Author Archives: Rose City Bluff Restoration

Rose City Bluff Restoration volunteer and Xera Plants co-owner Greg Shepherd led a native plant walk exploring the plants growing on the Bluff. He identified many of the Bluff plants and discussed their ecological benefits. He also highlighted some of RCBR’s restoration techniques.

Rose City Bluff Restoration thanks all our volunteers who have helped transform the bluff into a special learning environment. This Earth Day Cedar Tree Learning hosted a walk for kids that included plant identification, naturescape art and exploration. Two more Cedar Tree Learning trail walks will be scheduled this summer. And RCBR is hosting a bird walk for kids, May 21, 2023.

You’ve probably experienced the serenity of a walk along the Rose City Bluff lower trail. Somewhat like a canyon trail, the slope rises to your side. Vegetation is close and the city is obscured. A term for similar trails in Europe and elsewhere is sunken lane or hollow way. (Wikipedia) The bluff trail is just a half-hollow way, and wasn’t created by foot and wagon traffic. However, the overall effect, being down low with a green embankment to your side, is much the same. “Sunken lanes have a large touristic potential because of their many values and functions: i.e. scenic beauty (reflected among others in paintings), recreational (hiking, biking), scientific (biodiversity, geomorphology), educational and geoheritage.” (Sunken Lanes, Earth Science Review.)

Claude Monet, The Sunken Road in the Cliff at Varengeville

Many thanks to our wonderful volunteers who showed up last Sunday in the cold and rain for our second annual Fall Planting Day! They planted over 400 native trees, shrubs and perennials, all volunteer grown from seed or transplanted from their gardens. As you walk the trail next year look for new lupine, self heal, Oregon sunshine, blue wild rye, shade phacelia, pearly everlasting, and many others.

Thanks to Suzanne for this cool photo of a few of the 35 folks who came out for Fall Planting Day 2022.

Special thanks to Margaret for creating our new sign! We’ve placed a couple along the bluff and are already getting inquiries.

Last April we kicked off our Native Seed Project. With the help of Greg’s document, Growing Willamette Valley Native Seeds, and Margaret’s management we now have several volunteers busily tending to seedlings. We hope to be putting many of these in the ground this fall. Our Native Seed Project folks are also learning what works, which they’ll share later this year.

Thanks to Sue for this photo of her project.

Years of hard work by Rose City Bluff Restoration are paying off as we watch existing native plants thrive, and our new plantings grow and bloom! Spotted today on the Bluff:
Lupinus rivularis- Strambank Lupine
Tellima grandiflora- Fringe Cup
Iris tenax – Tough Leaf Iris
Aquilegia formosa- Western Columbine
Rosa gymnocarpa- Bald Hip Rose
Prunus virginiana- Chokecherry
Rosa nutkana- Nutkana Rose
Amelanchier alnifolia – Serviceberry
Crataegus gaylussacia – Suksdorf’s Hawthorn
We’ll be working on weeding and maintaining our new plantings this month…join us if you have free time on Sunday mornings- we meet at 9:30am!

Photo by Greg Shephard

You’re probably aware that what is now the front nine of the Rose City Golf Course was once a race track. We recently came across this LIDAR image that, amazingly, still reveals the track(s). (See gis.dogami.oregon.gov/maps/lidarviewer/.)