do vegetation monitoring on the sites this summer.
Vegetation monitoring basically involves visiting each of the sites, checking for invasive species, and measuring and identifying the plants in predetermined monitoring plots randomly spaced on the site to get a general idea of site health and plant coverage. It’s been an awesome job (even if it involves a ton of driving and a pretty high carbon footprint). Being out in the field has been great, and getting to see creek and wetland sites in various stages of restoration and states of health has really been eye opening. There’s a world of difference between an unhealthy site– a muddy stream surrounded by a wasteland of reed canary grass and blackberry– and a healthy one, filled with vibrant native plants and wildlife, forested or shaded, with a creek running cool and clear. It’s really incredible the work that SOLV is doing, and great to be a part of that effort, if only for eight short weeks.
My weekends this summer have also been somewhat more nature-oriented– apart from all the other awesome trips our group has been taking, I’ve been getting out with a Meetup hiking group to do a few extra trips of my own. Meetup has been great (allows people with similar interests to meetup and carpool to do all sorts of interesting things). I’ve met a lot of great Portlanders on the trips, and so far I’ve done hikes with them at Larch mountain (a neat extinct volcano at the edge of the Columbia river gorge, with misty hemlock and fir forest and incredible views at the top), Salmon butte (near Mt. Hood, more misty old growth forest and incredible views of all sorts of mountains from the top… shrouded in clouds on the day I did it), and I’ll be doing a hike at sheep canyon near mt. St. Helens this saturday just before we leave. Apart from the meetup hikes, I’ve also been exploring Hoyt arboretum and forest park with Mark and hiking in the gorge at Angels rest with Kellyn and Abe. It’s been great– I’ve seen more waterfalls, snow capped mountains, creeks, forest, and moss than I’ve seen in my entire life up to now. Oregon is really an incredibly beautiful, interesting place, and I definitely hope I’ll be able to come back someday to explore it more.
On the whole– exciting field work, awesome hiking, good times, cool people– it’s really been an incredible summer… Dukeengage Portland is awesome!
Harrison
