All of our spring updates in a single handy email.
Happy spring, friends of the Oswego Lake watershed! Nature all around us seems to be emerging from its quiet winter slumber and it's hard not to get distracted by the rainbow of colors decorating our project sites and the gardens of our community. On the right we have the fabulous Camas lily; their roots have long nourished the people of the Northwest and served a pivotal role in the diet and trade of the Kalapuyans of the Willamette Valley, and continue to exist as a culturally significant staple today. Seeing their vibrant violet petals and "tender blue eyes" always brings to mind this poem by Lynn Ungar.
Bonus photo: River otter spotted by board member, Mary Ratcliff, in Whitaker Pond! Definitely be sure to read this newsletter with your calendar open, because this spring is packed with lots of free opportunities for you, your friends, and your family to celebrate Arbor Month, Earth Day, and more. Are you taking the Soil Your Undies challenge this year? Attend our annual soil forum with LOSN and learn about techniques you can use to improve your soil. Will we see you at Gabe Sheoship's First Food talk on Saturday, April 8th? Come say hi to us at the LO Sustainability Fair or get your hands dirty on Earth Day at our volunteer event at Westlake!
To help support these events, we ask you to consider making a donation to OLWC. You can make a one-time donation or become a monthly donor by clicking this link. Even if you can't support financially, your contribution as a volunteer, participant, or committee member is greatly recognized and appreciated!
We hope to see you soon out there! —Oswego Lake Watershed Council Board and Staff
P.S If you enjoy our newsletter, please add this address to your email contact list to ensure that any future e-news we send don't accidentally get filtered!
Join the Watershed Council!
OLWC is looking for individuals who are interested in protecting and enhancing natural resources throughout the Lake Oswego Community. We are a group of neighbors and jurisdictional representatives (City of Lake Oswego, Lake Oswego School District, and the Lake Oswego Corporation) committed to making a difference by working together to protect water quality and enhance our urban forest ecosystem. We accomplish this through a combination of on-the-ground stewardship projects and community education. We are looking for board and committee members interested in supporting this work. If you are interested in getting involved please contact Jack Halsey: jack@oswegowatershed.org.
For more information about OLWC or to see other volunteer opportunities www.oswegowatershed.org
Soil Your Undies for Science!
Third time (!!) Soil Your Undies participant, Leslie, showing off cotton briefs #28 before she buries them in her garden!
We had a blast participating in the Lake Oswego Reads Kickoff last Saturday! In the spirit of The Seed Keeper, and building healthy soil, we handed out 40 pairs of undies to LO community members.
If you weren't able to make Saturday's event but still want to try out a low-tech, super accessible way to test your soil health, don't despair! You can still sign up here and find us at the following events to pick up your materials!
As we endure yet another summer heat wave, we remember the 96 Oregonian lives lost during the historic heat dome just over two years ago. Trees are one of our best defenses against heat, lowering temperatures in cities as much as 10 degrees.
Did you know neighborhood Urban Forest Committees in LO meet regularly to work with residents to enhance the ecological health of their yards and natural spaces?
The Urban Forest Committees aim to provide residents with resources to help them better understand how soils, stream networks, trees, and other native flora and fauna are part of a large, interconnected system in our watershed. We meet monthly to learn, share, and support solutions to local natural resources issues.
If you are a member of a neighborhood association or an LO resident who feels there's a need in your area for a group specifically dedicated to discussing natural resources, consider attending our next meeting on Wednesday, August 16th! We would love the addition of your voice as we form goals for the fall season It would be a great meeting to attend to dip your toes in the Urban Forest Committees and see what they're about!
Help the City of Lake Oswego update their
Urban & Community Forestry Plan
The City of Lake Oswego wants your input on how we should take care of our trees! Lake Oswego is in the process of updating its Urban and Community Forestry Plan and the success of this natural resources management plan relies on the public's input on what should be prioritized.
While we may be entering the latter half of summer, the heart of fire season has only just begun. Many residents in Lake Oswego live in a WUI (Wildland Urban Interface) zone. Lower your wildfire risk and help out Lake Oswego Fire Department by following a few summer tips to increase the defensible space around your home.
Remove dead or dying plants, branches, leaves, and pine needles from your roof and rain gutters, deck, and yard.
Remove any firewood stacked against your house.
Remove branches that hang over your roof and keep dead branches 10 feet away from your chimney.
Keep barbecues away from the house, deck railings, and out from under eaves and overhanging branches. Keep your grill clean and free of greases and never leave your barbecue unattended.
Make a plan to remove invasive flammable plants like English ivy and replace them with fire-resistant species.
The easiest way to receive guidelines tailored to your home landscape is to schedule a Home Assessment with LOFD. They will send an expert to walk you through your property and provide specific guidelines to make your space more fire adapted.
If you'e curious about the home assessment process, check out our video featuring an example walkthrough with LOFD at a Mountain Park HOA residence.
Special thank you to Gail Peterson for providing the space and LOFD's Greg Barnum for being on camera for us!
It's easy to follow these guidelines on your own, but you can make a huge difference in increasing the safety of your neighborhood by engaging your neighbors and forming a Community Wildfire Protection Plan. More and more neighborhoods in Portland, West Linn, and other WUI pockets of Clackamas County are forming Firewise groups tasked to improve the neighborhood's land resilience, provide resources to residents, and form relationships with stakeholders like the fire departments and watershed councils. You can get started here in Lake Oswego. Plus some home insurance companies recognize official Firewise communities and offer special discounts!
In the first virtual Town Hall event of 2023 for Clackamas County Commissioners, residents are invited to attend and learn about wildfire prevention and preparation in Clackamas County. Tuesday, Aug. 1, from 6 – 7:30 p.m
Zoom link: https://clackamascounty.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Kg9LtZ1xRe6Fy_yYMtzx2g
OLWC recognized a need for a summer nature camp aimed at kids ages 4-6, and we are working with Community Schools to deliver. Each day will incorporate a nature-based theme with songs, stories, crafts, activities, and guided forest hikes brought to you
by former Tryon Creek and Portland Water Bureau educators.
Reach out to Allie at allie@oswegowatershed.org to pre-register for the week in June or the week in July.
Did you catch our talk with Steph Littlebird in May?
We had the pleasure of having Steph Littlebird, indigenous writer and artist talk with us about her work curating the physical online history, culture, and land acknowledgment exhibition This IS Kalapuyan Land. If you were unable to make the live talk, no frets because Steph gave us permission to record it and you can view it on OLWC's youtube page.Steph is an excellent and engaging speaker and her talk is a mix of contemporary Native art, local natural science, Kalapuyan Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and First Foods. OLWC's board had a discussion on the talk afterward, the notes of which you can find here.
OLWC's 5th Grade Campus Watershed Field Trips
Oswego Lake Watershed Council is excited to be launching a field trip program designed for 2nd and 5th-grade classes in the Lake Oswego School District to explore and understand their local campus watershed. This spring we are starting with 5th grade at Oak Creek, River Grove, Forest Hills, and Lake Grove Elementary. Field trips will be about 90 minutes to two hours long and will walk students through different watershed science activities, demonstrations of how water moves on natural and constructed landscapes, and include water quality testing rotations.
We need volunteers! If you live near one of these elementary schools or just want to help students understand how their local watershed works, sign up to be a volunteer lead. Our tours will occur throughout the month of May and then later in the fall. We will provide training and scheduling. Just reach out to Allie at allie@oswegowatershed.org to learn more about this exciting education opportunity!
Our newest Education & Outreach Committee member, Whitney helping us install leaf bags to collect critters for our macro-invertebrate studies!
Want to do your part in celebrating and supporting the LO urban forest this Arbor Month? You can start by taking a look at the trees in your own backyard to make sure they're not succumbing to the powerful grip of invasive English ivy, a species that has perfected the adhesive art of spreading rapidly (at about a foot a year) from ground roots that then wind tightly up the trunk of trees cutting them off from the resources they need to survive and weakening their structure to disease and harsh weather conditions. Once English ivy begins to ascend a tree, its photosynthetic capacity increases with the increased light availability, which facilitates a transition to the mature growth phase where it produces flowers and berries that birds love to eat and spread. Areas dominated by ivy have a lower diversity of birds, mammals, and amphibians, (though rats seem to appreciate dense mats). Ivy also poses risk as a ladder fuel – flammable organic matter on the forest floor that allows fire to climb up into the tree canopy.
CSWCD Small Farm School 2023
Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District's Small Farm School is just around the corner! Small Farm School is an all-day event for beginning AND experienced farmers and small acreage landowners. Field and classroom workshops will address small farm topics such as crop and livestock production, land access, funding options, and management for soil and water conservation. Course offerings change each year, so if you have attended in the past, join us again! There is always something new to learn.
Registration Opens on August 2, 2023
This year’s Small Farm School will be held on Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City. Registration will open on August 2nd. Save the date!
Registration Fees:
Registration: $80 – August 2 – August 30
Late registration: $100 – August 31 – September 8
Scholarships available for Veterans, Black/Indigenous and other farmers of color
Despite the massive benefits to the biodiversity of your landscape, removing invasive English ivy from your yard can be a tiresome chore. If you're overwhelmed with the scope of English ivy on your trees or don't have access to the tools you need to remove it, we want to help out! This month, you can fill out this Google Form to request one of our amazing, knowledgeable Urban Forest Committee volunteers to come to your residence to help you remove tree ivy. If you suspect you have a tree(s) on your residence suffering beneath the weight of English ivy and you’d like OLWC to coordinate a volunteer to come and remove it, please fill out the form using the link below!
Our monthly Urban Forest Committee meetings are every first Friday from 3pm-4:30pm via Zoom. Our next meeting is Friday, April 7th (tomorrow)! Contact Allie at allie@oswegowatershed.org if you'd like more info.
Back in March, we had the pleasure of participating in the Tryon Creek Watershed Wide event at two different project sites:
Lake Oswego High School, led by Allie, where the LOHS Green Team showed up strong and enjoyed pizza after a productive morning of hand-pulling ivy and blackberry. The LOHS campus exists on the border between the Oswego Lake watershed and the Tryon Creek watershed.
Mountain Park HOA's Common area where we are currently working on a fuel reduction project. This area is the headwaters of Arnold Creek and an important tributary to Tryon Cree. Jack led volunteers and the group focused on tree ivy removal but also planted a few dozen plants.
Check out a few highlights below and thank you to Tryon Creek Watershed Council for organizing another successful and fun stewardship collaboration!
Congrats, Breck!
Yay, Mrs. Foster!!! It was fun to see this article in the LO Review about Breck's contributions to sustainability education. Breck helped form the LOHS Green Team, a group of motivated students OLWC is proud to work with frequently on campus stewardship projects. Breck does such an amazing job providing kids with space to voice their climate-related concerns as well as opportunities to advocate for more sustainable campus practices. Keep up the good work, Breck! You can read the full article here.
Saturday, May 12th, 1pm at Lake Oswego United Church of Christ
Stewardship event with TCWC, LOHS Green Teams and OLWC (volunteers needed! Reach out to wamserc@pdx.edu for details)
Urban Forest Committees in LO meet regularly to work with residents to enhance the ecological health of their yards and natural spaces? 
the trees in your own backyard to make sure they're not succumbing to the powerful grip of invasive English ivy, a species that has perfected the adhesive art of spreading rapidly (at about a foot a year) from ground roots that then wind tightly up the trunk of trees cutting them off from the resources they need to survive and weakening their structure to disease and harsh weather conditions. Once English ivy begins to ascend a tree, its photosynthetic capacity increases with the increased light availability, which facilitates a transition to the mature growth phase where it produces flowers and berries that birds love to eat and spread. Areas dominated by ivy have a lower diversity of birds, mammals, and amphibians, (though rats seem to appreciate dense mats). Ivy also poses risk as a ladder fuel – flammable organic matter on the forest floor that allows fire to climb up into the tree canopy.
