On a rainy spring day in western Oregon, five
volunteers, clad in raingear and heavy work gloves, slowly work
their way up the southeast flank of Mount Pisgah, a tract of
private land looming above the Willamette River. Led by Kyra Kelly
of the nonprofit Friends of Buford Park and Mount Pisgah, the
volunteers cut back invasive species like six-foot-high Scotch
broom and blackberry bush, revealing stunted, suffocated oaks they
didn’t even know were there.
The group was
started in 1989, when some local hikers and community leaders
realized non-native plants and animals were overrunning the
mountain’s native ecosystem.
“With invasive
species, a small problem can become a big problem fast,” says Jason
Blazer, restoration coordinator for the group. “What’s been
happening here is basic neglect.”
These lands are
important to protect, says Ed Alverson of The Nature Conservancy,
because Mount Pisgah is the largest remaining site for open
prairie, oak savanna, and oak woodlands in the Willamette
Valley.
Along with their weekly outings to the
area to chop back invasive brush, the group’s 138 volunteers hunt
invasive bullfrogs with flashlights and spears in the middle of the
night, destroying their eggs; they also trap and euthanize feral
cats. The group is planting a floodplain with cottonwoods to
restore a river channeled by levees to its natural, braided form.
To get involved, contact Friends of Buford Park and Mount Pisgah at
541/344-8350, or e-mail them at fbp@efn.org.
Copyright © 2001 HCN and Melynda Coble
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Invasive invaders.
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