Thank you for caring about this planet, and especially our corner of it. To celebrate Earth Day, here are a few photos of a wetland restoration planting of willows GHCC (formerly HCPC) did nearly a decade ago. They're all grown up! Makes us proud. From a small scale (individual restoration sites) to large (Blue Mountain Forest Plans), we're working tirelessly on behalf of the wild species and spaces of the Greater Hells Canyon Region. We couldn't do this work without your support!
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Brock Evans in Hells Canyon | |
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It's time to register for Hellraiser!
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Our Hellraiser event in Portland is just over a month away, and we want YOU to attend! We've really lined up a showstopper with guest speaker Kathleen Dean Moore; a full dinner; a social hour with drinks, music, beer wall, advocacy table, and buy-it-now gifts; and a live auction featuring some of the best travel adventures to be had in the Pacific Northwest.
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Field Notes, 4/8/19: Spring in Hells Canyon Spring is the right time to be in Hells Canyon. Between the mud and silence of winter and the inferno of summer (it’s called Hells Canyon for a reason, remember) is a brief window of soft warm rain and rapid greening. The green flushes first in the seeps and along the waterways: miner’s lettuce, biscuitroot, non-native pasture grasses on the big benches, and brodiaea lilies and chokecherry beginning to leaf out and bloom blue and white. The sky this time of year is gray or piebald and the creeks are high. Like this one, for example: Corral Creek, which I had to cross early in my trek from Pittsburg Landing to Kirkwood Historic Ranch on April 8th. This water was up to my thighs. Or like Kirkwood Creek itself: luckily there’s a bridge at the ranch, but that creek was was running so high and mightily that I could hear the rocks in its bed being forcefully tumbled and pounded in the white water—it sounded like thunder... (Continue reading on the blog.)
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Any bumbles buzzing about?
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GHCC is participating in the Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas (a bumble bee conservation project using citizen science) to help survey our native pollinators. Keep your antennae tuned for dates for volunteer pollinator surveys upcoming in some of the wilder corners of our mission area later this summer. In the meantime, check out the PNW Bumble Bee Atlas website to learn more about the project, and how you can become a citizen scientist--even if you can't make it to one of our survey events.
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GHCC works to connect, protect, and restore the diverse and beautiful Greater Hells Canyon Region its native species. Your support makes our work possible. Thank you! Darilyn Parry Brown, Executive Director
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Upcoming Events
- May 23: Chesnimnus Creek volunteer outing (details coming soon)
- June 1: Hellraiser 2019, Portland OR
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Interesting Bits - The hellbender, also known as the spotted water gecko or "snot otter," is a giant salamander found in the rivers of eastern North America. They can grow up to TWO FEET. While once abundant, they are officially considered "near threatened." - "The species has persisted, mostly unchanged, since the age of dinosaurs. The recent decline in their population is due, in part, to sediment-ation, which suffocates their eggs and blocks entry to their hideaways under rocks. There’s also concern about pollutants, human predators — including fishermen who mistakenly believe that hellbenders negatively affect trout populations — and the habitat disruption that occurs when people move river rocks." - The hellbender was recently named the official state animal of Pennsylvania. "As the young members of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Pennsylvania Student Leadership Council envisioned when they began pushing the idea to state legislators, having a critter like the eastern hellbender, which is completely dependent on clean, well-oxygenated, fast-flowering water, as the state symbol is great public relations for clean water."
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Thank you to the Wilburforce foundations for supporting our conservation work!
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GHCC Wishlist
We're always looking for a few things. Your donation is tax deductible, and helps us save time and money. Thank you!
- 1st class stamps
- Postcard stamps
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