Portland Chapter

Map showing location of Blue Mountain chapter

Portland is near Mt. Hood, the Coast Range, the Willamette Valley, and the Columbia Gorge, which contains a quarter of Oregon wildflower species. The chapter conducts field trips to these areas, as well as to local parks, Metro Natural Areas, and Nature Conservancy preserves. Because spring begins early in the oak and ponderosa woodlands and sagebrush steppe of the East Gorge, and because flowers linger late in the high meadows of the Cascades, field trips often start in March and continue into September. Trips to explore mushrooms, lichens, mosses, and tree identification may be scheduled in fall and winter.

Stewardship work parties create plant inventories, remove invasive plants, and restore native plants. The chapter supports and encourages citizen science with themed iNaturalist projects and also partners with other Portland organizations to help kids get outdoors into nature.

Meetings are held at 7pm each second Thursday on Zoom, September through June. Presentations may feature local and global flora or subjects such as Native American ethnobotany, pollinator gardening, global warming, and fire ecology. December's meeting offers members an opportunity to share the year in photos at a dessert potluck or on Zoom.

For meetings and events, see the Portland Section on the NPSO Calendar page.