This month is dedicated to National Wetlands so go out an explore these wetlands found in the Portland Area.
Smith and Bybee Wetlands. Jonathan Berman’s photo via http://www.panoramio.com/user/4617100/tags/Smith%20%26%20Bybee%20Wetlands%20Natural%20Area
Smith and Bybee Wetlands – The largest protected wetlands within an American city. This area also has one of the largest remaining populations of Western painted turtles in Oregon!
Oaks Bottom from the Sellwood overlook. photo courtesy of intertwine.org
Oaks Bottom – Nate and I often visited Oaks Bottom with our daughter when we lived in Eastmoreland so it holds a special spot in our hearts. Portland’s first official urban wildlife refuge, Oaks Bottom is 170 acres of meadows, woodlands and wetlands in SE just north of the Sellwood Bridge. Pairs of bald eagles can often be sighted nesting in the large trees off of Bybee overlooking Oaks Bottom. There’s an actual pond called Tadpole pond that has lots of tiny tadpoles/frogs this time of year.
Wisner creative have so beautiful pictures of Sauvie Island which you can purchase. http://www.wisnercreative.com
Sauvie Island – Of the 486 bird species found in Oregon, a remarkable 250 of these have been known to use Sauvie Island. Bonus! – when you’ve made the drive out stop at the plethora of berry/fruit farms located on the island and pick your own produce & flowers (or if you’re going in the fall visit the pumpkin patches with the kiddos).
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Jackson Bottom Wetlands. photo courtesy of Gary Holvorson, Oregon State Archives via wikimedia.org
Jackson Bottom – A 635-acre wildlife preserve located within the city limits of Hillsboro, Oregon. There have been sitings of river otters and beavers as well as all of the awesome wetland birds and plants that you can imagine.
Fernhill Wetlands. photo courtesy of fernhillnts.org
Fernhill Wetlands – In the process of reconstruction and habitat restoration this wetland still offers tons of opportunities to view wildlife. A pretty unique wetland that is owned by Clean Water Services. CWS has a sewage treatment plant on the property and releases treated water from the plant into the Tualatin River, which may sound negative but they’ve incorporated a unique water cooling & treatment series of man-made ponds and wetland to clean the water. These man-made ponds and wetlands further aerate, cool and naturally clean the water before it enters the Tualatin River.
Now’s a great time to visit some of these with birds migrating and spring in full swing so get out and appreciate some of our local wildlife!
-Meg