By Brian Hoop
Thanks to Rob Lee and a volunteer crew of Linnton residents who have worked several weekends through this past winter transforming blackberry infested areas of Kingsley Park into future habitat with new native plants. The goal is to establish a native “wet meadow” with camas plants, and a more welcoming park entry.
Early efforts in January and February focused on cutting and grubbing the blackberry patches. The blackberry was hiding a large amount of dumped wood and branches from the line of red pines. Rather than haul it all away, they left a large, unsightly pile in place, which hopefully will be covered with plantings of a native honeysuckle, as well as moss, as it rots into the ground.
Into the month of March, the teams planted some 152 natives in three separate locations in the park. They solarized the blackberry with burlap and cardboard. A covering of wood chips will be applied later. It will be two or three years before the new plantings come into their own.
The project will continue next winter as there’s more to do along the railroad tracks. The ground between the hill and the community garden is very wet, so they are experimenting to see if camas, tiger lilies and eight other native flowers do well there. If they do, they plan to plant many more flowers next winter and try to get the kind of meadow that usedto be common around here (especially on Sauvie Island), going.
Rob Lee has been spearheading restoration efforts around the community garden for several years now. The project is a continuation of past projects that had already made significant progress with habitat restoration. The project was initiated by LNA treasurer Amy Jauron to use up designated grant money left from a decade-old park project. Gail Curtis also helped with securing $500 in grant funds to purchase plant starts.
Photo of Kingsley Park
If you check it out this summer, you will see a flourishing patch of native plants established where blackberries were overgrown before.
Thanks to the project volunteers – Kevin O’Connell, Andrew Beckman, Dave and Shawn Looney, John the neighbor, Liz Kelly-Campanale, and Nancy and Dean Hiser.