Head Coordinator:

Mitch Cruzan, Associate Professor of Biology, PSU
Phone: 503-725-8391  Email: Cruzan@pdx.edu

Field Coordinator:

Bruce Barbarasch, Natural Resources Supervisor, Tualatin Hills Park & Rec. District
Phone: 503-644-8469 x34  Email: BBarbarasch@thprd.com

Overview:

We will be engaged in a collaborative project with urban natural resource managers.  Local agencies have been making efforts to document patterns of biodiviersity and degradation in urban greenspaces. Their ultimate goal is to create a vegetation database that will be used to facilitate prudent decisions for the coordination management efforts and to focus limited resources in the most critical areas. We will contribute to these efforts by:

•  Participating in vegetation sampling in urban greenspaces,

•  Assisting with data entry and analysis,

•  Engaging in community outreach and education,

•  Preparing pamphlets and web content to educate the public concerning invasive species and other sources of natural area degradation.

Our efforts will contribute to vegetation census data bases of local agencies ( Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation, Portland Parks , and METRO), will serve to increase public awareness concerning the propagation of potentially invasive species from residential gardens, and will encourage public participation in the preservation of our parks and natural areas.

Primary goals:

•  Design, execution, and interpretations of ecological experiments.

•  Develop the use of oral, written, and graphical tools for communicating ecological concepts to the general public.

•  Develop an appreciation of the value of urban greenspaces and natural biodiversity to community aesthetics and quality of life.

•  Interaction of human and natural communities in our urban environments.