FoRVNA is the official Stewardship Partner with Portland Parks & Recreation (Aka City Nature West). You can read the Agreement [HERE].
Stewardship events are scheduled by City Nature West (Portland Parks Bureau). Registration is required for our last event was capped at 20 (We fell short!) Once registered, volunteers get an Email with the meeting location. Volunteers should not show up without registering.
FoRVNA and joiners helped Parks remove Irish Ivy at a Stewardship Event on a weekday, March 30, 2022!
Yes, you read that correctly, Irish, not English Ivy. There is a difference!
Attending were four Friends of RVNA, a Lewis&Clark College professor, a dedicated city-wide volunteer ‘John’, and a parent with four school kids. The event was led by Mary Verrilli of City Nature West (PP&R).
Here is a pre-event photo of a FoRVNA threesome, and a photo of Mary demonstrating how to mince pulled Ivy for on-site decomposition to John and two schoolboys. Not pictured: a “forest” Gnome on its way to a rest home.
Four stewardship events were held in 2017: Jan 14, April 1, July 8, and on October's No Ivy Day. One event was held in 2016 on Saturday, October 29th. No events were held in 2018-2021! (The city-wide stewardship 'workparty' calendar is [404]).
Many Ivy Pulls, Plantings, and trash cleanups were held after the property was first acquired, prior to FoRVNA formation. We don't have a list of them (yet). This section is about FoRVNA-promoted events going back in time.
New little ivy vines are typically pulled up out of the ground, not down from trees. Learn about controlling invasive english ivy. Many projects sites run from 9:00am—Noon with a lunch celebration to follow at specific sites. This is the 14th annual No Ivy Day for the Portland area!
Good turnout! Thirty registered and with those who showed up, we had two teams of 8 to 10 people, not counting staff. Photos tell the story.
This sign was pulled up on April 1 when Trail #4 was closed (below Trail #5). The task of relocating it was saved for this crew. We shovel-dug a hole and re-set the signpost in the clay.
One of the teams worked on the closed Trail #4, cutting in diversions for water runoff, and also placed woody chunks and available downed branches into the deeply eroded channels, with the goal of returning this awful trail to the forest floor! The other team, worked on a better segment for a different trail down below. (No photo or details.. sorry!)
This shows how gorgeous and green the day was — a few crew members heading back up hill.
Volunteers for this event registered via SOLVE OREGON.
This resulted in the closing of Trail 4, beyond where Trail 5 came into it.
We had a good turn out, some directly from PP&R website, some via SOLV site, and a group of students from L&C College. Nick Sweeney & Son from South Burlingame was there, as were a number of family/kid teams. Before we even set out, a Kinglet was spotted just inside the natural area!
This is how a 'planting' works — staff had already placed hundreds of colored flags in the area to be planted. Volunteers took a bunch of root stock from bags that had been brought to the site.
Each bag had a colored flag. We were given instructions for handling and planting, and went to work! We also removed English Ivy near the flag, and removed whatever human junk we found. The ivy was hand twisted, and left to decay.
We planted 450 root stock natives, 5 varieties: including elderberry, snowberry, ?, ?, ... Root stock is like sticks with some roots on one end and buds on the other half!
We planted an additional 200 potted plants called 'Fringe Cup'.
It was a muddy Saturday morning, but the sky did not rain on us much. Good Fun!
Cancelled due to snow and ice!
Ivy Pull...
People may think of an IVY PULL as pulling Ivy down from trees but that is not the case. There are two things done with Ivy. First, it's most important to cut ivy vines at the base of all trees and remove the ivy roots from the ground. The sky-high ivy will cease 'fruiting' (birds spread ivy berries!) and start to wither. Once the huge vines are under control, the next (on-going) effort is to pull up little Ivy starts (that arise from ivy roots infesting the ground, never quite completely removed, and from berries dropped by birds coming in from ivy outside the natural area. (The city also sprays for ivy at certain times.) Visit NoIvyLeague.com for more about this program.
The Event this year, was pulling up little ivys, lopping them into pieces to aid decomposition. We always pick up trash and old stuff (Tires, shoes!) found in the work area.
At the end of the ivy pull, the group broadcast a native seed mix.. more valuable per pound than gold, we were told!