At the 2025 FOBW Sparrowhawk Native Plant Sale, I shared a covered table space with Lisa Manning apart from the Sparrowhawk canopies. I offered my hand-turned wooden bowls, plates, and lidded boxes for sale. I made them mostly on my lathe from cherry, oak and maple woods. Lisa sold her self-illustrated children’s book, Falcons in the City, and colorful nature-inspired postcards. I started with offering about four to five dozen things for sale, mostly wooden bowls of various sizes. This was my first exposure of my handmade items to the general public, so I was a little nervous about the reception they might have. All the items were donated to…

As of early June, it’s still spring in Northwest Oregon, and despite the sudden dryness and the frequency of hot days in May, bees and other pollinators are buzzing flowers, birds are nesting and raising their newly fledged young, and we are grateful for the abundance of life in our yards & natural areas. In the Baltimore Woods Meadows, the grasses are growing taller and beginning to form seeds. After our extensive re-seeding efforts of the last two years in the Lower Meadow, this meadow is looking much more lush than it has in years past. We hope to increase the presence of native grasses and lessen the onslaught from…

To volunteer at Baltimore Woods, you just need a bit of grit, sturdy boots, and a rain parka because the first instructions are about safety. Watch out for sharp rocks and boulders, divots, dips, and dells. In November, 15 Portland Garden Club (PGC) members met the challenge. The transformation of the Lower Meadow of Baltimore Woods from an urban cemented wasteland to a natural habitat filled with native species and welcoming to raptors, critters, and hikers began about 22 years ago with a committed group of residents, that includes current active board members Jim Barnas, Barbara Quinn and Betsy Valle. Our Portland Garden Club (PGC) Conservation/PAA committee through the Garden…

It is with heavy hearts, that the environmental protection community of Portland received the unexpected news of the passing of conservation legend, Bob Sallinger, in late October 2024. It may not be well known that Bob Sallinger has played an essential role in advocating for North Portland’s rich natural habitats and wildlife. In his role as conservation director of Audubon, now the Oregon Bird Alliance, he spent years working alongside residents on the Superfund cleanup that affects the lower 11 miles of North Portland’s Willamette River. He attended an untold number of meetings, events, hearings, and stakeholder discussions with us in the five years before the final EPA Record of…

Some visitors to Baltimore Woods Natural Area might be surprised to see the recent addition of wire fencing around nearly one dozen planting beds in the lower meadow area, near the entrance at N Catlin Ave. These beds were planted with a variety of native plant species in the fall of 2023 and again recently in fall 2024. The restoration project for this area has the goal of increasing plant diversity in the meadow habitat, so we’ve added over a dozen species of native grasses and flowering forbs to these beds, as well as throughout the grassy landscape. However, we have noticed an issue arising with the new plants in…

In early 2013, thanks to a North Portland Neighborhood Services Grant, the Friends of Baltimore Woods (FOBW) acquired a tricycle, with the aspiration of having a human-powered way of transporting tools and supplies to and from work parties. FOBW members designed and built a cargo box to fit the trike, with the Baltimore Woods logo adorning each side of the box.  The trike made appearances at our plant sales, at several of our book sales, and even in the St. Johns Parade! But after a few years of use, it became apparent that our unique human-powered means of transport wasn’t able to meet the demands of real-world habitat-restoration work.  Sadly,…

February is a great time for spring garden planning. Adding more native plants to your garden naturally supports native wildlife while creating resiliency to climate change! This spring the Friends of Baltimore Woods and Sparrowhawk Native Plant Sale pick-up days will be Friday April 18 and Saturday April 19. The native plant ordering and purchasing will begin at 9am on Sunday March 2, and run until Sunday March 30 at midnight. Beginning Tuesday February 4th, the Sparrowhawk website will list the approximately 115 native plants offered for the sale this year, including their images, sizes, prices and helpful propagation tips. The Sparrowhawk website is a great resource for successfully designing…

The 2024 Spring Sparrowhawk FOBW Native Plant Sale was a huge success! All in all, 480 habitat gardeners picked up 6,300 pre-ordered native plants on Friday and Saturday morning the last week of April. Additionally, about 50 folks showed up for the overstock flash sale on Saturday afternoon and cleaned out the lot. This was the very first time we didn’t have one single plant left over at the sale’s end! Together, Sparrowhawk staff and Friends of Baltimore Woods volunteers helped every one of more than 7,000 plants find new, loving homes. These plants will fight the good fight to support pollinators, wildlife, and help promote climate resiliency. The sale…

When we last wrote of our propagation project, we had sown seeds of 8 species of wildflowers and 3 species of grasses into planting containers in a greenhouse setting so that we could have many new, healthy plants for the Baltimore Woods meadow. We found, with a couple of exceptions, that our seeds germinated well, and we spent many weeks this spring planting the first small grass and lomatium plants into the meadow, as they had outgrown their nursery pots and needed to be transplanted to their permanent home. We hoped to take advantage of the generous spring rains for these few hardy species. However now, as the warm season…

On the warm sunny morning of May 30th, thirty 6th, 7th and 8th grade students from Catlin Gable School arrived with their teachers and chaperones for a community service day in the woods. After introductions, a tool safety talk and an exploratory scavenger hunt in the Lower Meadow, the students were divided into 2 groups of mixed age levels. One group tackled the ivy and blackberry patch under a large mature big leaf maple, the remaining pulled sweet pea vines that were choking native shrubs in the Upper Woodland.  The students were focused, hard working and a joy to supervise with their attentive instructors and adult partners. They saw turkey…