East Portland Office at Leach Botanical Garden

On July 1, 2010 Audubon Society of Portland opened new satellite office at Leach Botanical Garden. Through a new partnership with the Garden, we will be able to greatly extend our programming and advocacy in the East Metro region.

We are now offering bird and natural history classes, walks, presentations and summer camp for youth out of Leach Botanical Garden: 6704 SE 122 Avenue, Portland, OR 97236.  google map Leach Map in pdf format. Note that our offices are located at the Administrative Annex. Get directions here.

All events are free and please RSVP to btrinh@audubonportland.org or leave a message at 971-222.6139 unless otherwise noted.

• Tuesdays, May 22 and June 5, 7:00am - 8:00am:
  Morning Bird Song Walks @ Leach Botanical Garden
  Meet leader Ron Escano at 7am in Leach Botanical Garden Administrative Annex parking lot located 6550 SE 122nd Ave (NOT at the Garden Manor House). 
  
• Thursday, May 31, 7:30am-8:30am: Morning Bird Walk at Nadaka Nature Park
  Join Jim Labbe with the Audubon Society of Portland and Lee Dayfield with Wilkes East Neighborhood Association for a morning stroll through Nakada Nature Park in West Gresham.
  
• Saturday, June 2, 9am-Noon. COUNT-IT with Gateway Green.
  Friends of Gateway Green is excited to partner with the Audubon Society of Portland to host a birding event, “COUNT-IT”, for community members interested in learning more about bird identification and to learn more about Gateway Green as a site.  To access the site, walk north from the Gateway Transit Center toward Rocky Butte on the I-205 Multi-Use Path.  Folllow the signs and look for a blue tent.  For more information about this event, please contact FoGG Intern, Cary Watters, at 503.358.8325 or watters@pdx.edu.
  
• Sunday, June 3, 7PM-9PM Gresham-Fairview Trail Evening Walk
  Join Audubon Society of Portland's Jim Labbe and Bich Trinh and City of Gresham's Laura Guderyahn 7 to 9 PM on Sunday, June 3rd, for an evening bird walk along  segments of the Gresham-Fairview Trail in West Gresham. 
  
  
  

Read about Portland Audubon's project work to improve access to Nature in East Portland and West Gresham: Regreening Portland from the Ground Up.

 
Are you interested in staying abreast of Audubon's conservation work in protecting natural areas and increasing access to nature in the East Metro Area?  If so, please sign up to get email alerts from Friends and Advocates of Urban Natural Area (FAUNA).

Extending our Mission in the 21st Century

OPAL tour - Jim Labbe

The new partnership and presence in East Portland is part of Audubon Society of Portland's effort to diversify and strengthen our organization and effectively advance our conservation and education mission in the coming century. Through new collaborations and greater geographic accessibility, we hope reach an increasingly diverse and transit-dependent population and help inspire the next generation to love, protect, and enjoy our region's unique nature heritage.  Leach Botanical Garden is an ideal location to do just that; it is both at the doorstep to the East Buttes natural areas and in close proximity to much of the region's future population growth and development.  From the diverse, young and redeveloping communities of Lents, Gateway, and Rockwood to the new urban communities of Springwater, Pleasant Valley and Damascus, the East Metro area poses the greatest challenges and opportunities to manifesting an ecologically sustainable and socially equitable metropolitan region.

Meet Bich Trinh, East Portland Community Coordinator
Bich Trinh was born in Vietnam but grew up in the Pacific Northwest.  She has worked in the past as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua, Naturalist in the Redwoods, and Park Ranger in Bryce Canyon and the North Cascades. She holds  BA in environmental education from Western Washington University and MAT from Lewis and Clark College.  She is excited to pioneer the position as East Portland Community Coordinator for Portland Audubon, especially since she lives in southeast Portland.  She looks forward  to getting to know different east Portland community members and connecting people to Audubon Society of Portland east side events.  When not working for Audubon Society of Portland, she can be found teaching Spanish to middle school students in east Portland, biking, and singing and playing the guitar to her cat, Sibley.

Portland Audubon’s East Portland Office is off to an Excellent New Year
by Meryl Redisch

Organizational capacity for our new East Portland office, located at Leach Botanical Garden got a huge boost with a generous three year grant from the Collins Foundation. With a strong nod of approval from the Trustees, Portland Audubon was awarded $85,000.

East Portland OPAL tour - Jim Labbe

Last July, Portland Audubon opened a satellite office in collaboration with Portland Parks and Friends of Leach Botanical Garden. With welcoming community support, we began offering free programs including morning bird walks through the gardens and classes on backyard birds. With very little promotion, these programs attracted considerable interest.  With intentional marketing, Portland Audubon anticipates stronger interest and higher attendance.  To help us, we will be hiring an east Portland community coordinator to; build relationship with local leaders, track and survey audience participation and help establish a solid volunteer program.  This person will work closely with Audubon staff, particularly Urban Conservationist, Jim Labbe who works from the East Portland office four days a week.

The support from the Collins Foundation really helps Portland Audubon be better positioned to advance some of our organization’s most important goals for reaching and serving new populations and non traditional audiences.

East side residents will have greater opportunities to; learn about conservation issues impacting their neighborhoods, participate in family programs and be part of building a healthier community for people and native wildlife.  I am pleased to share with you some of the activities and goals we will be pursuing and welcome your ideas and help to reach them:

• Develop new and build upon existing conservation education programs that are relevant for youth, adults and families and are accessible by public transportation. For example, using the Community Based Summer Camp program; Explorador as a template, we will partner with Rose CDC, another non –profit agency that houses and serves low income populations and offer a summer camp for kids and family excursion days the rest of the year. 

• Recruit and build a cadre of volunteers who can comfortably conduct youth, adult and family programs. Volunteers who participated in a two day diversity workshop will assist staff in this effort.  As a way to help build civic and personal leadership, we are offering two full scholarships for the School of Birding Program to residents in east Portland.   This popular program requires graduates to provide at least twenty hours of volunteer service back to Audubon and scholarship recipients will be counted on to fulfill this obligation.

• Increase funding for natural resource protection, restoration and access to nature in East Portland by serving on policy committees and collaborating with local agencies for shared outcomes. With funding from National Audubon and Toyota's Together Green program, we are currently partnering with the City of Gresham and Wilkes East Neighborhood to improve access and natural features at Nadaka Nature Park in West Gresham.
  

My hope is that our presence, programming goals and community engagement in east Portland can help address some equity issues in environmental policy, help diversify our staff, board and volunteer base and most importantly, advance our mission of “promoting the appreciation, understanding and protection of native birds, other wildlife and their habitats.

Sincere thanks to the Collins Foundation and all of you for your encouragement and loyal support.