Saturday, November 16
Empire Park (at the northwest corner of the intersection of Hwy 99 & Barger Dr.)
Noon – 1 p.m. Project Tour
1 – 2:30 p.m. – Stewardship Activity
Co-hosted with the City of Eugene
Read more in our November Newsletter!
Join us for a fall project tour and community stewardship event at Empire Park Pond. LTWC and our partners at the City of Eugene Parks & Open Space will be co-hosting a short tour and discussion with a light lunch, followed by a volunteer stewardship activity at 1 p.m. Attendees who wish to stick around to volunteer can help us install native aquatic plugs and trees along the water’s edge. These plants will offer wildlife habitat, filter toxins from the nearby highway, and provide shade to decrease water temperature repress the regrowth of invasive weeds.
Empire Park in northwest Eugene was recently acquired by the City of Eugene Parks & Open Space from the Oregon Department of Transportation. Since 2015 we’ve been partnering with the City on an ongoing project to remove ludwigia (also known as water primrose willow), an extremely aggressive aquatic invasive weed, from this pond and other waterways. Through a series of grants funded by the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s State Weed Board, LTWC and the City of Eugene have been able to successfully repress the population in this pond, which was one of the first sites where we discovered ludwigia in the Amazon Creek Basin. Empire Park Pond is connected to the Amazon Creek A2 channel through stormwater drains. This site is a terrific example of our strong partnership with the City of Eugene, and also how multiple LTWC program areas fit together and have shared goals – urban water quality, invasive weed removal, and riparian planting.
During the project tour and discussion, you’ll hear from City of Eugene Ecologist Lauri Holts on the City’s goals for managing this public space, as well as from LTWC Habitat & Water Quality Specialist Amanda Reinholtz on the ludwigia treatment and planting aspects of the project.
You are welcome to come for just the tour, for the volunteer activity, or both. RSVPs are suggested, especially if you would like to help out with the planting (to give us a better idea of how many people to plan for). RSVP to Rob at operations@longtom.org or 541-338-7055. This is parking available along, and at the end of, Empire Park Drive (see map).
