WES receives $620,000 grant from Metro for the 3-Creeks Natural Area Floodplain Enhancement Project

Clackamas Water Environment Services’ (WES) 3-Creeks Natural Area Floodplain Enhancement Project has been awarded a $620,000 Nature in Neighborhoods Capital grant approved by the Metro Council.

The 3-Creeks Project will protect and improve water quality and fish & wildlife habitat by restoring more than 5,000 feet of Mt. Scott Creek in the 89-acre WES-owned natural area near Clackamas Community College’s Harmony Campus. It will also support climate resiliency by providing increased flood storage and by decreasing the frequency of downstream flooding. Additionally, it will increase visitors’ experiences of nature as WES formalizes use of the site for environmental education in a more natural environment.

The Metro funding will be used to expand WES’ stream and floodplain restoration efforts on the 3-Creeks property.

“WES is grateful to the Metro Council and our Board of Directors for their ongoing support of this project, and to our many partners who supported our grant proposal,” said WES Assistant Director Ron Wierenga.

Those partners include the Clackamas Partnership, Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, Bob’s Red Mill, North Clackamas Parks & Recreation District, Trackers Earth and Trackers Earth Forest School, Clackamas Community College, Linwood Neighborhood District Association, Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership, Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors, and Clackamas Web Academy.

Nature in Neighborhoods is one of six programs funded by the $475 million Parks and Nature bond measure passed by voters in 2019. It provides three-year grants to projects led by community organizations, park providers, local governments and other organizations. The grants are for publicly-owned capital projects, which include buildings, large conservation projects, real estate purchases and other physical projects.

Read Metro’s news release regarding the racial equity-focused Nature in Neighborhood Capital Grants.