Different people connect with nature in different ways. Some people enjoy solitary hikes, while others enjoy volunteering or learning about nature with friends and family. Some of the most popular ways visitors explore Metro parks and natural areas is through nature education classes, programs and volunteer opportunities.
Money from voter investments allows for expanded nature education programming, including more school field trips, guided nature walks, survival skills classes, nature photography courses and other activities.
Volunteering provides individuals and groups with special connections to nature through a wide variety of tasks.
Volunteers help restore parks and natural areas by removing invasive plants, gathering seeds from rare native plants, volunteering at Metro’s Native Plant Center, and planting native trees and shrubs. After receiving free training, volunteer naturalists help lead school field trips. Other volunteers waded into chilly ponds in the winter to count frog and salamander eggs, helping scientists survey their numbers as well as the overall health of wetlands in the region.
Metro parks, Oregon Zoo team up to provide vegetation to animals
Every Tuesday morning, volunteer Reed Taillard has a new maintenance task for the day.
Today, there’s a willow hedge that needs pruning. Nearby, an invasive Himalayan blackberry bush desperately needs a trim.
Though Taillard’s work is crucial to keeping the habitat healthy at Blue Lake Regional Park, animals at the Oregon Zoo are counting on Taillard, too.
The unwanted piles of plant debris that Taillard removes have become the new favorite toys and snacks of the zoo’s elephants and bears.
Through a collaboration that started in spring 2016, volunteers collect the leaves, twigs and vegetation left over from pruning and other grounds maintenance done at Metro parks, natural areas and cemeteries. The debris is delivered to the Oregon Zoo, where animals consume the vegetation, known as browse.
For many zoo animals, browse plays a key role in maintaining a naturally healthy diet.
“It supplements not only their nutritional intake, but the enrichment is very important,” said Dani Ferguson, a horticulturalist at the zoo. “Browse could be scattered around an exhibit to encourage animals to seek it out. Black bears will pick it up, play with it, play with each other, or throw it up in the air.”
Senior elephant keeper Bob Lee says that no zoo animals benefit from the browse as much as the elephants. When consumed, the material helps wear down elephant teeth, which is useful in avoiding surgical procedures, such as extraction. The non-native strawberry trees and invasive blackberries are among elephant favorites.
Throughout the partnership, volunteers have worked with staff to trim, cut and prune plants across Metro parks, natural areas and cemeteries. The same day, material is loaded onto trucks and sent to the zoo.
Volunteers are a crucial part to getting the job done. A class from the Multnomah Education Service District routinely volunteers. The 10 students range in age from 16 to 24 and are part of a transition class to learn work skills.
Taillard, who has been volunteering with the horticulture team for about two years, says she volunteers as a way of giving back to the community.
“It’s a great place to volunteer, give back and feel like you’re doing the right thing,” Taillard said.