On a Saturday morning in early May, a group of neighborhood volunteers had a work session to clean up the Alameda Ridge public stairs that climb from Wisteria to Alameda near 44th Avenue. As mentioned in past newsletters, former BWNA Board member Dave Whitaker “adopted” these particular stairs on behalf of the neighborhood a few years ago and obtained grants to completely replant the stair beds. Dave, who routinely facilitates maintenance and upkeep work on the stairs, had garnered yet another small grant from Portland Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) to add additional native plants to fill in some voids in the flora. Over a dozen plants—such as delphinium, red flowering currant, sea thrift, and others—were planted in the May session, as well as installation of a couple mason bee houses to entice pollinators to the area. Besides planting, the work involved trimming back laurel and ivy, weeding, sweeping stairs, and removing graffiti from signs. The small group of energetic Beaumont-Wilshire volunteers received many thanks from passersby using the stairs as a shortcut walking route or as part of an aerobic exercise routine. One such user from the Rose City Park area even stayed beyond her normal workout to help the group with weeding and cleanup. Neighbors abutting the stairs also got into the act by providing water and by lending extra yard bins for collection of material from the cleanup efforts.
There are two other Alameda Ridge public stairs in the B-W neighborhood, and if you and your neighbors would like to “adopt” either one of these, the BWNA board would be happy to assist in securing of grants for planting and in recruiting volunteers to participate in cleanup events. Contact BWNA board President Tim Hemstreet if interested (president@bwna.us).