Field Trips—Tuesday, October 6
Field trips require advance registration and an additional fee.
Space is limited, and early registration is recommended. Transportation is included for all trips. Registration closes on September 29, 2026.
Canoe the Slough!
Tuesday, October 6, 8:30 AM–12:30 PM PDT
Whitaker Ponds Nature Park
$40
Whitaker Ponds Nature Park is a story of resilience and restoration. Surrounded by heavy industry, the land boasts two ponds, a half-mile trail, an eco-roof gazebo, and a canoe launch—all surrounded by black cottonwood forest and native shrubbery.
Participants will begin their experience with a tour of the site and its unique history, including serving as a Chinookan village, homesteading site, agricultural land, and informal dump.
Through decades of partnership and stewardship, the site is now a major stop along the habitat corridor of the Columbia Slough and is full of relationships with human, animal, and plant communities. Participants will experience the yearslong work of the Belonging Project, which is a community-inspired transformation of a baseball diamond into an ecologically-rich native meadow and space for play.
After a short break, the experience will shift into learning on the Slough—a slow, shallow side channel of the Columbia River. The group will “canoe the slough” and learn how school and community field trips are led on the water. The focus will be on how the Columbia Slough Watershed Council works to make paddling accessible and emphasize canoeing’s role in helping participants co-regulate with nature in an otherwise industrial landscape.
Join educators Jennifer Starkey (Columbia Slough Watershed Council), Megan Hanson (City of Portland Clean Rivers Education), and Yoko Silk (Portland Parks and Recreation) to see how we learn from this place, care for it, and build a sense of belonging with hundreds of K–12 and college students each year.
From Landfill to Wildlife Refuge
Tuesday, October 6, 8:30 AM–12:30 PM PDT
Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge
$40
For thousands of years, Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge (located only 15 minutes from downtown Portland) was a network of ponds, marshes, and braided channels from the Willamette River. This 163-acre natural area provided rich habitat for salmon, otter, beaver, birds, amphibians, and more. The refuge is the largest remaining natural area within the lower Willamette River floodplain.
White settlers, not understanding the value of wetland habitats, used it as a landfill. Bold community action in the 1970’s and 1980’s resulted in the parks designation as the first wildlife refuge in the city, and efforts began to restore some of the habitat.
Kelly Rosteck, school field trip coordinator for Portland Parks & Recreation’s environmental education program, will lead participants on a tour of two distinct sections of the park:
- Participate in a seasonal scavenger hunt in the South Meadow and look for evidence of beaver, deer, coyote, and rabbits. The group will learn how the environmental education program utilizes these scavenger hunts as a tool for promoting curiosity, awe, and self-directed learning.
- Visit Tadpole Pond on the north side of the park and discuss how ecologists and environmental educators combined forces to create a space specifically for amphibian education. Participants will receive ecology guides featuring the local amphibians and birds found in the Portland region.
This experience will include about 3 miles of hiking on flat trails that are both paved and unpaved.
Indigenous Knowledge at the Native Gathering Garden
Tuesday, October 6, 8:30 AM–12:30 PM PDT
Native Gathering Garden, Cully Park
$40
Cully Park is a unique and dynamic public space located in a traditionally under-resourced industrial neighborhood in NE Portland. Over a decade ago, the community and local nonprofits worked with the City of Portland to help transform this former landfill into a new 25-acre park. As a part of this effort, the Native Gathering Garden was created. This community-led program is a catalyst for strengthening our relationships with plants while healing places.
The Native Gathering Garden is co-managed by the local Indigenous community, some of whom may be present for the tour. The Cully site is a community garden, landscape restoration project, and learning garden. It is a space for community to gather, to host cultural celebrations, and to engage in Indigenous land practices. Programming is coordinated by Nichole Bruno, a member of the Oglala Lakota, Niimiipuu, Quinault, and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians.
Nichole will lead participants on a tour of the site, offering a thorough history from Indigenous village to industrial landfill to thriving urban park. She will explain how the garden is unique in the city’s park system for using Indigenous Traditional Ecological & Cultural Knowledge (ITECK) principles. The second half of the field trip will center on local plant ID and a stewardship experience featuring a hands-on tending opportunity.
Creating an accessible and inclusive public space is very important to those who tend the garden. The experience is intended to be for participants of “all-ages, all-stages, and all ability levels."