Parks and nature investments

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Learn how Metro uses voter investments to protect water quality, restore fish and wildlife habitat, and improve access to nature.

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17,000 acres and counting

Voters asked Metro to buy the region's most special land, before it's too late. Habitat is protected across the Portland metropolitan area, ensuring that nature is always close to home. Two bond measures have preserved 17,000 acres and 90 miles of river and stream banks, and supported hundreds of community projects.

Video

Go behind the scenes at three places protected by Metro's Natural Areas Program, and learn how voters have made a difference for the region’s water quality, wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation.

Explore your big backyard

Visit parks and natural areas

Whether you’re in the mood for a short hike or a weekend camping trip, a boat ride or a picnic, Metro has a destination for you.

Explore your big backyard

Newell Creek Canyon

Thanks to voters, Metro is investing a bond measure to purchase wildlife habitat and a levy to help care for regional parks and natural areas and improve them for visitors – including Newell Creek Canyon in Oregon City.

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Nature grants

Metro nature grants reward innovative ideas that connect communities with nature. Could your project be next?

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Metro operates a unique park system, one with nature at its heart.

Thanks to two decades of voter investments, Metro manages more than 17,000 acres of parks, trails and natural areas across every community in the region – from Chehalem Ridge on the west to the Sandy River Gorge on the east, from Blue Lake and Smith and Bybee Wetlands on the north to Graham Oaks on the south.

Voters have repeatedly trusted Metro to protect clean water, restore fish and wildlife habitat and provide opportunities for people to experience nature close to home.

To accomplish this, Metro has built and operates 14 parks, manages 14 cemeteries and offers three boat ramps. Four new parks are being designed or built right now. Metro purchases critical and rare habitat across the region. Metro scientists help heal damaged habitat by removing invasive plants and planting native trees, shrubs and flowers that support animals big and small.

Racial equity has become a key focus at Metro. The department is committed to making Metro’s parks and natural areas safe and welcoming places for people of color, connecting immigrant and refugees communities to nature, providing job training to young people of color and honoring the ongoing connection of Native people to the ceded lands Metro manages.

Across greater Portland, Metro supports community nature projects, from park building to stream restoration to pollinator gardens. By connecting residents and community organizations to each other, Metro helps build a greater sense of community as the community helps nature.

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Calendar

News

Parks and Nature 2020: Continued investments provide increased access to parks and natural areas when most needed

1 month 2 weeks ago

Now more than ever, communities in greater Portland count on parks, trails and natural areas as an integral part of healthy, livable neighborhoods. Parks and nature staff are using virtual tools to connect with community members and develop a work plan to implement the $475 million bond measure voters passed in November 2019 to protect clean water, restore fish and wildlife habitat and provide access to nature for communities across the region.
New 86-acre natural area in Sandy River Basin protects wildlife habitat, improves climate resilience

By Kelsey Wallace
3 months 1 day ago

A newly acquired 86-acre property in the Sandy River Basin will protect wildlife habitat, improve landscape connectivity and climate resilience, help provide access for restoration and land management and provide potential opportunities for native plant harvest by Indigenous communities.
Metro seeks members for Parks and Nature oversight committee

3 months 5 days ago
Read the spring 2020 issue of Our Big Backyard

9 months 3 days ago

See how climate change is likely to affect greater Portland, and learn what you can do to make your community more resilient. Find the latest in parks and nature news, including a project to discover untold stories about women buried at Metro's historic cemeteries.
Read the winter 2020 issue of Our Big Backyard

12 months 2 days ago

Learn how Indigenous community members led a prescribed burn at Quamash Prairie Natural Area and worked to reconnect land, culture and habitat. Also in the winter 2020 issue of Our Big Backyard, you can find out about the latest parks and nature news and events and explore the Glendoveer Field Guide.