March 2025 Program Updates
Spring has now officially arrived (finally!) and just as the plants emerge from dormancy, so too do our field programs! Keep reading to learn more about what our Programs team has been up to this month—including our latest groundtruthing training and a Forest Action Night focused on writing letters to our elected reps about federal actions that affect our forests (e.g. the timber EO, impacts of funding freezes and mass firings on our public lands, etc).
As always, you can find all our upcoming events over on our Upcoming Events page.
Forest Watch
Earlier this month, a group of volunteers were undeterred by the atmospheric river and joined me and board member Mia on a trip up to Larch Mountain. Though we weren’t groundtruthing an actual timber sale, Mia and I got to train folks in the process and discuss the things we look for during timber sale surveys on Mt Hood.
If you have been wanting to learn more about our groundtruthing program and prepare yourself for the upcoming field season on Mt Hood, there will be another opportunity on April 19th to get into the woods and get some hands on experience. I hope you’ll join us!
In other news, Mt Hood National Forest published their “All-Lands Strategic Action Plan to Reduce Wildfire Risk”.
Initiated during the Biden administration, the three main elements of the plan are to create fire adapted communities, resilient landscapes, and enable safer and more effective wildfire response. Many of the most positive elements such as community preparedness, education, and beneficial fire use will require significant investments—at least $260 million over the next ten years. That dollar amount, contrasted with recent efforts to freeze funding and dismantle the federal workforce, offers yet another glaring example of how the current administration’s policies will harm our landscapes and neighbors.
While I’m on the topic of fire, Barkers may be interested in this free upcoming event: “Fire Safe People: Preparing Portland for Fast Fires” on April 3rd at 8:30am at Revolution Hall. As wildfire risks grow, this event will bring together experts, community leaders, and residents to discuss preparedness strategies and policy solutions to keep Portland safe. You can find more details and RSVP here: Eventbrite Link.
Restoration
The Restoration program has several upcoming events, most of which are linked in the Upcoming Events section below:
4/10: Making Earth Cool craft night
4/12/25: Parrott Creek x SOLVE Oregon
4/26: Making Earth Cool parade
5/11: Bark x Freshwater Trust In-stream Restoration Discussion and Native Plant Walk (registration will be posted by April 1). Details so far: Bark is teaming up with Freshwater Trust to lead an educational walk focused on in-stream and riparian habitat restoration. Join us May 11, 10:30-1:30 at the Wildwood viewing area to discuss in-stream restoration and finish the day with a native plant walk!
Outside of events, I’ve been staying busy as usual. On Monday of this week, I submitted testimony in support of House Bill 3932, The Beavers and Water Quality Bill! Fingers crossed that it passes. I’m also wrapping up a GIS course so I can share our beaver and wetland data more effectively with the community, and will soon take a botany class with Jesse Miller, Washington’s Lead State Botanist, so I can better identify and teach about plants (especially rare ones that could help us save forests and wetlands).
As always, feel free to reach out if you have any questions! Meg@bark-out.org
Education
This month was a doozy! Over 120 people attended three Education events over three weeks!
Shrub Trivia night at Hot Lips Pizza was held at Hot Lips pizza and had over 40 folks attending! This was an amazing community building event, opening dialogue and encouraging curiosity, plus 15% of the dine-in proceeds will be donated to Bark! It was so awesome to see everyone working together and sharing knowledge while supporting our work.
It is also the season of school trips. In order to spread awareness and improve our sense of place, it is so important to be out in nature as a child. However, some schools just don’t have the infrastructure to provide outdoor experiences. Bark is trying to fill in where we can. Partnering with Adventures Without Limits, we helped provide a shortened outdoor school experience for over 60 4th graders, some of whom had never been in the forest before. Hope to see you at our April Education events so scroll down and sign up
Keep scrolling to sign up for our upcoming Education events—including our popular Using Colonizers series! Have an idea for presentation, workshop, book club, or other community building event? Email Haley at Haley@bark-out.org!