PORTLAND CHAPTER website: www.portland.npsoregon.org
President: Dee White
email: po_president@NPSOregon.org
Portland is located near several areas with diverse flora: the Columbia Gorge (which contains a quarter of all of Oregon's wildflower species), Mt. Hood, the Coast Range, and Mt. St. Helens. The chapter conducts field trips to all these areas, as well as to parks and Nature Conservancy areas in the Willamette Valley. Because spring begins early in the oak/ponderosa parkland and sagebrush steppe of the East Gorge, and because flowers linger late in the high meadows of the Cascades, field trips can start in March and go through September; sometimes we have later fall/winter trips for mushrooms, lichens, mosses, and winter tree identification. We have also assembled work parties to do plant inventories, removal of invasive plants, and fence construction. Meetings are held on the second Thursday of every month except July and August at the Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church on SE 54th Avenue between SE Belmont and Morrison Streets. 7-9 pm.
Meetings feature presentations/slide shows on subjects ranging from the flora of the Blue Mountains, the West Cascades, and the French Alps to fire ecology, Native American ethnobotany, butterfly gardening, naturescaping and gardening with native plants, biological control of invasive plants, and wetlands restoration.
For details on field trips & events, see the latest NPSO Bulletin, or the Portland Section of the Calendar webpage.
