Forest Park (Portland, Oregon)

Forest Park is a public municipal park in the Tualatin Mountains west of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. It covers more than 5,100 acres of mostly second-growth forest with a few patches of old growth. Threats to the park include overuse, urban traffic, encroaching development, invasive flora, and lack of maintenance money.

About Forest Park (Portland, Oregon) in brief

Forest Park is a public municipal park in the Tualatin Mountains west of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The park, a major component of a regional system of parks and trails, covers more than 5,100 acres of mostly second-growth forest with a few patches of old growth. About 70 miles of recreational trails, including the Wildwood Trail segment of the city’s 40-Mile Loop system, crisscross the park. Threats to the park include overuse, urban traffic, encroaching development, invasive flora, and lack of maintenance money. In 2008 Forest Park ranked 19th in size among the largest city parks in the United States, according to The Trust for Public Land. Chugach State Park in Alaska, 490,125 acres, was the first place with what is now Forest Park was in the wild and beautiful about. From its inception… Forest Park has been a refuge for both people and wildlife, and an integral part of the environment of Portland. Before settlers arrived, the land was covered by a Douglas-fir forest that became known as Forest Park. By 1851, its acreage had been divided into donation land with plans to build upon the forest and clear the property upon which the park is built. The city eventually acted on a proposal by the City Club of Portland and combined parcels totaling about 4,000 acres to create the reserve. It is less than 1 mile wide near downtown Portland and about 2 miles wide at its northwestern end.

It covers most of the east face of the ridge above the Willamette River, it is bounded by West Burnside Street on the south, Northwest Skyline Boulevard on the west, Northwest Newberry Road on the north, and Northwest St. Helens Road on the east. About 16 million years ago during the Middle Miocene, the Columbia River ran through a lowland south of its modern channel. Eruptions from linear vents in eastern Oregon and Washington flowed down this channel through what later became the willamette Valley. These flows, some of which reached the Pacific Ocean, recurred at intervals between 16. 5 and 15. 6 million years ago and covered almost 60,000 square miles. About eight separate Grande Ronde Basalt flows have been mapped in the tualatin mountains. The West Hills were later covered by wind-deposited silts that become unstable when saturated with water, and landslides deter urban development at higher elevations. Stream bank instability and siltation are common, landslides are common and stream bank instability is common, andStream bank instability, siltating and landslide are common in the West Hills, and streams and rivers flow northeast through the woods to pipes or culverts under U. S. Route 30 at the edge of the park, where they meet the river. One of them, Balch Creek, has a resident trout population, and another, Miller Creek, supports sea-run species, including salmon.

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