Leach Botanical Garden

The East 5 Community Habitat Enhancement Project at Leach Botanical Garden demonstrates how habitat restoration can advance community-based environmental justice. Since 2018, this 5-acre site in outer SE Portland has served as an outdoor classroom, prioritizing engagement with underserved youth and adults, particularly Black, Brown, Migrant, and Native-identifying communities. This site within Leach Botanical Garden includes a full-sun pollinator meadow, mixed conifer forest, vernal pond, and Johnson Creek.

Volunteers, students, and partners engage in restoration strategies such as invasive species removal, native plantings, plant transects, trail building, place-based field trips, leadership development, and wildlife surveys. Instead of using herbicides or heavy machinery, the project uses a slower, hands-on approach that maximizes learning and engagement. Reciprocity is central to the East 5 mission. As participants give time and energy to the land, the land offers education, connection, and community in return.

Founded through collaboration among six partners—The Blueprint Foundation, Wisdom of the Elders Inc., African Youth & Community Organization, David Douglas High School, Johnson Creek Watershed Council, and Leach Botanical Garden—the project models longstanding, multi-partner collaboration in urban conservation.

Leach Botanical Garden

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East 5 Riparian Cedar Grove

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