Westmoreland duck pond to go; but what about the ducks…?
As the City of Portland’s restoration of Crystal Springs Creek in and near Westmoreland Park continues — and one aspect of the plan is returning the duck pond to a natural stream — the question remains, what to do about the ducks?
As the City of Portland’s restoration of Crystal Springs Creek in and near Westmoreland Park continues — and one aspect of the plan is returning the duck pond to a natural stream — the question remains, what to do about the ducks?
“From a watershed health perspective, the ducks at Westmoreland Park are at over-capacity, and are a huge source of pollutants into Crystal Springs Creek,” explains the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services’ Science Fish and Wildlife Division Program Manager, Kaitlin Lovell.
Recently, staff at Portland Parks and Recreation, the Bureau of Environmental Services, and the Audubon Society of Portland have spent hours talking about Westmoreland Park’s ducks. The conversation took place at a meeting in late August.
The current focus targets the duck pond at the north end of the park, and not Westmoreland Park’s historic casting pond.
Lovell notes that duck-population problems exist throughout Portland’s ponds. But Westmoreland Park is a special case, because of Portland Parks and Recreation's 2004 Westmoreland Park Master Plan, devised by a committee of local residents, which characterized the area as crucial in the City's commitment to restore Crystal Springs watershed, of which the park is a part.
“It’s all focused on Crystal Springs Creek, because Crystal Springs provides the best habitat for salmon in the city," Lovell observes. The creek originates in a lake at Reed College, and ends by merging with Johnson Creek.
Plans for the waterway through Westmoreland Park include deepening and narrowing the duck pond, and developing wildlife habitat by planting riparian vegetation. The City’s hope is to comply with the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act by improving water quality, lowering water temperature — and, ultimately, reverting the duck pond to a stream that brings back the salmon runs.
Portland’s comprehensive watershed restoration effort also includes a $2 million project to open up eight culverts along Crystal Springs Creek for fish passage. One of these efforts closed S.E. 28th between Woodstock Boulevard and S.E. Steele to through traffic for most of the summer.
Lovell adds that TriMet will also fund some watershed restoration at Westmoreland Park as part of its wetland-mitigation obligation, related to construction of the Portland-to-Milwaukie light rail extension.
Meanwhile, part of that restoration will involve capturing and relocating barnyard geese and many of Westmoreland Park's ducks, Lovell reveals. Migratory Canadian geese (which seldom seem to migrate anymore, except between the park and Oaks Bottom), and the rarely-seen bufflehead and wood ducks, which are native, will be allowed to stay.
“They’ll relocate the domestic ducks. They’re pets. Somebody dropped them off here,” says Portland Parks Horticulturalist Hillary Maurer. Maurer and others tend the established areas along Westmoreland Park’s south end by reducing non-native vegetation, and by mulching, pruning, and adding new plants.
Also, an educational campaign to persuade citizens not to feed the ducks and to stop abandoning pet ducks at the pond is in the works.
But, as yet, there’s no definite plan to relocate the ducks, Lovell adds. According to Maurer, the Audubon Society has committed to finding new homes for the birds once they are removed.
“We’re concerned, and want to do the right thing,” Lovell promises.
