The Bird Alliance of Oregon recently completed its purchase of a 12.51-acre property on NE 82nd Avenue across from Leodis V. McDaniel High School. For decades, this overgrown field was known for the graffiti-covered remnants of a golf driving range built on top of a landfilled quarry. Within the next several years, it will become a new wildlife hospital and nature sanctuary for the 122-year-old organization formally known as Portland Audubon.
The organization plans to restore much of the land to its native habitat with nature trails and park space for public use. The site’s proximity to schools and connectivity to the MAX light rail and Portland’s most active bus line made it an ideal location for the Bird Alliance of Oregon to host educational programs and showcase its wildlife viewing opportunities. Portland has limited sites that offer the continuous acres needed for a wildlife hospital and rehabilitation center. The organization operates year-round, providing injured native birds and other wildlife opportunities to return to the wild. This site will support a new building expected to double the floor area of the Bird Alliance’s current Center with the capacity to treat more than 6,000 animals a year. The site’s topography is challenging for any development, and other potential buyers have failed in past attempts to transform it into a large shopping complex.
The Rose City Sand and Gravel company excavated an 80-foot-deep hole in the center of the site during its many years in operation. Around 1972, site owners converted operations to support the H.G. LaVelle landfill. Over the next ten years, they filled the pit with construction debris, including wood products, metals, and rubble, comprising approximately 2 million cubic yards of solid waste. Landfill deposits included rubble from Interstate-205’s construction. When the landfill closed in 1982, operators covered the site with a clay cap, installing a landfill gas extraction unit and methane monitoring equipment to treat decomposing organic material. Building a substantial structure over the clay cap takes significant engineering. However, the perimeter of the former pit is stable ground and suitable for conventional construction.
The Bird Alliance of Oregon embraced the site’s past and actively supports the remediation of brownfield sites like this one, bringing them back to productive use. Earlier this year, the group secured a Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) grant to restore native habitat across the property. They plan to plant hundreds of native trees and create a pollinator habitat underneath and around a two-acre community solar array on the sloped land at the property’s south side. The multiple PCEF grants received by the organization will power the new structures and offset utility costs for around 200 low-income community members while strengthening the urban tree canopy.
The plans for this site align with the Bird Alliance of Oregon’s commitment to climate resiliency and habitat protection. These principles complement the work that started over a decade ago at the adjacent Dharma Rain Zen Center. That group purchased the nearly 14 acres to the east in 2012, restoring it to an urban greenspace with habitat for native plants and animals. They created walking trails open to the community and built several small buildings at the center of their property. Together, these two organizations and Glenhaven Park across the street will preserve a green band in the urban core that will support the surrounding community with accessible natural spaces.
With grant funding available, work could begin next year, clearing old structures. The group plans to add additional soil to the property, giving tree roots the depth needed above the clay landfill cap. Developing new structures on the site will take years and require additional funding. This location will become the Bird Alliance of Oregon’s second Portland metro area site, and they will continue to operate in Northwest Portland along with this planned new facility.
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