SW Neighborhoods, Inc. Empowering Citizens since 1978

Unless otherwise noted photos by Victor von Salza

---

Friday May 9, 2003 • Grant Proposal for Area 1a submitted
Bridlemile Creek Stewards (BCS) submitted a Grant Proposal for Area 1a to the Community Watershed Stewardship Program for funds to acquire native plants and materials.

---

Tuesday June 3, 2003 • Grant Proposal for Area 1a Awarded
Community Watershed Stewardship Program (CWS) accepted our Grant Proposal for Area 1a, and awarded the project $5000.

---

Saturday June 21st, 2003 • Tree Rescue Event in Areas 1-2 Big Success!
Thank you! to the over 23 • people who showed up, and who in addition to rescuing all (20+) trees in the project zone, also cleared about 2000 sq.ft. of English ivy and Himalayan blackberries in the area by the bridge.

Volunteers at June 21st Event

Steve and Kathy stacking up the removed invasives, which Portland Parks later hauled away.

Tree Rescue is the first step in removing invasive plants. The goal of a tree rescue is to free trees from ivy in a two step process: girdling and creating a lifesaver.

Girdling entails carefully cutting the ivy runners on the trees at ankle and shoulder height, and removing that section of runners from the tree without damaging the tree's life giving bark.

Trees before and after being rescued from Ivy

Creating a lifesaver entails pulling back/removing all the ivy on the ground to a least six feet from the base of each tree.
Detailed information and photos of this two step process can be found here No Ivy League and will be covered at the event. The tree rescue will start at the upper section, but if enough volunteers show up we hope to do this for all trees in the whole project area.

---

Thursday July 3rd, 2003 • BES Sprays the blackberries in Area2 and more
As stated in the Project Overview the plan was to do all invasive removal in areas 1a-c using volunteer efforts, and Parks was only to use spray in area 2. Despite best efforts at communicating this plan to everyone involved, on July 3rd Portland Parks sprayed most all the blackberries in areas 1a & 1b with 6 gallons of mix with 3oz of Garlon 3A/gal. This killed only the targeted blackberries, and meant that all we had to do was to cut the dead blackberry stalks into small pieces and leave them on site to decompose. The decomposing dead plant material poses no hazard to people, animal life, or other plants.

---

Saturday July 26, 2003 • Invasive Plant Removal in Area 1a continued
About 9-11 volunteers came out and made good progress on: removing the root stocks of a second wave of Himalayan Blackberries that were missed at the first

event and had resprouted, cut down and mulched a large area of the blackberries that had been sprayed, installed erosion control logs, bags, fascines, and netting on the bank on the south side of the bridge, and prepared ground for the January, 2004 planting eventk.

---

Saturday August 23rd, 2003 • Fencing around Area 2 begun
Greg and Victor installed 180 feet of fencing on the

southeast side of Area 2 in preparation for the city removal and spraying of blackberries there.

---

Sunday August 24th, 2003 • Invasive Removal of Area 1a continued
About 10 volunteers came out and made good progress on: removing the root stocks of a third wave of Himalayan Blackberries missed at the earlier

events and had resprouted, and cleared a large area

upstream from the bridge.

---

Wednesday September 3rd, 2003 • Fencing around Area 2 continued
Dave, Greg, Jan, Steve and Victor installed 170 feet of fencing on the southwest side of Area 2 in preparation for the city removal and spraying of blackberries there.

---

Thursday September 11th, 2003 • Fencing around Area 2 completed
Greg, Jerry, Kathy, Steve and Victor installed the final ~100 feet of fencing on along the upper sides of Area 2 in preparation for the city removal and spraying of blackberries there.

---

September 19th & 23rd, 2003 • Slash Piles Removed from Area 1a
Pat of Portland Parks came and removed two large piles of slash, and one pile of trash and debris collected from in Area 1a.

---

Thursday September 25th, 2003 • Blackberries in Area 2 Mashed
Darian Santner brought a crew of five who mashed

down all the blackberries in Area 2. The area will most likely be sprayed sometime the week of September 29th.

---

Thursday September 25th, 2003 • Catlin Gabel School Invasive Removal Event in Area 1a
Fourteen students and two faculty.

came and completed the invasive removal in Area 1a, installed erosion control logs, and mulched numerous

Volunteers from Catlin Gabel School, photo by Bob Sauer

piles of slash. They finished by pulling ivy, hacking holly, and blackberries in Area 1b.

Volunteers from Catlin Gabel School, photo by Bob Sauer

Part of Area 1a cleared by Catlin Gabel School

---

Saturday September 27th, 2003 • Invasive Removal & Erosion Control in Area 1a cont'd.

About a dozen volunteers came out and made good progress on installing erosin control in Area 1A; and removing Himalayan Blackberries and Ivy in the area just below the bridge in Area 1b. This was a very productive week at the site. We now have a big jump on next years invasive removal.

---

Wednesday October 8th, 2003 • Pollution Turns Restoration Creek White
At about 4pm John Yates dropped by and reported that the creek had turned white

October 8th, 16:19pm from paint or paint cleanup materials being dumped into a catch basin located in the driveway of a home on SW Stonebrook Drive. By 5pm Aaron Wieting of BES had responded to John's report, and together they revisited the creek at 6:30pm. BES planned to visit the site again the next day in order to try and talk with the workmen if they returned.

---

24hr Pdx Pollution Complaint Hotline 503-823-7180

---

Tuesday October 21st, 2003 • Southwest Neighborhood Streams Open House

Our outreach event for this Grant period, this informative evening included the video "Oregon's Tualatin River : A Watershed Restored";
and three talks:
"Protecting Natural Areas" by Jim Labbe, Audubon Society of Portland,
"Albert Kelly Creek Restoration" by the Bridlemile Creek Stewards,
"Backyard Naturescaping" by Betty McArdle and,
the evening ended with discussion of upcoming events among attendees.

---

Saturday October 25th, 2003 • Invasive Removal & Erosion Control in Area 1a cont'd.
Seven volunteers continued work on installing erosion control netting and bio bags and removing the few returning invasive plants in area above the bridge.

---

Monday November 3rd, 2003 • Area 2 Sprayed
Bureau of Environmental Services sprayed the large fenced in area of blackberries in Area 2.

---

Saturday November 15th, 2003 • Invasive Plant Removal and
Erosion Control in Area 1a continued
Nine volunteers completed work on installing erosion

control netting and bio bags in area above the bridge... the area is at long last ready for planting!