Cherishing Lake Oswego's Natural Environment

Protecting our natural environment is a core element of making our community more sustainable. The environment, economy, and society make up the three-part lens of sustainability. Society and the economy are completely dependent on the environment and the natural resources that the earth provides. 
 
In Lake Oswego, we are blessed with abundant natural resources: our urban forests, our watershed and streams, the rivers that border our community, our lake and other wetlands, our parks and common spaces, and, of course, beautiful Luscher Farm. 
 
As we enter into summer, we celebrate our natural resources and discuss how we can all help protect and preserve these gifts of the earth for future generations.

LOSN partners with the Oswego Lake Watershed Council (OLWC) in the goal of protecting our natural resources including through the use and promotion of natural climate solutions. OLWC leads restoration of watershed function on private land while the City works to enhance natural resources and their ecological services on City-owned land. 

OLWC also works within the community through the Urban Forest Committees to protect and enhance our urban forest and holds the annual Tree Summit for the community. Additionally, the council is leading the LO Trees Initiative to inventory the urban forest by deploying citizen scientists to help achieve the Lake Oswego Climate Goal of planting or protecting 5000 trees in 5 years.

Healthy Soils Community Science

This July 13th the Oswego Lake Watershed Council will hold their annual “Reveal Your Undies” event. This year 125 pairs of underwear were buried throughout Lake Oswego by participants in the annual “Soil Your Undies” community science project designed to promote understanding of local soil health and soil carbon storage. These undies were buried at the end of April and beginning of May. Participants will dig up their undies during the first week of July and bring them to be displayed. They will also bring a soil sample to be analyzed for carbon content by local high school students. As part of the event there will be educational activities designed to increase awareness of what we need to do in our gardens to promote healthy soil. This is an opportunity to see mycelia attached to roots, wonder at tiny soil residents under a microscope, and observe how soil microorganisms work to glue soil particles together to form aggregates that increase water storage in our soils. The event will be July 13th at the West Waluga Park picnic shelter from 5:00 to 7:00.

You don’t need to have a pair of undies to join us and learn about how to support healthy soil in our gardens. For more information about Soil Your Undies check out https://www.oswegowatershed.org/soil-your-undies-2022/.

Trees Contribute to Saving Energy

We have had a cloudy and rainy spring - but summer heat is coming. When I first moved to Oregon 46 years ago, I was told that summer doesn’t begin until after July 4th. But the heat will come! Trees around our homes help to mitigate that summer heat. The most obvious contribution of trees is shade. The branches and leaves of trees block the sun from reaching the roofs and siding on our houses which keeps a significant amount of heat from our homes and other buildings.

But trees do so much more than that! Through transpiration trees actually lower the temperature of the air. Transpiration is the movement of water from the ground through the tree and into the air. As that water leaves a leaf through the stomata it changes from liquid water into a gas (water vapor) through evaporation. This phase change requires energy. The energy comes from the heat in the air. As that heat energy is used there is a reduction in air temperature. The same phenomenon happens when you spray water on your skin on a hot day.  As the water evaporates your skin feels cooler.

For liquid water to change into water vapor the water molecules need to move faster. The energy for this movement comes from the heat in the air. In this process heat energy in the air is converted into kinetic energy of the moving molecules and the temperature next to the leaves decreases. A forest can be 10 degrees cooler than surrounding open land. Our urban forest, made up from a combination of trees and plants in our gardens and natural areas in our community, actually makes Lake Oswego a cooler place to live. 

For more information see: https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/using-trees-and-vegetation-reduce-heat-islands.

Preparing for Wildfire

Wildfire is a very real risk in our community. There are things we can do both as a community and as individual property owners to help reduce the risk of a catastrophic wildfire in Lake Oswego. We have significant areas of forest on both private and public land that could ignite when things dry out toward the end of summer. It is the dry fuel on the ground that allows fires to start. Then ladder fuel, like small trees and dead branches, can carry a fire into the tops of trees. Add a big wind and we have all of the elements to allow a fire to spread from not only throughout a natural area but into our homes. 

If you remember back to elementary school, we were taught about the fire triangle - heat, oxygen and fuel. We can’t control oxygen in the air. Hopefully we can control the heat necessary for ignition by making sure we don’t allow a fire to start because of a dropped cigarette, illegal fireworks, a spark from landscaping equipment, or mishandling of coals from a barbecue. We can also control the fuels that allow a fire to spread. In the forest that means:

• eliminating ground fuel by removing dead branches on shrubs and trees,
• chipping any fallen branches where material is not in direct contact with the ground,
• making sure flammable materials are a safe distance from the side of our homes and
• keeping our gutters clean.  

The Mt. Park Homeowners Association (MPHOA) and OLWC received a grant from the Oregon Department of Forestry to address wildfire risk. The grant is funding removal of hazardous fuel from 120 acres of common property and education and support for homeowners to address fire risk on their property. Information from this project is also available for others who want to reduce the potential of wildfire on their property.

For more information visit:
https://mtparkhoa.com/hazardous-fuel/
https://www.oswegowatershed.org/explore-the-watershed/land-resilience/

Learn about Portable Heat Pumps: Low-Cost Portable Heating and Cooling

Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Time: 12:00 – 1:30pm
Where: on Zoom: Registration link 
Presented by: Electrify Now
Speaker: Sean Armstrong, electrification expert from Redwood Energy

Come hear a review of available cost-effective portable solutions for heating and cooling single rooms or small apartments. Portable heat pumps can heat or cool your home just like a regular heat pump, but with the additional advantage of being transportable. They come in window mounted options or roller options which are easier to move from room to room. They are a great solution for supplemental heat to reduce your reliance on gas or electric baseboard heating, and since they are portable, they are a great solution for renters.

Download the flyer for more information.

Reveal Your Undies Event 2022

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Time: 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Where: West Waluga Park, 15775 Waluga Dr, Lake Oswego (map)
Presented by: Oswego Lake Watershed Council

Come to the 2022 Reveal Your Undies event! For more information click on https://www.oswegowatershed.org/soil-your-undies-2022/.

Clackamas County Climate Action Survey

Clackamas County is developing a Climate Action Plan and would like input from County residents, businesses, and organizations.  Take the Climate Action Plan survey to respond to initial ideas on how Clackamas County can be carbon-neutral by 2050.

The survey is open until the end of June.

There will also be several community conversations on climate. Check here for more information and dates of future meetings.