Volunteers take a hack at blackberry bushes

Raindrops to Refuge is clearing the invasive bushes to make way for native plants

By Anthony Roberts

The Sherwood Gazette, Jan 4, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Anthony Roberts / Sherwood Gazette

Raindrops to Refuge AmeriCorps intern Leslie Bliss Ketchum and Trisha Jackson pull at a thick patch of invasive blackberry bushes.

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Even a small patch of invasive blackberry plants is enough to give a gardener a serious headache. Unfortunately for volunteers from Raindrops to Refuge (R2R), the patches they found themselves hacking away at in December were anything but small.

Volunteers from the nonprofit group took to a wetland area in the Woodhaven development, near the intersection of Woodhaven Drive and Pinehurst, on Saturday morning, Dec. 9, to pull out two large patches of the invasive species. The goal was to clear a patch of ground for native species.

"In two or three months we'll be planting hundreds of native plants," according to Leslie Bliss Ketchum, an AmeriCorps intern who works with Raindrops to Refuge. Ketchum was hacking at a patch of blackberry bushes with a shovel, and then ripping the branches out with fellow volunteer Trisha Jackson. The two arrived first, but got some welcome help from Rick Ross, a board members of Raindrops to Refuge and vice president of the Sherwood Chamber of Commerce. Ross, who owns Ross Vineyards and is no stranger to pruning, brought a small chainsaw.

Part of the problem with blackberry bushes is that they thrive in sunlight, so open expanses like the Woodhaven wetland plot can provide a perfect breeding ground. They will also tolerate poor soil. In addition, Ketchum said, their thorns are sharper than some other bushes, creating a "cat-scratch" effect. Once they invade, their branches form a dense, almost impenatrable tangle.

The wetland restoration project is being funded by a grant from Metro's Nature to Neighborhoods program. Metro awarded $560,000 to schools, governments and nonprofit agencies within its jurisdiction to do such work in May, and will award another $360,000 in 2007. The funding is from a two-year, $1 million grant program for nature-friendly projects that protect habitat for fish, wildlife and people.

"This grant program has proved to be very successful and is making a significant difference on the ground," said Metro Councilor Rod Park. "Projects such as ... the work on Osborne and Beaver Creeks in the eastern part of the region, where stream corridors have been restored, are having positive effects on the environment and the people and animals that use it."

Raindrops to Refuge is a Sherwood-based nonprofit group formed in 2001 to educate and protect Sherwood's three watersheds. The watersheds are formed by three streams, Rock Creek South, Cedar and Chicken creeks, and cover 23-square miles. These watersheds are part of the Tualatin River Basin, which spans more than 700 square miles.