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i ' ~~vv~i'Rrirv; i ~ Never far away, the mighty Willamette fiJlltftftfy - ~ srev3nOri `""'n~~w~, ~sn mi~~a ~ flowed pastthemall. Beavers dammed its ~ savanna yns,~wvv;, "~namforesr, tributaries or built their dens on the shifting ,t~N,yVU~t~ r~ 1 ^ backwaters of the main river, sharing the j ~ ~~~-i( ~ waters and river edge with other mammals Skinner Iz 3 1 such as otter, muskrat, mink, and raccoon. Butte ~ ~~~99 Osprey and bald eagles rode the warm Park updrafts from Skinner Butte, soaring over ~,n the river waters in search of native cutthroat M.ry~trlfu'U~~~~ ~ .;mac.:: ; trout, pike-minnow or pea-mouth. upland prairie Seasonal migrations of salmon and steelhead filed past the butte on their way L ~ gale to the ocean, or returning to the gravel beds Q of their conception. ~ j ~ Figure 1: Historic When the Burning Sto ed v Vegetation Patterns pp This diagram, derived from rose, poison oak and other drought tolerant Although fur trappers visited the area _i federal land surveys c. 1850, decades earlier, the era of Euro-American shows vegetation types shrubs grew among the grasses and settlers was heralded by the arrival of around Skinner Butte Park wildflowers of the butte and its gently Eugene and Mary Skinner in 1846 (see ~ ~ sloping flanks. "Euro-American Settlement," this chapter). ~ This closed the book on thousands of years Along the Willamette, mammoth of gradual evolution of ecological j cottonwoods, alder and bigleaf maple ' shaded the river terraces wheresnowberry, interrelationships, and opened a new dogwood and herbaceous perennials chapter of unprecedented change for the flowered in the wet spring months. The Plant and animal species of the area. i upper banks of the river, high enough to be ~ flooded only very rarely, may have also Most dramatically, even before the ~ Skinner s arrival, the fires of the Kalapuya ~ been dotted with a few Oregon white oak, had mostly stopped (see "The Kalapuya," mixed with the occasional bigleaf maple this chapter), and the landscape had begun and Douglas fir. The low banks were a to change. As settlers claimed the land in series of wandering gravel bars, islands, the upper Willamette valley, the remaining channels and slou hs s routin with g P g survivors of the Kalapuya people were ~ willows, alder and cottonwood in all stages „ of succession, In some places, the river resettled to reservations, and the fires and its network of gravelly braids may have they used as a tool to manage the land regularly wandered over an area up to a stopped altogether. Although the irregular mile wide. cycle of burning used by the Kalapuya is arguably not a natural phenomenon, it had [ 'i The area that today is Skinner Butte Park nevertheless, over several thousand years, j brought about a unique and diverse was likely part of a rich landscape with Regular fires created abundant wildlife. Before settlers arrived, ecosystem dependent upon that cycle. ~ the Qpen prairie black bear and grizzly bear roamed the When the burning stopped, the days were J landscape fhaf mountain slopes and prairies, foraging on numbered for the broad grasslands and dominated fhe area berries and occasionally taking the young scattered oaks of the Willamette Valley. prior to 185D or weak of the abundant blacktail deer. Since natural, lightning-strike fires are rare ( Coyote and fox hunted the forest edges and in the landscape of the Willamette Valley brush patches for cottontail rabbits, field and western Oregon, there are few natural mice and other small mammals. The skies forces, other than flooding and erosion, that i, were patrolled by great raptors like the ' golden eagle, red-tailed hawk and many maintain an open landscape. Without others. Elk herds migrated back and forth burning, other taller and faster growing trees such as Dou las fir and bi leaf ma le between the mountains and -the lowland g g P ' ' meadows, following the greenest pastures quickly grow up and shade out the more ~ - of the season. ~ Skinner Butte Park • Master Plan 2001 21