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<title>Forest Park (Portland, Oregon)</title>
<authors>Wikipedia</authors>
<publisher>wikipedia.org</publisher>
<publishedplace>network</publishedplace>
<publishedyear>2010</publishedyear>
<edition></edition>
<category>Urban forests in the United States</category>
<section id="27514" fatherid="0" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="1">
Forest Park is a public municipal park in the Tualatin Mountains west of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States.  Stretching for more than  on hillsides overlooking the Willamette River, it is one of the country's largest urban forest reserves. The park, a major component of a regional system of parks and trails, covers more than  of mostly second-growth forest with a few patches of old growth.  About  of recreational trails, including the Wildwood Trail segment of the city's 40 Mile Loop system, crisscross the park.
As early as the 1860s, civic leaders sought to create a natural preserve in the woods near Portland. Their efforts led to the creation of a municipal park commission that in 1903 hired the Olmsted Brothers landscape architectural firm to develop a plan for Portland's parks. Acquiring land through donations, transfers from Multnomah County, and delinquent tax foreclosures, the city eventually combined parcels totaling about  to create the reserve. Formally dedicated in 1948, it ranks 19th in size among parks within U.S. cities, according to The Trust for Public Land. The Trust for Public Land (TPL) lists the size of the park as , which is close to its original size of 1948. If the  size claimed by the Portland Parks and Recreation Department in 2009 were used in the TPL listing, Forest Park would rank 17th.
More than 112 bird species and 62 mammal species frequent the park and its wide variety of trees and shade-loving plants.  About  of rain falls on the forest each year. Many small tributaries of the Willamette River flow northeast through the woods to pipes or culverts under U.S. Route 30 at the edge of the park. One of them, Balch Creek, has a resident trout population, and another, Miller Creek, supports sea-run species, including salmon.
Threats to the park include overuse, urban traffic, encroaching development, invasive flora, and lack of maintenance money. Occasional serious crimes and more frequent minor crimes occur in the park.

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<section id="27515" fatherid="0" title="Geology and geography" lv="" priority="-2" level="1">
Solidified lava from Grande Ronde members of the Columbia River Basalt Group underlie Forest Park. About 16 million years ago during the Middle Miocene, the Columbia River ran through a lowland south of its modern channel. Eruptions from linear vents in eastern Oregon and Washington flowed down this channel through what later became the Willamette Valley. These flows, some of which reached the Pacific Ocean, recurred at intervals between 16.5 and 15.6 million years ago and covered almost .Bishop, pp. 141-48 About eight separate Grande Ronde Basalt flows have been mapped in the Tualatin Mountains (West Hills), where they underlie the steepest slopes of Forest Park and form the columned rocks visible along Balch Creek Canyon and Northwest Cornell Road. The West Hills were later covered by wind-deposited silts that become unstable when saturated with water. Stream bank instability and siltation are common, and landslides deter urban development at higher elevations.
Roughly  long, the park is less than  wide near downtown Portland and about  wide at its northwestern end. It extends along the West Hills from West Burnside Street near downtown Portland to where the Willamette River divides to flow around Sauvie Island. Covering most of the east face of the ridge above the Willamette River, it is bounded by West Burnside Street on the south, Northwest Skyline Boulevard on the west, Northwest Newberry Road on the north, and Northwest St. Helens Road (U.S. Route 30) on the east. Elevations above sea level vary from  near U.S. Route 30 at the base of the ridge to about  near the crest of the ridge along Northwest Skyline Boulevard.
In 2008 Forest Park ranked 19th in size among the largest city parks in the United States, according to The Trust for Public Land. The trust’s list included state parks, national parks, county parks, regional parks, and national wildlife refuges, as well as municipally owned parks located within cities. Chugach State Park in Anchorage, Alaska, was in first place with .
Portland author Marcy Houle says that the park "captures the essence of what is natural and wild and beautiful about the Northwest... From this forest sanctuary, panoramic views of the city of Portland, the Willamette and Columbia rivers, and five major peaks of the Cascade Range ... can be seen through the tall fir trees. From its inception ..., Forest Park has been a refuge for both people and wildlife, and an integral part of the environment of Portland."

</section>
<section id="27516" fatherid="0" title="History" lv="" priority="-3" level="1">
Civic leaders beginning with the Reverend Thomas Lamb Eliot, a minister who moved to Portland in 1867, sought to create a natural preserve in the woods that eventually became Forest Park.  By 1899, Eliot's efforts led to the formation of the Municipal Park Commission of Portland, which in 1903 hired the highly regarded landscape architecture firm, the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Massachusetts, to study the city's park system and recommend a plan. John Charles Olmsted, the stepson of Frederick Law Olmsted, spent May 1903 in Portland. The Olmsted Report, received in December, emphasized creation of a system of parks and linking parkways that would take advantage of natural scenery. It proposed a formal square for Union Station, squares along the downtown waterfront, and parks in places later known as Forest Park, Sellwood Park, Mount Tabor Park, Rocky Butte, and Ross Island, as well as Terwilliger Parkway, the 40 Mile Loop, and other connecting parkways. Proposed parks for Swan Island, in the Willamette River, and other places in Portland did not develop. Others like Forest Park came into being only after many years.
The city acquired land for Forest Park bit by bit over several decades. In 1897, Donald Macleay, a Portland merchant and real-estate developer, deeded a  tract of land along Balch Creek to the city to provide an outdoor space for patients from nearby hospitals. In the 1890s, Frederick Van Voorhies Holman, a Portland lawyer and a president of the Oregon Historical Society, proposed a gift of  of nearby land that was added to the city's holdings in 1939 when his siblings, George F. and Mary Holman, completed the donation. Clark and Wilson Timber Company donated  in 1927 to create a Western Oregon timber park near Northwest Germantown Road. Nine years later, the estate of Aaron Meier, one of the founders of the Meier -anddocsymbol- Frank chain of department stores, donated land for Linnton Park near Portland's Linnton neighborhood along Highway 30.  These smaller parks became part of the larger park when it was finally created. Some of them, such as Macleay Park, are still referred to by their original names even though they are part of Forest Park. 
In 1991,  Metro, the regional governmental agency for the Oregon portion of the Portland metropolitan area, began budgeting for what became its Natural Areas Program aimed at protecting these areas in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties. By 1995, the program had targeted  next to or within Forest Park for acquisition. A 2006 bond measure allowed for the purchase of more land to expand the park, to protect its creeks' headwaters and those of nearby streams in Washington County, and to link Forest Park to other public lands to the northwest. Along with buying land, the regional government protects it through environmental easements on land that is privately owned. Through early 2009, the agency had acquired or protected  related to Forest Park, including  beyond the existing park's northern boundary.

</section>
<section id="27517" fatherid="0" title="Recreational network" lv="" priority="4" level="1">
<section id="27518" fatherid="27517" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="2">
Forest Park is a major component, sometimes called the "crown jewel", of a regional network of parks, trails, and natural areas. At the southeastern end of the park, Wildwood Trail, the centerpiece of the Forest Park trail system, passes through Macleay Park. This part of the larger park, which includes the Forest Park field headquarters, is heavily used by pedestrians entering Balch Creek Canyon from nearby city streets.Houck, p. 119  Further southeast, Wildwood Trail, while still in Forest Park, passes Pittock Mansion and its panoramic views of Portland and five volcanic peaks: Mounts Rainier, Adams, St. Helens, Hood, and Jefferson. Shortly thereafter, the trail connects to adjoining Washington Park and attractions such as the Oregon Zoo. From this point and from more remote Forest Park trailheads near the St. Johns Bridge, other components of the 40 Mile Loop system of trails encircle the city. They follow the Willamette and Columbia rivers, the Columbia Slough and the Springwater Corridor along Johnson Creek and extend to the eastern suburbs of Fairview,  Gresham and Boring. This trail network links more than 30 separate parks that offer diverse recreational opportunities, such as horse-back riding, in-line skating, canoeing, and viewing of wetland wildlife, in addition to hiking and biking. It connects to other trail systems such as Discovery Trail in Clark County, Washington, and the Terwilliger Trail running through Tryon Creek State Natural Area to Lake Oswego.
As of 2009, this network of parks and trails is still expanding. Metro, the regional government, plans to link the 40 Mile Loop to trails along the Willamette River to Wilsonville, south of Lake Oswego.  The regional government has also proposed connecting Wildwood Trail to the partly completed Westside Trail running north-south through Washington County to the Tualatin River. Another planned trail would extend the Springwater Corridor along a proposed Cazadero Trail to Barton on the Clackamas River. Longer-term goals include trail links to the Sandy River Gorge Trail east of Gresham and the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada and follows the Cascade Range through Oregon.Houck, p. 100

</section>
<section id="27519" fatherid="27517" title="Wildwood Trail" lv="" priority="2" level="2">
Wildwood Trail begins in Washington Park near the Oregon Zoo, a light rail stop, the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the World Forestry Center and the Hoyt Arboretum. Blue diamonds placed about  above the ground appear on trees along the trail every . The diamonds and the mileage markers above them are visible to hikers traveling in either direction on the path. In its first , the trail passes near the Portland Japanese Garden, Pittock Mansion, the Audubon Society of Portland wildlife sanctuary, and the Stone House in Balch Creek Canyon. From this point west, Wildwood Trail runs through forest generally uninterrupted by buildings but crisscrossed by shorter trails, small streams, roads, and firelanes.
</section>
<section id="27520" fatherid="27517" title="Other paths, streets, easements" lv="" priority="3" level="2">
Many shorter Forest Park trails, roads, and firelanes intersect the Wildwood Trail. Most of the trails are open only to hikers and runners, but several roads and firelanes are open to bicycles or horses or both. Leif Erickson Drive, a road closed to motorized traffic, runs at lower elevation than and roughly parallel to the Wildwood Trail for about  from the end of Northwest Thurman Street to Northwest Germantown Road. Originally called Hillside Drive, it was renamed in 1933 at the request of the Sons of Norway, a fraternal organization. Easements for an oil line, a gas line, and electric transmission lines for the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) cross the park.Houck, pp. 117-18 Paved roads surround the park, which is crossed or entered by other roads including Northwest Pittock Drive, Northwest Cornell Road, Northwest 53rd Drive, Northwest Saltzman Road, Northwest Springville Road, Northwest Germantown Road, Northwest Newton Road, and BPA Road.
</section>
</section>
<section id="27521" fatherid="0" title="Vegetation" lv="" priority="5" level="1">
In the mid-1990s, about one percent of the total vegetation in the park consisted of grasses, bracken, thistle, and fireweed in sections of the forest cleared two to five years earlier. Another two percent had reached the shrub stage, between three and thirty years old, with small trees dominated by such plants as thimbleberry, salmonberry, and blackberry. Forest areas 10 to 30 years old that contained tall alder and maple trees and smaller conifers accounted for about 20 percent of the park.
Larger areas were occupied by forests in which conifers had grown taller than the alders and maples. About 50 percent of Forest Park consists of these areas, which are between 30 and 80 years old and in which Douglas-firs have begun to dominate. Another 25 percent of the park contains forests dominated by middle-aged conifers, 80 to 250 years old. In these areas, red alders, which live for about 100 years, have begun to die, and the Douglas-firs, which can live for 750 years, attain heights up to about . Under the big trees are shade-tolerant trees such as western red cedar, western hemlock, and grand fir and smaller plants such as Oregon-grape, vine maple, and salal.
The last forest stage, old growth, is reached after 250 years and includes many snags, downed and dead trees, and fallen logs. Timber-cutting and fires reduced old growth in Forest Park to "almost nothing"  by 1940, and most of the forest has not yet attained this stage. Patches exist near Macleay Park and further west near Germantown Road and Newton Road. The largest tree in Forest Park is a Douglas-fir near the Stone House, the remains of a former public restroom near Balch Creek. It is  high, and the trunk is  in circumference.
Among the prominent wildflowers are Hooker's fairy bells, vanilla leaf, evergreen violet, and trillium.Houle, p. 18 Invasive species include English ivy, European holly, clematis, morning glory, and Himalayan blackberry. Citizen groups such as the No Ivy League and Friends of Forest Park engage in projects to remove ivy, maintain trails, and plant native species.

</section>
<section id="27522" fatherid="0" title="Wildlife" lv="" priority="-6" level="1">
Pressure from habitat loss, pollution, hunting, and urban development has reduced or eliminated the presence of wolves, bears, and wild cats and has led to increased numbers of weasels, raccoons, and other small predators. Invasive plant species such as English ivy have made the habitat simpler and less supportive of native insects and the salamanders and other amphibians that feed on them. Roads in the area severely hamper the movement of large animals. In 2002, about 4,500 vehicles were using Northwest Germantown Road on weekdays near its intersection with Northwest Skyline Boulevard, according to an annual average daily traffic (AADT) count conducted by Multnomah County. In 2003, a count along Northwest Skyline Road near its intersection with Northwest Cornell Road recorded as many as 2,800 vehicles using the road on weekdays.
</section>
<section id="27523" fatherid="0" title="Creeks" lv="" priority="-7" level="1">
</section>
<section id="27524" fatherid="0" title="Crime and other trouble" lv="" priority="8" level="1">
Forest Park has occasionally been the scene of murder and other major crimes. In 2001, a man who preyed on heroin addicts and prostitutes pleaded guilty to the 1999 murder of three women whose bodies were found in Forest Park near Northwest Saltzman Road.  In 2003, jurors convicted another man of the 1996 murder of his ex-girlfriend on a Forest Park trail.  Less serious crimes have included assault, car theft, arson,  indecent exposure,  and marijuana cultivation. Multnomah County Sheriff's deputies in 2007 seized 114 mature marijuana plants found growing in the park on a hillside near Portland's Linnton neighborhood. Deputies had seized another small grow operation in the park in 2005.   More common has been illegal camping by homeless transients and others. 
In 2004, authorities found a 53-year-old man and his 12-year-old daughter living in the park in a tarp-covered structure stocked with encyclopedias for homeschooling. They told police they had been living in the park for four years.  My Abandonment, a novel by Peter Rock, tells a story built around the incident.
In 2005, a reporter for The Oregonian newspaper interviewed biologists, conservationists, Parks and Recreation officials, and others about the health of Forest Park and its future prospects. Collectively they identified the following threats to the park: urban development that restricts the movement of wild animals and birds; overuse; invasive plants; loose dogs; fire risk; increasing rates of tree death; lack of rule enforcement, and lack of money. The park has no central entrance, no capital budget, and no permanent rangers.

</section>
<section id="27525" fatherid="0" title="References" lv="" priority="-9" level="1">
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<section id="27526" fatherid="0" title="Works cited" lv="" priority="-10" level="1">
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<section id="27527" fatherid="0" title="External links" lv="" priority="-11" level="1">
Category:Parks in Portland, Oregon
Category:Urban forests in the United States
Category:Forests of Oregon
Category:Protected areas established in 1948

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