Oregon Public Broadcasting

Sixty years ago this week Portland declared a 3000 acre area as public parkland, creating Forest Park, the largest urban forest reserve in the United States.

Today the Forest Park Conservancy invites residents on a hike marking the park's birthday. For those who can't make it out, we offer an abridged audio tour.

Stephen Hatfield, with the Forest Park Conservancy  is our guide.

He's been teaching and leading backcountry expeditions for years. Today he's taking us to one of his favorite spots, a little-known corner of old-growth forest, on the far north end of Forest Park's holdings.

Hard to believe it survived the logging and development that has shaped Multnomah County.

Stephen Hatfield: "You'll notice when we get there--the geography of it--there's a creek that runs through it and it's  a very steep hillside. It wasn't terribly accessible. Most of this area was logged around 1900 the first time. And then it was again scheduled to be logged in 1990. There was a local timber company that bought most of this land and did cut a good portion of it but this area was spared because we were able to acquire it."

Stephen Hatfield:  ""From this point right here you can obviosuly see a very nice multi-layered canopy, very dense undergrowth a lot of ferns, just like you'd see in Forest Park proper. But also in the mid-level canopy you see a lot of younger western hemlock, a confier that's very well adapted to shade, and then obviously the much taller trees up above that."

This land forms a corridor that protects wildlife. Birds and animals feed and rest here, and it even offers some space for plant species to flourish.

Stephen Hatfield:  ""Vertical lichens here, some of these are known as pixie goblets, they look like little green golf tees. Typical of lichens that grown on dead downwood. You'll also find ones with a little red cap that look like a matchstick. The common name for those is the British Soldier. You'll find them here on this standing stump here. More commonly found in old growth areas where again the deadwood is allowed to stand and decompose."

The diversity of plant life here gives the area some biological resilience that might not otherwise be possible.

Stephen Hatfield:  "This grove in particular I think it's value is just in being so close to Portland. Folks can come  out here and see and example of what the original forest looked like and get a better sense of the existing old growth eco-system--the fact that this is going to be here, I have ayoung daughter, and another on the way. Knowing that kids and their kids will be able to come out here and experience this still is really of tremendous value to me."

Stephen Hatfield:  "You know it's always a Catch -22, you want people to come out here and see it, but you dont' want it to be loved to death. So I always love bringing people out here because I think it's important for people to see it, but we do need to couple that with a sense of stewardship and protection so that it'll be here for generations to come as well."

If you're free at 11:30  Thursday morning, Stephen Hatfield would be happy to walk you through a less-frequently visited part of Forest Park.

Information is available at the Forest Park Conservancy website .