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

Read the spring 2020 issue of Our Big Backyard

2 months 2 weeks 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

5 months 2 weeks 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.
Restoring fire: prescribed burn at Quamash Prairie reconnects land, culture and habitat

By Cory Eldridge
6 months 5 days ago

Early last fall, a wildland fire team from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde led a prescribed burn of Quamash Prairie Natural Area west of Tigard.
Free parking days at Metro parks 2020

6 months 2 weeks ago

Enjoy free parking at Oxbow and Blue Lake regional parks, Broughton Beach, M. James Gleason Memorial Boat Ramp and Chinook Landing Marine Park on 17 days in 2020. Parking at all other Metro parks and boat ramps is free year-round.
Parks and Nature 2019: Continued investments strengthen unique parks and nature system in greater Portland

7 months 1 week ago

November 2019 marked another milestone, with voters approving a $475 million bond measure to support land purchase and restoration, Metro park improvements, Nature in Neighborhoods capital grants, local parks and nature projects, walking and biking trails and complex community projects.