Tideman Johnson Natural Area is a city park of about in southeast

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

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 ...

. Located at Southeast 37th Avenue and Tenino Street along Johnson Creek, the site is named for a mid-19th century family named Johnson that encouraged public use of its land along the creek. The park has paved and unpaved paths for hiking. A loop trail and boardwalk off the

Springwater Corridor The Springwater Corridor Trail is a bicycle and pedestrian rail trail in the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon, United States. It follows a former railway line from Boring, Oregon, Boring through Gresham, Oregon, Gresham to Portland, Oregon, P ...

runs through the park.

Ecology

A good area for bird-watching, the park attracts

owls Owls are birds from the Order (biology), order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly Solitary animal, solitary and Nocturnal animal, nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vis ...

, pigeons,

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species living in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

s, and

heron Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bi ...

s. In late spring and early summer, Tideman Johnson's big-leaf maples,

alder Alders are trees of the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species ex ...

s, and other trees are frequented by

warbler Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous. Sylvioid warblers T ...

grosbeak Grosbeak is a form taxon containing various species of seed-eating passerine birds with large beaks. Although they all belong to the superfamily Passeroidea, these birds are not part of a natural group but rather a polyphyletic assemblage of d ...

s and

mourning dove The mourning dove (''Zenaida macroura'') is a member of the dove Family (biology), family, Columbidae. The bird is also known as the American mourning dove, the rain dove, the chueybird, colloquially as the turtle dove, and it was once known a ...

s. Other birds commonly seen in the park include

sapsucker The sapsuckers are species of North American woodpeckers in the genus ''Sphyrapicus''. Taxonomy and systematics The genus ''Sphyrapicus'' was introduced in 1858 by the American naturalist Spencer Baird with the yellow-bellied sapsucker (''Sph ...

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family (biology), family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme ...

chickadee The chickadees are a group of North American birds in the family Paridae included in the genus '' Poecile''. Species found in North America are referred to as chickadees; species found elsewhere in the world are called tits. They are small-si ...

s, and

bushtit The bushtits or long-tailed tits are small passerine birds from the family (biology), family Aegithalidae, containing 13 species in three genera, all but one of which (''Psaltriparus'') are found in Eurasia. Bushtits are active birds with long t ...

s. During a restoration project completed in 2006, workers identified 22 fish species in the creek at Tideman Johnson and counted 23

Chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Oncorhynchus, Pacific salmon. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other vernacular names for the species include king salmon, quinn ...

and 107

steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the Fish migration#Classification, anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout (''O. m. gairdneri'', also called redband steelhead). Steelhead are native to cold-wa ...

trout.

Maintenance

Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) undertook the 2006 project to repair a sewer line that runs through the park. In 1922, when it was constructed, the

Lents The Lents neighborhood in the Southeast section of Portland, Oregon is bordered by SE Powell Blvd. on the north, the Clackamas County line or City of Portland line on the south (whichever is farther south), SE 82nd Ave. to the west, and roughly ...

Interceptor sewer was buried about beneath Johnson Creek. Over the years, the stream washed away the fill above the pipe, exposing it to possible damage. Workers surrounded the pipe with concrete during the project and covered it with rock. They also reshaped stream banks, planted 5,300 trees and shrubs, and added boulders and woody debris to the stream to prevent erosion and improve fish habitat.

Notes and references

;Notes ;References

External links

Johnson Creek Watershed Council
{{Protected Areas of Oregon 1940 establishments in Oregon Parks in Southeast Portland, Oregon Protected areas established in 1940 Urban public parks