By Karl Lee, CSP member
The Crystal Springs Partnership was honored to help sponsor and participate in the Westmoreland Park Grand Reopening and Salmon Celebration on October 25th, just a couple days ago. The Celebration featured active learning and play for kids and adults, with an assortment of hands-on exploration.  We honored the new Nature-Based Play Area, the Creek restoration, and inter-Tribal culture. The formal part of the program was represented by agencies that helped transform the Park, extending from the local to the Federal level, as well as Tribes who have called this area ‘home’ for a long, long time. We celebrated the Play Area, and not only the hope for, but the actual presence of native Salmon in Crystal Springs Creek. I was asked to help ‘herd’ the formal presenters, and it was a pleasure.   

The Nature-Based Play Area opened a month ago. In the weeks prior to opening, kids were poking their noses through the chain link fence in palpable anticipation of its opening. When Parks calmly took down the fence on September 22nd , the Play Area was an instant hit. No instruction was needed, no on-line manual to read, just when Parks said ‘go’, kids just did it. And they returned the next day, rain or shine. Someday their sights may set on the Creek, with another sense of wonder.  We anticipate their return, year after year.

In early October my wife Roberta volunteered at the Oxbow Park/Metro Salmon Homecoming. She talked about the powerful moment - of seeing those fish that are seen almost every year, returning to complete their life cycle in the Sandy River.  And, I thought forward to the Saturday of the Westmoreland Park Celebration, and how cool that would be, some day in the future to see Salmon in Crystal Springs Creek at our hopefully annual Celebration, right here in Portland.  A week before our Celebration, Johnson Creek Watershed Council volunteers spotted a Coho Salmon in Crystal Springs Creek.  And I saw them the next day, and a couple days later on October 22nd, I videoed them in their nest-building end-of-life dance. Right here in Crystal Springs Creek, and right in the Park. Our 55-second video has been viewed almost 4,000 times as of this writing. Since then, during the Celebration this past weekend, and just today, these fish, and others, continue to find their way in the Creek. When the fish got the ‘go’ signal to begin the process of setting the stage for the next generation, they just did it. And, we anticipate their return, year after year.

As I was wrapping up my role as designated ‘herder’ of the formal part of our Celebration, I suggested to all to get involved in this place we call Crystal Springs Creek. Be it grabbing our Walking Tour map and heading out for a walk with a friend over the 2+miles of Creek we have tucked away in Southeast Portland, talking to a visitor to the Park about refraining from feeding the birds, or getting your hands and boots dirty with some restoration work, the Crystal Springs Partnership sends you the ‘go’ signal, and we hope you do. And, we hope you return, year after year.