Our stewardship crew has been hard at work across the park, supporting both habitat health and visitor experience.

Recent work includes:

• Trailside vegetation management Maintaining safe and accessible trail corridors using hand tools and line trimmers to limit vegetation encroachment, along with regular mowing in the North and South Bottomlands. The main purpose of this work is to aid in keeping ticks far away from unsuspecting hikers.

• Managing Maltese star-thistle at the summit (EDRR approach)Maltese star thistle is not well documented in the southern Willamette Valley, making early management especially important. Our team is actively working to control a population in the park by hand-pulling isolated patches and using line trimming, raking, and bagging for larger infestations. We are collaborating with the County to determine best management practices moving forward, using an Early Detection and Rapid Response (EDRR) approach, a proactive strategy to identify and remove invasive species before they spread.

• Oak savanna restoration in Meadowlark South Transitioning land north of Trail 3 back to oak savanna through: – Invasive species removal (thistle, geranium, St. John’s wort) – Burning debris piles – Limbing Douglas firs – Building new burn piles

Camas are thriving on the east side thanks to reseeding and prescribed fire, which reduces non-native grasses and allows camas to seed and produce healthier plants. Prescribed fire is a powerful tool for maintaining healthy ecosystems in Oregon. It restores habitat for rare plants that depend on fire, improves conditions for wildlife by boosting food sources and habitat diversity, and protects watersheds by reducing the risk of high-severity wildfires. It also helps landscapes adapt to a changing climate by lowering drought stress and preventing more destructive burns. Alongside these ecological benefits, cultural burning supports Indigenous traditions and the continued presence of culturally significant plants like camas—an important part of the landscape’s living heritage. Camas bulbs have long been a “first food” for Indigenous communities in this region, and the recovering population on the east side reflects both ecological and cultural renewal.

Your donation will be doubled through June 15.

Right now, a group of supporters is matching every gift made to Friends of Buford Park & Mt. Pisgah, dollar for dollar, up to $20,000.

If you’ve walked the trails at Mt. Pisgah, brought your kids out to see wildflowers, volunteered at the nursery, or simply needed a quiet place to breathe for a while, you’ve experienced the impact of this work firsthand.

Friends of Buford Park & Mt. Pisgah is a small, self-funded nonprofit.

Donations from the community help keep trails maintained, support native plant propagation in our nursery, and care for the habitats that make this place special.

This match is a chance to have twice the impact at a time when support really matters. Thank you for being part of caring for this landscape.

Our Spring Native Plant Sale was a huge success, with around 200 people visiting the nursery and 900 native plants and seed packets finding new homes across the community. That means 900 more opportunities to support pollinators and strengthen local biodiversity, one garden at a time. A big thank you to Gail for leading an engaging nursery tour and to August for sharing insights during the pollinator tour. We’re also grateful to Happy Go Lucky Crepes for keeping everyone well-fed and Meadow Rue for providing such a great musical backdrop throughout the day. We’re truly grateful to everyone who came out to support this important fundraiser for the nursery.

The nursery is where stewardship begins, growing the native plants that restore habitats across the park.

Here’s what’s happening right now:

• Seed harvest season is beginningSeed harvest is beginning! As the weather warms, the early-blooming plants are beginning to form seed pods. Come join a volunteer work party at the Nursery on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays to harvest and clean various species of seed! Tall larkspur, bleeding heart, and columbine are some of the first to harvest. Seed harvest does require focus and a bit of endurance, but group harvests always lead to fun conversations and plenty of laughs. Can’t wait to see ya!

• Seasonal transition underway As spring shifts into summer, potting slows and the nursery transitions into a space for seed collection, drying, and storage—critical for the next growing cycle.

• Community-powered workFrom volunteers to staff, this work takes time, care, and coordination—and directly supports restoration across the landscape.

Hosted at the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum, this annual event celebrates spring blooms and the local landscape.

We’ll be there with a booth selling native plants from our nursery—stop by and say hi!

Date: Saturday, June 20th from 9:00am-12:00pm

Rooted Remedies has teamed up with Friends for another year of "Restorative Wildcrafting"!

What is "Restorative Wildcrafting"? It is a method of harvesting invasive wild plants to support the health and vitality of the native landscape. Invasive plant species can cause great environmental harm, including stunting the growth of native plants. At Rooted Remedies, we believe it is crucial to pair the increasing interest in wildcrafting with the education on ethical and sustainable practices so the natural areas can continue to thrive for generations. Many invasive plants have amazing medicinal properties and can be utilized in plant medicine. 

At this event

•Learn about invasive species and the importance of managing their populations by experts in the field

•Harvest various invasive species in a way that helps restore the land and native ecosystem

•Learn how to make you own herbal medicine, in real time, with the plants you harvest 

•You get to take home both the herbal medicines you learn how to make and fresh plant material you harvest

To celebrate Earth Day in April, we hosted two successful work parties. We partnered with 10 students from the University of Oregon to weed paths and beds at the Native Plant Nursery, and worked with 5 US Bank volunteers to remove invasive species along Trail 3 on the east side of the park. Many thanks to all volunteers!

9 students from Spencer Butte Middle School joined Friends staff in removing shining geranium and Armenian blackberry in the North Bottomlands. For one student it was his second year volunteering for Friends. Afterwards, Friends staff led the students on a Spring plant walk along the Coast Fork trail.

Native Plant Nursery
Tues: 9:00 AM–12:00 PM
Thurs: 9:00 AM–12:00 PM & 1:00–4:00 PM
Sat: 9:00 AM–12:00 PM

Mid-to-late May welcomes our first seed harvest! Seed harvest for all species requires focus and patience, but can be pretty fun when done with a group! The conversations had while seed harvesting always prove to be interesting and engaging.

Trails Stewardship
Thursdays: 8:00 AM–11:00 PM

Help maintain and improve the park’s 30-mile trail system. Work includes building, restoring, and keeping trails accessible for the hundreds of thousands of people who use them each year.

Habitat Restoration
Mondays: 9:00 AM–12:00 PM

Support restoration of native habitats like oak savannas, woodlands, and floodplains. Tasks include removing invasive species, mulching, applying biochar, and managing brush piles.

Turtle Flats Work Party

Saturday, May 9th: 9:00AM-12:00PM

Join Friends and Interfaith Earthkeepers for a day of stewardship and community at Turtle Flats, a floodplain conservation area at the confluence of the Coast and Middle forks of the Willamette river!

Tasks include planting bare roots and pulling English ivy.

We’d love to hear from you — what topics would you like more of? Just reply!