Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve in Hillsboro,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, is a wetlands area along the

Tualatin River The Tualatin River is a tributary of the Willamette River in Oregon in the United States. The river is about long, and it drains a fertile farming region called the Tualatin Valley southwest and west of Portland at the northwest corner of the ...

Washington County, Oregon Washington County is one of Oregon counties, 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon and part of the Portland metropolitan area. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded the population as 600,372, making it the second most populous c ...

. Located on the south end of the city along Highway 219, this lowland area is a designated

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

and hosts such birds as buffleheads, dusky

Canada geese The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), sometimes called Canadian goose, is a large species of goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North ...

, and tundra swans.Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve.
Oregon’s Important Bird Areas. Retrieved on January 29, 2012.

History

The

Atfalati The Atfalati , also known as the Tualatin or Wapato Lake IndiansRobert H. Ruby, John A. Brown & Cary C. Collins, Atfalati, in ''A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest'' (3d ed. 2010, University of Oklahoma Press) are a tribe of the ...

band of the

Kalapuya The Kalapuya are a Native American people, which had eight independent groups speaking three mutually intelligible dialects. The Kalapuya tribes' traditional homelands were the Willamette Valley of present-day western Oregon in the United Sta ...

people, who were the first inhabitants of the area, hunted and gathered in the area including hunting

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which i ...

and digging up camas roots. Then when European pioneers settled the area beginning in the 1830s farms were established in the area, with the wetlands area usually not being used due to the annual

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civi ...

. However, bridges were built across the river and steamboats plied the river before the railroads came to the valley.Jackson Bottom Concept Master Plan.
City of Hillsboro. Retrieved on October 4, 2007. In 1910 the city of Hillsboro began using the Jackson Bottom area for water waste disposal. By the 1930s farmers in the community protested the

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of Body of water, water bodies, with a negative impact on their uses. It is usually a result of human activities. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and ...

that resulted from waste dumping into the river. Then in 1939 the city purchased part of the area and began using it as a sewer farm that produced a variety of produce and the city made some money off the venture. By the 1970s the city had acquired most of the land in that area, stopped using the farm, and let the area become

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

. Next, in 1980 the Jackson Bottom Coordinated Resource Management Plan was developed and the area was transformed into a wetlands area. In 1999, the wetlands received a National Wetlands Award for Education and Outreach from the

Environmental Law Institute The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., that seeks to "make law work for people, places, and the planet" through its work as an environmental law educator, convener, pub ...

. Cougar sightings in June 2014 closed trails on several occasions.

Features

This area contains forest areas along the river bank, a forested wetland area,

ponds A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression, either naturally or artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing the two, although defining a pond t ...

, marshes,

meadows A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable condition ...

, slough areas, and a forest section of mixed deciduous and conifer trees. Jackson Bottom is home to a diverse group of plant and animal species. Animals that call the wetlands home include

beavers Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...

, minks,

nutria The nutria () or coypu () (''Myocastor coypus'') is a herbivore, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent from South America. Classified for a long time as the only member of the family Myocastoridae, ''Myocastor'' has since been included within Echimy ...

, ducks, blue and green herons, warblers, frogs, owls, red-tailed hawks, woodpeckers, opossums,

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

, raccoons, newts, sparrows, finch, coyotes, and many other small rodents, birds, and reptiles. Migratory

include northern pintails, canvasbacks, blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, dusky Canada geese, and tundra swans. Plant life there includes dogwood trees, Douglas fir, white oak, cocklebur, Columbia River sedge, red willow, Oregon ash, and other grass and tree species. Human oriented features of Jackson Bottom include

hiking A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. "Hi ...

trails, an education center, environmental monitoring and research, and bird watching.Recreation.
Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.

Wetlands Nature Center

Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve Education Center

On September 27, 2003, the Wetlands Education Center opened at Jackson Bottom. The building is used to educate visitors of the wetlands and includes an exterior deck that wraps around the structure. This building houses a

classroom A classroom, schoolroom or lecture room is a learning space in which both children and adults learn. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, ranging from preschools to universities, and may also be found in other place ...

, nature store, and

exhibits An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

. In January 2007 the Nature center received a new natural exhibit piece. Inside the building is an intact

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

nest. This , 1,500 pound

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold Egg (biology), eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of ...

is believed to be the only intact nest on display in the United States. The nest was built in 2001 by an eagle family along the Tualatin River and removed in 2005 when the tree it was built on began falling down. Inside the nest are the remains of the animals the eagles dined on including

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

and other birds. With a grant from Intel, the Nature Center hosts a Capricorn™ Weather Station with meteorological data available to the public via Weather Underground and widgets on their website. Jackson Bottom also conducts many education programs in cooperation with local schools, operates

summer camp A summer camp, also known as a sleepaway camp or residential camp, is a supervised overnight program for children conducted during the summer vacation from school in many countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer residential camps ...

programs, and has a teacher

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

program. These are all designed to increase knowledge about wetlands,

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

resources, and preservation of the natural environment.Programs & Activities.
Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.

References

External links

*
Environmental Protection Agency
{{Hillsboro Oregon 1980 establishments in Oregon Important Bird Areas of the United States Nature centers in Oregon Nature reserves in Oregon Parks in Hillsboro, Oregon Protected areas of Washington County, Oregon Wetlands of Oregon Landforms of Washington County, Oregon Protected areas established in 1980

History

Features

Wetlands Nature Center

See also

References

External links