Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 31, 2009



Forest Park is a municipal and public park in the Tualatin Mountains west of downtown Portland, Oregon. Stretching for more than 8 mi on hillsides overlooking the Willamette River, it is one of the largest urban forest reserves in the United States. The park, a major component of a regional system of parks and trails, covers more than 5100 acre of mostly second-growth forest with a few patches of old growth. About 70 mi of recreational trails, including the Wildwood Trail segment of the city's 40 Mile Loop system, crisscross the park. As early as the 1860s civic leaders sought to create a natural preserve in the woods near Portland. Their efforts led to the creation of a municipal park commission that in 1903 hired the Olmsted Brothers landscape architectural firm to develop a plan for Portland's parks. More than 112 bird species and 62 mammal species frequent the park and its wide variety of trees and shade-loving plants. Many small tributaries of the Willamette River flow northeast through the woods to pipes or culverts under U.S. Route 30 at the edge of the park. Threats to the park include overuse, urban traffic, encroaching development, invasive plants, and lack of maintenance money. Occasional serious crimes and more frequent minor crimes have occurred in the park. (more...)

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