About Us
Since 1995 the mission of the Lents Springwater Habitat Restoration Project has been to organize and manage regular tree plantings in the Lents neighborhood - an area in Portland, Oregon with a few economic challenges as well as a lot of potential. We plant native trees and shrubs along the Springwater Corridor – a 35 mile "Rails to Trails" Park that leads from downtown Portland up into the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.
Springwater Corridor website
Springwater Corridor map
These plantings are done by the residents of Lents, but primarily by the kids of this neighborhood – from schools such as Kelly and Lent Elementary, Lane Middle School, and Marshall High School, as well as Lents Boys and Girls Club and the Lents Little League. Over the fifteen year history of the project there have been over 100 plantings with over 40,000 native trees and shrubs planted by over 4000 kids and 2000 adults.
Here is a video about recent work being done on the Corridor.
In addition to the eight or ten annual tree plantings, the project manages monthly volunteer workdays every month throughout the year except December and January - preparing areas for future plantings, blackberry removal, weeding, mulching, watering, maintaining existing plants, litter pickup, etc.
This current year, 2010, is the final year in a four year project being conducted along one of the most degraded portions of the Corridor - a 7 block section between SE 97th St. and SE 103rd St. - this was 1400 ft of concrete, gravel, and asphalt encroachments left over from Dwyer Lumber Mill which operated for decades along this stretch of the railroad line which is now the SW Corridor. During these past four years we have removed over 3000 cubic yards of this heavy debris, brought in over 5000 yards of new clean soil, compost and mulch, ripped that into the existing soil, and are now finishing up planting over 14000 native trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses.
There will be at least 8 plantings done during the 2009 - 2010 planting season. These plantings will be done by Lents area student and adult volunteers: at least 250 students from Lents area schools and 200 adults. Maintenance will also be done by local volunteers as well as by Portland Parks and Recreation. There will be at least 10 community volunteer workdays throughout the year for maintaining these as well as other previous plantings. There will be an average of 10 or 12 adults at each workday and a total of at least 150 volunteers throughout the year.
Student Mural Recently Installed.
In December of 2009 The Lents Springwater Habitat Restoration Project, along with the Northwest Service Academy, installed a 40 ft mural. This colorful mural was painted by students from Kelly Elementary, David Douglas High School and Portland Youth Builders, using 100 percent recycled latex MetroPaint. It was installed along the Springwater Corridor at Beggars Tick Wildlife Refuge (near Southeast 111th Street two blocks north of Foster Road).
This work is a joint effort between the Lents Springwater Habitat Restoration Project and Portland Parks and Recreation. The project is funded by the generous support of:
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•The Lents Urban Renewal Project of the Portland Development Commission
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•The Community Watershed Stewardship Program of Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services
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•Nature in the Neighborhoods a Metro Program
We would also like to thank the following organizations for their valued contributions:
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•Americorp donates different crews to act as crew leaders at all elementary school plantings
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•Multnomah County Community Services donates crews for a lot of maintenance work as well as site preparation for future plantings.
This program is directly coordinated by Ed Kerns. Ed is supervised by Mart Hughes and Louise Shorr of Portland Parks & Recreation.
