PSU Magazine Spring 2001

Alum edits guide to urban nature Naturalist Mike Houck celebrates the wild side of Portland. People get funny ideas sometimes. We are tempted to believe that there is a difference between our world and the natural world. After spending the week with dozens of other people in high-rise office buildings, we hau l out our boots and trek into the wilderness to "get back to nature." Wild in the City: A Guide to Portland's Natural Areas reminds us that nature is There are essays about natural spaces including the Hoyt Arboretum (4,300 trees and shrubs representing 800 species on 214 acres) and the less-known children's arboretum (every tree planted by Portland public chool children.) But it doesn't stop with the obvious. Look here for a description of the city's roof– top gardens and where to view them; advice about watching everywhere. You don't even have to leave the city itself to find great egrets, river otter, peregrine falcons and swallow– tail butterflies. They live in the wild alongside us and we can see them if we only know where and what to look for. w·1 . e c·ty A guide to Portland's natural areas the annual swarming of Vaux's swifts at the Chapman School chimney in September; or help in locating the Willamette Butterfly Park, The book is a collection of essays, maps and how-to in£ r– mation about the natural side of the city and nearby areas. It had it origins in the now defunct Urban Naturalist, a seasonal publication sponsored by the Audubon Society of Portland and written by their dedicated volunteers. The entries come from those e says and describe in considerable detail numerous wild places in the heart of our metropolis. ituated along the Willamette River between the Macadam Bay Club and Willamette Park. "\X{at readers may find most interesting are the essays about wildlife. How many people know that, besides monkeys and humans, the opossum is the only animal with an opposable digit; that there are 17 species of mosqui– toes in Multnomah County; or that a pair of peregrine falcons make their home on the steel platform beneath the lower deck of the Fremont Bridge. A lumnus, long-time local naturalist and co-editor, Mike Houck MS '72 writes in the preface that this book "celebrates the city as a Oregon Historical Society is publisher of the 448- page paperback, Wild in the City, which retails As unlikely as it might seem for a book about wildlife, it al o provides a recipe for marinating and roasting star- for $21.95. unique, vibrant ecosystem that is worthy of environmental stewardship on its own terms." Sites are organized by watershed area rather than by political boundaries. Under each watershed area parks, bogs, creeks, and trails are lovingly catalogued and include loca– tion, directions, activities (human and animal), facilities (primarily human), fees, regulations, natural highlights, and the number of the public transportation route. ling, apparently a delicacy in Italy. The writer declares it's delicious but unbelievably tough, thus sparing readers from having to duplicate the experience for themselves. If the essays and area descriptions aren't enough, in the back of the book there is a ea onal checklist of Portland area birds and a wild calendar to guide readers through the year in their own exploration of the city's wild side. -Merlin Douglass SPRING 2001 PSU MAGAZINE 19