"Thank GOD for poor starving students?"What do they ummmmm get paid?An awful lot of pine nuts?Not knocking volunteers at all.....but they sure seem to get used these days.I say we run the ENTIRE government with volunteers and please folks...vote only for POOR candidates for government and save the blue collar middle class!!!

Kick the bicyclists out of the park and the majority of the problem is solved.

As a consultant who worked on the fire risk reduction plan for Forest Park, and the author of a book on ecological restoration, I'd like to offer a few corrections to some of the assumptions in this article.

1) Forest Park's budget should not be compared on a per acre basis to other Portland parks. Natural areas require far less day to day maintenance than lawns and flower beds.

2) No disrespect to Nancy Broshot intended, but much of Forest Park is in a "stem exclusion stage," meaning that it is young enough to be overcrowded with smaller trees. Over time it is natural for many of these trees to die off. It may be a few decades before there is enough space, light, and nutrients available in the understory for new trees to be able to survive.

3) For the reason above, "replanting" more trees may not make a lot of sense.

4) The FEMA grant is not the main source of funds for managing the park. It is a short term source of funds to get some work done related to reducing fuels so that if a fire happens it will be less threatening to surrounding neighborhoods. Most natural parks are managed with a baseline budget and various grants.

5) Maple is the most common tree in the park, and tends to be in areas previously logged because it sprouts from the stump. Alder tends to be more dominant in areas previously burned.

6) The old growth issue is a bit complicated. Maple can live 300 or more years, so its entirely consistent to have both old growth AND a lot of maple. In fact, we used a study of the City of Corvallis watershed to illustrate this point. There is a large area down there that has old growth maple and fir growing in an area that was never logged. Much of Forest Park can grow into old growth with similar characteristics. Plus, there are parts of Forest Park that are best suited to become "old growth" Oregon white oak, a rare and important species that grows in the lower parts of the park near St Helens Highway.

7) there is no scenario in which Forest Park would evolve into Laurelhurst Park. In fact, its best to think the opposite way. If we stopped mowing the lawns at Laurelhurst it would gradually come to resemble Forest Park, not the other way around.

8) The biggest issue in Forest Park is invasive species. A lot more can and should be done to get rid of them, especially the ivy.

9) Its probably true the city cannot afford to properly take care of Forest Park. Its equally true that there is no other regional agency that can afford this either. Metro does not have enough funding to take care of the natural areas it owns and manages. The City Club should follow up with a larger, regional study of natural area management that gets at the bigger question of managing the entire portfolio of forests, wetlands, prairies, and savannas we are collecting but don;t know how to take care of.

Great response Mr. Apostol,
In your opinion, where does Forest Park stand in terms of its stem exclusion stage? Is it closer to stand initiation, or understory re-initiation; or is it even possible for Forest Park to reach a true understory re-initiation stage given its myriad of invasive species problems, off-trail hiking, mountain bikes, off-leash dogs etc?

Dean - Thanks for your thoughts. E-mail me at stefan at portlandmercury dot com and I'll be glad to consult you in the future. In a situation this complex, some things will be overlooked in 750 words, but I'm happy to start more discussion.

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