One Week Job's Linda Chase visits the Friends of Tryon Creek

Linda Chase spends Week 42 at Tryon Creek

For the past week Linda Chase has been working with the Friends of Tryon Creek. She is on Week 42 of working 52 jobs in 52 weeks. I sat down with Linda to learn more about the unorthodox path she took to working with the Friends. Here is a nutshell version of her story, as well as some of her words of wisdom…

Linda was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California (and she still yearns for the beach). After attending grad school at the University of Oregon, Linda moved to Portland with her partner Emmett in 1985. They had two children, Laura, who is now 23, and Alec who is 21.

Linda worked in the nonprofit world until getting laid off when the economic downturn hit. She found herself unemployed “for too long” and facing a number of crises, including the loss of her partner to brain cancer; her dog losing a leg to cancer; and her house facing foreclosure. Linda decided to pay her mother a visit in Santa Barbara. On the return flight to Portland she found herself sitting next to Sean Aiken, a dynamic young man sporting dreadlocks.

Sean shared his story about graduating from college and not knowing what he wanted to do with his life. He created the One-Week Job Project, working 52 jobs in 52 weeks in Canada to find his passion and ideal career. Sean and Linda concluded that Linda’s experience was the middle-aged American version of Sean’s. By the end of the flight the two agreed to collaborate on a similar project for Linda.

Initially, Linda thought she might take her 52-week challenge “to follow her passion” to other regions. She realized that her passions – her children (“her heart”), nature, and her animals – were in Portland. This is where she decided to concentrate her effort.

For the past 42 weeks Linda has worked at an incredible variety of different jobs. From working with Guide Dogs for the Blind (a true highlight, for, as Linda observes, “your heart melts seeing a service dog providing such great help to a person”) to helping the owner of Cascade Naturals make tempeh burgers by hand  (the owner is the sole employee and she works 14 hours a day creating a product she loves), Linda has grown and benefited from the experience. What has she learned?

·         Ninety-nine percent of the people she’s worked with love their jobs. This was unexpected.

·         “If it’s not fun, what is the point?” (This realization is beautifully captured in Linda’s blog, “My Song and Dance”.)

·         The greatest discovery she has made was realizing the importance of nurturing a sense of wonder in life: “It is an important part of life, of staying young, and staying engaged in the world around us.”

Linda also shared some advice for finding a path with fulfillment: “Talk to people who do what you love to do and find out how they got started. Spend time with them. Find out if it’s really what you want to do.”

Linda has enjoyed her time working at Tryon Creek and engaging with nature. Spending time at the park has energized her “passion for being green and fostering green spaces and being around people that advocate for the environment. It’s wonderful to get out of the car and be in nature, to experience the wonderful sights, sounds and smells of Tryon Creek State Natural Area.”

What does Linda have in store next? “I don’t know. I’m going to experience things on a weekly basis and it is changing every week…it’s important that there be camaraderie among the team I work with, a connection, chemistry, and a sense of kinship.”

We at Tryon Creek greatly enjoyed having Linda be part of our community. She is inspiring and engaging, and we wish her well on whatever path she chooses next. To learn more about her past and future adventures please visit One Week Job.

-Jessica Sweeney

Phil Hamilton, 80, honored for 20,000 hours of stewardship work at Tryon Creek

Long time Friends' volunteer Phil Hamilton

On May 18th, 2013, southwest Portland resident Phil Hamilton reached a huge milestone: He completed his 20,000th hour doing stewardship work at Tryon Creek State Natural Area (TCSNA).

Phil Hamilton recognized for his 20,000 hours of stewardship work

Phil, who has been volunteering with the Friends of Tryon Creek for 20 years, has filled many roles at the park. His activities include invasive species removal, trail maintenance, Friends of Tryon Creek Board Member, and Chair of the Stewardship Committee. Phil runs the field aspect of TCSNA's  Restoration Program.

The completion of his 20,000th hour marked two decades of dedicated, hands-on stewardship work in the forest at Tryon Creek.

Friends' Volunteer Coordinator Sarah Kreisman MC'd the event

The Friends and OPRD acknowledged Phil's incredible achievement with a celebration in the Nature Center on June 24th. Friends and OPRD staff, including Volunteer Coordinator Sarah Kreisman (above) and Park Manager John Mullen, congratulated Phil, to the enthusiastic applause and appreciation of his family and the fellow volunteers and park personnel that have seen Phil's dedication in action.

Park Manager John Mullen acknowledges Phil's dedication and service

Originally, Tryon Creek was so overgrown with nonnative invasive species that it was doubtful whether the ecosystem could recover. Thanks to the efforts of volunteers such as Phil, more than 200 acres - nearly 1/3 of the park's overall acreage - have been cleared of invasives.

OPRD volunteer Dave Johnston and OPRD Director Tim Wood

Friends' Board President Gary Pagenstecher

Celebrating Phil's achievement with a party in the Nature Center

Lively music by Curls and Scruff

Phil averages an astonishing 1000 stewardship hours per year at TCSNA. "The urban forest is an important ecosystem niche", says Phil. "I'm helping to save the forest. I love hanging out in the woods and I always have. I don't like to hold still."

Phil Hamilton, English Ivy conqueror

The Friends applaud Phil Hamilton for his outstanding achievement and appreciate his dedication and stewardship work. He has made a significant, positive impact at Tryon Creek. Thank you Phil!

The Friends Welcome Mexican Professors to Tryon Creek for World Environment Day

World Environment Day (WED) was on Tuesday, June 5, 2013. The UN selected Portland as the host city for this international event and the Friends of Tryon Creek (FOTC) partnered with the City and other local organizations to showcase the environmental education and stewardship programs that have earned Portland its preeminent “green” reputation.

The Friends, PSU Capstone Instructors, and visiting Mexican Professors at Tryon Creek

One such WED event happened on a sunny day at Tryon Creek. The Friends, joined by PSU Capstone instructors, welcomed a group of professors visiting from Mexico.

The Friends have a longstanding partnership with PSU, and Matthew Collins, the Friends' Education Director, teaches eighteen credits a year through the Capstone program. Because of the success of Matthew’s courses as a model for service learning, PSU proposed that the Friends host the Mexican professors as they participate in a week-long course to learn about integrating the community into coursework and the education processes that relate to service activities.

Matthew Collins and FOTC volunteer Terry Gibson, who teaches classes in sustainability at Marylhurst University, co-lead the visiting professors in a park ivy pull, and FOTC and OPRD staff shared Tryon Creek's history.

Pulling ivy at Tryon Creek for World Environment Day service activities

As the Friends and the professors discussed the importance of environmental preservation and community involvement it became clear that although we are from different countries and cultures, we share the same ethic of stewardship and belief that a lifelong connection to nature is essential for a healthy Earth and its inhabitants.  The Friends support this connection to nature through a variety of environmental programs for children, families and adults, as well as volunteer and stewardship opportunities.  

The Friends are honored that these Mexican professors came to Tryon Creek to learn from us and support us. We hope they will take what they learn and share it with their own communities.

Cultivate a relationship with nature with the Friends' Summer Nature Day Camp

Human health depends upon a healthy environment. That is the underlying principle which has guided the Friends' mission - to connect people to Tryon Creek State Natural Area and cultivate a lifelong relationship with nature - for more than 40 years.

The Friends believe that we need to "know" the land upon which we depend for survival. We need to understand how its ecosystems function and how they work together. We need to recognize the relationship that inhabitants have with the land, be they the fox, the robin, the newt, or the human being. If we know the land, we can understand it. When we understand it, we are compelled to conserve, protect, steward, and respect it.

Access to that knowledge begins the moment each of us first sets foot upon a forest path, in a mountain stream, or in a country meadow.

Tryon Creek State Natural Area is the ultimate outdoor classroom. In this classroom, knowledge of the land is awakened and encouraged. With regular cultivation that knowledge flourishes. It grows and expands and fills the human mind and heart with inspiration, peace, energy, and a sense of connectedness to the natural world. Connectedness becomes familiarity. Familiarity becomes "knowing". We experience a sense of purpose that helps ground us as we experience the awe, majesty, and transcendence that occurs when we realize that everything - all of it - is interwoven. We realize that each of us plays a part in it and each of us has a responsibility for the part we play.

Every summer, the Friends of Tryon Creek share the experience of Tryon Creek as a living classroom with children through our Summer Nature Day Camp program. Each child that participates, be they four or 12 years old, comes to the forest innately ready to connect deeply to the natural world around them. Through play, activities, hikes, and hands-on experience with nature, campers gain a sense of themselves in the wild world, of their sense of place and their relationship with all living things.

Give your child the experience of a lifetime and enroll them in the Friends of Tryon Creek's Summer Nature Day Camp today: www.tryonfriends.org

Wanted: Earth Ambassadors

 

From May 9th - 11th, 2013, a number of Friends and OPRD staff members attended the Environmental Summit with the Dalai Lama in Portland. The Dalai Lama was joined by religious leaders, politicians, and prominent environmentalists to discuss the importance of environmental stewardship, education, protection and preservation.

The event was a success: Venues sold out, audiences were given a wealth of information on the environment, speakers received standing ovations, and participants felt energized and empowered. However, the issue of environmental advocacy – specifically, how does one compel and inspire others to take action – was a question that largely went unanswered.

We are facing a future of unprecedented global threats to the environment. On Saturday, May 11^th, the front page of the newspaper carried the headline, “Carbon dioxide levels hit new milestone”: the article went on to note that, “Worldwide levels of the chief greenhouse gas that causes global warming have hit a milestone, reaching an amount never before encountered by humans, federal scientists said Friday. Carbon dioxide was measured at 400 parts per million… the last time the worldwide carbon level was probably that high was about 2 million years ago.” The following day, Sunday, May 12^th, the newspaper’s A section carried another ominous headline, “Common species at risk, climate study says.” According to the study’s lead author, Rachel Warren, “…the average plant and animal will experience significant range loss under climate change.” The study looked at 50,000 common species and determined that “…more than half the plants and a third of the animals could lose 50% of their range by 2080 if the world continues its current course of rising greenhouse gas emissions.”

What do we do with such bleak news?

Paralysis is one common response. When we encounter unsettling or worrisome news and information, a seeming inability to take action, to even know where to begin in addressing the problem, can take over.

Those that are able to process the news and are motivated to take action often find themselves facing an additional challenge: How do you inspire people to rally around a cause that is freighted with gloom and doom scenarios?

The Friends found an answer in This Green Life, Sheryl Eisenberg’s monthly journal, in a post titled, “Becoming an Earth Ambassador: The art of persuasion”.

Eisenberg's post below is valuable because it provides a blueprint for how to approach the subject with people in a constructive and productive way. There's no pointing fingers and no lecturing - and your audience will be inspired. We hope you will read and share with others.

Becoming an Earth Ambassador
The art of persuasion                                                        

If you follow environmental issues closely, you may often feel the urge to share your knowledge with those around you for the sake of the common good. You think: if only Gina and Joe knew about the Sargasso Sea of plastic trash in the Pacific, they'd stop buying bottled water. Or: tomorrow's the last day for public comments on fracking. I'd better get the word out.

In theory, educating family and friends about these issues is a great idea. In practice, it's a hard trick to pull off.

If you've tried it, you know. Your lessons rarely go over as well as you'd hoped. Inexplicably, your friends yawn and change the subject or argue the points. However they react, the upshot is the same: no conversions to the cause.

At least, that's often been my experience.

There is a simple reason, and we all know what it is. Outside the classroom, people don't like being lectured to. Even less do they like being told how to live, except perhaps by real preachers, and then only on the Sabbath. At worst, they're offended; at best, they write us off. ("There's Sheryl going on about the environment again...")

So how can we get our message across more effectively to our family and friends?

We begin by being mindful of the nature of these relationships. Our nearest and dearest are not potential recruits, but people who trust and care for us. To speak to them otherwise, even in the service of a good cause, would distance them from us, which can't be good.

We consider each person's interests, just as we do in ordinary conversation. (None of my friends would think to talk to me about sports, nor would I bring up Victorian literature with many of them.) If there's no point of connection on an environmental issue, we don't bring the subject up. If there is, we make it as relevant to the person as possible.

We avoid talking doom and gloom at get-togethers where our seriousness would be out of place. It never pays to be a killjoy.

When it comes to green practices, we talk about what we do, not about what others should do. And to the extent possible, we rely on our friends to see what we do, rather than make a point of telling them. After all, our reusable water bottle and cloth napkins don't really need commentary, nor does our habit of biking to the store. These things really do speak for themselves.

When raising a particular issue, we explain why it matters to us. Do we want to save forests because our father loved trees? We tell that story. Do we fight for clean air standards because our child has asthma? We tell that story too. Was it an essay by Thoreau that got us living more simply? A film about factory farming that made us stop eating meat? The memory of once common butterflies that have disappeared from our garden which got us campaigning for a carbon cap to rein in climate change? When we relate these stories, we dwell on our eureka moments, knowing they will make a greater impression than a recitation of facts alone.

Of course, we bring facts to the table too, solid ones we're sure of, but not too many at a time. People will ask if they want to know more.

If a friend disagrees with our position, we ask why and listen with an open mind, remembering there is something to be learned on both sides from every exchange.

We are not strident and we know when to stop. If we've described the issue, tied it to the person's interests, told our personal story, and got no reaction, we put the subject to bed.

But if we see a spark of interest, we fan the flame.

In the end, we let the other person decide whether he or she is interested. And we respect the person either way, just as we hope to be respected in turn.

We know there will always be another opportunity for conversation. We keep the doors open.

—Sheryl Eisenberg

Volunteers celebrate Earth Day 2013 by caring for Tryon Creek with stewardship activities in the park

 

The Friends of Tryon Creek welcomed volunteers from Lewis & Clark College, Intel, First United Methodist Church, and SOLV, to help care for the park by removing invasive species at the April 20th annual Elinor Levin Garlic Mustard Day & Earth Day Celebration.

 

Friends' member Stephanie Wagner teaches Intel employees about garlic mustard

 These power-house volunteers pulled enough garlic mustard to fill three big bags, and fifteen cubic yards of ivy!

The ecological health of Tryon Creek State Natural Area depends upon volunteer work parties that tend to the park and its trails: without these stewardship efforts Tryon Creek would be overrun by non-native species that outcompete native plants and threaten the whole ecosystem of the park.  The Friends thank Lewis & Clark, Intel, First United Methodist Church, and SOLV for lending a hand and helping to care for Oregon's only urban state park.

Photo credit: Mike Beard

The Friends' 2013 Trillium Festival Gala: "A great time was had by all"



On March 29th, 2013, the Friends of Tryon Creek and their supporters came together for the first-ever Trillium Festival Gala. Held at Lewis & Clark College, the Gala showcased the importance of environmental engagement with communities. Event goers enjoyed the company of other individuals who share a commitment to environmental preservation and recognize the importance of maintaining a close connection to the natural world throughout one's life.

Oregon Parks & Recreation Director Tim Wood

For more than forty years the Friends, who were the first Friends group in the Oregon State Parks System, have worked hand-in-hand with OPRD to provide opportunities for the public to connect with Tryon Creek. Tim Wood, the Director for OPRD, discussed the value that State Parks bring to Oregonians and acknowledged the people and Friends' groups who support them.



Outdoor School Education Director Dan Prince, 2013 John Gray Award for Excellence in Environmental Education recipient Margaret Eng, and Friends' Executive Director David Cohen

Another Gala highlight was the presentation of the 2013 John Gray Award for Excellence in Environmental Education to Margaret Eng. Eng was an early proponent of the Outdoor School concept and helped nurture the organization during its first few decades. She was the creative force behind its development and integrated new ways of approaching environmental education so as to make it more meaningful to students.


Sam Gray introduces the John Gray Award for Excellence in Environmental Education

The John Gray Award for Excellence in Environmental Education was so named because of the late philanthrophist John Gray's commitment to environmental education programs that bring young people to the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Gray was a great supporter of the Friends and has been instrumental in expanding the organization's ability to connect children from around the region to Tryon Creek State Natural Area. His grandson, Sam Gray, introduced the Award, and reflected on his grandfather's legacy, dedication to the environment, and the many happy memories the two of them shared backpacking in the wilderness.


Guest speaker and celebrated local author Brian Doyle

Brian Doyle, award-winning author, essayist, and editor of the University of Portland's PortlandMagazine, gave a rousing talk about how critical it is to engage people, starting from a very young age, with the natural world. He shared stories of his own children's expeditions and adventures in Tryon Creek State Natural Area, and how fostering that connection created a close bond with the park and natural systems. Doyle's talk was a call-to-arms of sorts, to remind everyone that nature plays a critical role in the health of our bodies and minds: by cultivating experiences with the natural world we nurture our very spirits. Doyle expressed great appreciation for the Friends' environmental education programs and the wonderful opportunities they provide children with to connect with nature.

Toni and Gary Pagenstecher, Friends' Board President, with Fred Harwin and Sharon Hawley

The Trillium Festival Gala proved to be an exceptional evening of conversation, stories, and laughter (accompanied by music, fine wine, and delicious cuisine). There were nostalgic reminders of past experiences in the forest and promises of adventures to come. The Friends of Tryon Creek are grateful to the many supporters who attended the event for their enthusiasm, sponsorship, and dedication to ensuring that Tryon Creek State Natural Area will continue to be a source for excellent opportunities to connect to nature for this and future generations.