This fall the Friends of Baltimore Woods were indeed fortunate when Garrett Kaiser of Scout Troop 71, focused his beam of Eagle Scout volunteer light on the slippery dirt trail along the undeveloped portion of North Alta Avenue, which is a trail that walkers can use to access the postage stamp sized parcel of Baltimore Woods known as the Old Oak Lot. To earn Eagle Scout status, one needs to plan, organize and provide leadership on a beneficial community service project.  To increase the safety for walkers, Garrett chose to mobilize his troop members to build a set of stairs and a hand rail along the steep dirt path. In…

  The Friends of Baltimore Woods are thrilled to co-sponsor the showing of the “Once a Braided River” documentary at St Johns Cinema this month. It will play one night only on Tuesday September 12, at 7pm. A panel discussion follows the 53 minute film. For thousands of years the North reach of the Willamette River was a braided waterway of shallow channels and islands, rich in biodiversity and a home to many indigenous communities. Today, after years of human engineering of this natural riparian habitat, the area is designated an Industrial Sanctuary, and a Superfund Site. Along a six mile stretch of Portland Harbor, hundreds of aging tanks store…

Has the record breaking summer heat made you concerned about climate change? Do you wish you could do something? For one day only, on Saturday September 16, if you mention the Friends of Baltimore Woods at check-out, the folks at Sauvie Island Natives Nursery will generously donate 25% of your plant purchase to our native habitat preservation mission. Native plants are naturally drought tolerant and provide habitat and food sources to insects, bugs and bees, which in turn feed native birds and other wildlife. Your investment will have a double benefit. You’ll add plants to your garden that are adapted to thrive in this climate and you’ll support the continuing…

Once again, the Sparrowhawk & Friends of Baltimore Woods Native Plant Sale helped to distribute thousands of new plants into Portland gardens this April.  Thank you to all the volunteers, the FOBW board and owners of Sparrowhawk Native Plants who helped to make this spring plant sale another glowing, or should we say, growing success! This year 8,550 native plants were purchased to be planted in Portland landscapes, including the St Johns neighborhood.  Approximately, 534 people placed plant orders and FOBW earned $4,000 from this event. This is our only annual fundraiser, and helps with our mission of preserving a North Portland nature corridor scheduled to be aligned with the…

The dormant winter months are a great time to take an inventory of your garden plants and plan for the upcoming growing season. Every spring, Friends of Baltimore Woods holds a native plant sale in partnership with Sparrowhawk Native Plants. This year our FoBW/Sparrowhawk Native Plant Sale is the weekend of April 28 and 29. It is the only fundraiser for our non-profit and the revenue goes to sponsoring our free public winter talks; donations to our community partners; and buying tools, seeds, native plants and supplies for our native habitat restoration work in north Portland’s 30 acres of Baltimore Woods. The pandemic has left some perks in its wake,…

Incredibly, spring is here, so its a great time to activate your gardening dreams. Fortunately, Friends of Baltimore Woods has a “Brigadoon-like” annual native plant sale in St. Johns in partnership with the pop-up, Sparrowhawk Native Plant Nursery. Online pre-ordering has ended, but If you missed the deadline, or if you simply want more plants, the flash sale is a fun way to score some lovely odds and ends for your habitat garden. Sparrowhawk sells off a small amount of overstock at liquidated prices at the end of the pop up sale. The flash sale will start at 3:30pm on Saturday, April 2 at the pick up site, the corner…

FoBW member Betsy Valle initiated outreach to the Portland Audubon Green Leaders, a youth program that includes minority teens. The teens and the group’s leader, Zahir Ringgold Cordes, were invited to join the Friends for the first time this summer for a weekly Golden Hour work party where volunteers removed prickly lettuce from the upper meadow. It was fun getting to know the teens as the two groups worked side by side hacking the tall weeds and carrying them to waiting tarps to be removed. Zahir along with FoBW volunteers subsequently organized a Green Leaders’ Nature Treasure Hunt and planting event on November 1, that included the teens’ family members.…

Butterflies are symbols of freedom, beauty and transformations! How appropriate then that a Lorquin’s admiral butterfly was observed in the Baltimore Woods habitat this summer, and area that has experienced significant habitat healthy restoration and metamorphosis in the past 15 years. As butterfly species world wide are experiencing unquestionable habitat loss and quite possible, a slow descent towards extinction, the sighting of this beautiful creature in the Baltimore Woods in indeed cause for celebration. Limentis lorquini, is the Latin genus and species name for the Lorquin’s admiral butterfly. They typically have black wings with white median bands, and orange wingtips. The wing undersides are reddish-brown with white markings. The Lorquin’s…

One day there will be a lovely river front bike and hike trail from the Esplanade in downtown Portland, all along the Willamette River to it’s confluence with the Columbia River at Kelly Point Park. It will be an addition to the extensive Willamette Greenway Trail system already installed in the metro area, and will include sections of oak woodland and savannah habitat restored by the hard work of Friends of Baltimore Woods. People will be able to enjoy quiet and cool excursions along the riparian habitats. They will need places to park and lock their bikes if they want to stop for a picnic, go bird watching, buy a…

On Tuesday August 24, a video of a healthy coyote in the FoBW meadow, was posted on the Nextdoor Cathedral Park website! Coyotes have long been sighted in our North Portland neighborhoods, but it’s rare to see them during daylight hours! If you get a chance to view the video on the Nextdoor platform, you’ll see the coyote is a beautiful healthy individual who seems a bit uncomfortable in the meadow and at the end of the video, it is vocalizing or trying to communicate with family members, most likely. She could be uncomfortable because she’s strayed out of her normal territory, or lost track of companions. Coyotes in the…