(Milwaukie, OR) — A generous holiday season donation of $75,000 from local business Oregon Worsted Company has completed Johnson Creek Watershed Council’s fundraising campaign for the Salmon Habitat Interpretive Boardwalk at the Johnson Creek Tacoma MAX Station.
“I am proud to support this project, which will help MAX riders and the whole community connect with this important ecological habitat,” said Nancy Bishop Dietrich, President of Oregon Worsted Company. “It’s exciting to see over 100 diverse community members and institutions step forward to support this project.”
The Roy and Wilma Bishop Interpretive Walk, named for the 1918 founders of the family-owned Oregon Worsted Company, will feature information about Johnson Creek ecology and history, and overlooks a newly constructed habitat for threatened native Coho and Chinook salmon and steelhead trout in Johnson Creek.
The 220-foot-long boardwalk will lead from the station platform to a viewing space overlooking the Johnson Creek natural habitat site.
Phase One of the project, developing the natural habitat site, was completed in the summer of 2013, and was supported by a broad group of funders including East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Oregon Wildlife, PGE Habitat Fund, and Soil Solutions.
The Johnson Creek Watershed Council began raising funds for the project in 2012 as part of a coalition of public and nonprofit stakeholders known as the Creek Committee. The Creek Committee includes TriMet, Ardenwald – Johnson Creek Neighborhood, Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League, Friends of Trees and City of Portland. Over 100 individual and local business donors also supported the project, and their names will be engraved in the handrail of the boardwalk.
Construction has begun on Phase Two the project, the Interpretive Boardwalk, which is slated for completion in the spring of 2015. A public dedication ceremony is being planned to unveil the new interpretive panels and boardwalk.
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