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i I Skinner Butte Park lies along the southern The landscape around Skinner Butte Park ~ bank of the Willamette River. Several river was once very different. According to terraces are evidence of flooding activity federal surveys carried out in the 1850s, of varying frequency. The lower and mid much of the Willamette Valley landscape terraces flood on a more frequent cycle was a vast and open grassland, extending - than the upper terrace or "main terrace", south into the foothills and sweeping where the majority of park improvements northward to the banks of the Columbia such as the playground, restrooms, .River (see Figure 1). The springtime , i Campbell Senior Center, etc. are now brought a tide of purple to the prairie as Skinner Butte and located. Contemporary development and the native camas bloomed, giving way to the Willamette River ' human activity has dramatically changed the golden yellow of tarweed, or native the character and hydrology of the sunflower, in the later summer. Oregon are the dominant Willamette River (see Chapter 4). white oak punctuated the grassland, where geographic features ~ single trees or small groves had grown of the park Soils in Skinner Butte Park range from large enough to resist the effects of regular deep, well-drained alluvium (Chapman and fires set by the Kalapuya natives (see "The i Malabon-Urban land complex) to relatively Kalapuya," this chapter). Ash groves thin and rocky soils derived from the spread out over low-lying, seasonally ~ basaltic core of Skinner Butte. Many soils flooded areas, and the continually shifting i , ~ in the park have been changed and channels of the Willamette River and its disturbed by human activities. tributaries were marked by a broad band ~i i of towering cottonwood, alder, bigleaf maple, willow and others in diverse stages Flora and Fauna of succession. i The plants and animals living in and around Skinner Butte rose above the Willamette Skinner Butte Park have changed River where the sweeping prairie spilled ' dramatically over the past 150 years or so. over the high south bank. Several tough, Some have disappeared, and others are drought-resistant oaks grew here and there thriving. It is part of the legacy of Euro- on the thin soil on its ridges and summit, American settlement and urban with perhaps a handful of Douglas fir on develo ment that will be an im ortant ~ P P the north side of the butte. Patches of wild interpretive theme for the park. It is a theme dominated by change, and how continually shifting cultural attitudes affect the Evidence of beavers can still i - be found in Skinner Butte ` ' landscape. The following description helps s Park, like this beaver-gnawed ~ to provide a basic frame for the scope of tree i that change, from its probable condition , ~i prior to Euro-American settlement to a modern, urban park. ' , When fhe Grizzly Bear Roamed I Because of the diversity of habitats found <; there, Skinner Butte Park was home to a ~ ` , rich variety of plants and animals. Although ~ r: a future habitat management study will develop a much more complete list of F~,, plants and animals found there today (see ~ ~ C Chapter 6, Implementation Plan), it is ' helpful to get an overview of what one might r T ~ ~ have seen before the time of Euro- o~ ~ American settlement. , 7 4~i ~ _•4y 1.: ¢ . i 20 Chapter 2: Natural History and Cultural Context