Spring into Action

Conservationists work to protect a slice of natural habitat in the middle of the city

By Ellen Spitaleri

The Clackamas Review, Aug 30, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Mark Hughes stands in front of a "beaver reliever," a pipe built underneath a beaver dam to facilitate the flow of water. Hughes is a natural resource ecologist for Portland Parks and Recreation and a volunteer land steward for Minthorn Springs.

ellen spitaleri / Clackamas Review

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Minthorn Springs, just behind Milwaukie Market Place, is a lovely spot to get away from it all – but the wetlands area is really set up as a natural habitat for plants and animals.

One chunk of Minthorn (pronounced Mint-Horn) Springs is owned by The Wetlands Conservancy, and the one-acre Minthorn North Wetland Area, adjacent to the conservancy property, is owned by the City of Milwaukie.

Mart Hughes, a natural resource ecologist for Portland Parks and Recreation, lives near Minthorn Springs, and has worked as a volunteer on all of the seven-and-a-half acres managed by the Wetlands Conservancy.

In fact, Joann Herrigel, the program services administrator for the City of Milwaukie, described Hughes, and fellow volunteer Donald Hammang, as “the stewards of Minthorn.”

She added, “They are both advocates for the environment. They are what got it to where it is today, they are what keep it where it is today and they maintain it in its natural habitat.”

There are pathways in both Minthorn areas, for humans to walk on, but both Hughes and Herrigel counsel caution when entering the area.

A wetland area “should function on its own – it can’t do that with people interfering,” Herrigel explained.

“This little spot provides habitat for Canada Geese, green herons, a lot of ducks, hawks, swifts and swallows,” Hughes added.

He also noted that there is a beaver colony at work at Minthorn Springs, as evidenced by some abandoned beaver dens and chewed up trees.

Herrigel explained that the beavers have created a “huge controversy with water rights. People east of Minthorn use the water that comes through there, and the beavers created havoc by blocking the water.”

Hughes said that the beavers have raised the water level, and in places drowned the willows, but he thinks that is a “good thing.”

He added, “This creates change. In dynamic places, things are destroyed and then regenerate quickly. Having disturbance is a good thing – it makes it function like a wetland.”

In order to alleviate some of the problems caused by the beaver dam, what Hughes calls a “beaver reliever” was constructed.

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