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About Metro › Metro Council › Councilor Rex Burkholder
Baltimore Woods was in limbo. While the recession kept developers at bay, the area gave rise to weeds, litter and neglect.
But neighbors around the 30-acre corridor in North Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood saw the land as a community asset. And with the support of a Metro Nature in Neighborhoods capital grant, the woods were given a new lease on life.
On the first day of school, James John Elementary's 500 students will get the tools they need to succeed thanks to a $7,500 community enhancement grant from Metro. Through a partnership with Schoolhouse Supplies, every child enrolled at the school will receive a new backpack full of classroom supplies.
Schoolhouse Supplies, a nonprofit dedicated to providing Portland Public Schools with the supplies students need to learn, coordinates the effort. The program is aimed at providing relief for parents, who spend an average of $96 on school supplies per child each year, as well as teachers, who sometimes contribute hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for classroom supplies.
Each September, volunteers from throughout the region gather along trails to count and survey people biking and walking on the Intertwine – the Portland metropolitan area's system of trails, parks and natural areas. The count is part of the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation project’s ongoing effort to gather accurate trail use data to help decided where and when to build new trails and respond to the needs of trail users.
Civic involvement isn't the only incentive to join Metro's new Opt In opinion panel: If you join by March 15, you'll be eligible to win one of five $50 cash gift cards you can use anywhere. "I believe we need more people 'Opting In,'" says one winner of February's prize drawings. "We need people to engage in the discussion to make this community a better place to live."
Metro's
new Opt In online panel has signed up more than 1,000 members, an
encouraging participation milestone for the new research panel. Metro’s
goal is to reach 10,000 Opt In panelists from the Portland-Vancouver
area providing input into decisions affecting their communities. Join
the panel by Feb. 15 to be entered in a drawing for five $100 Powell’s
gift certificates.
Have you joined Opt In yet? More than 500 of your neighbors in the region have already signed up to participate in Metro's new online panel. Here are five good reasons you should, too.
If you love nature, enjoy working with children and have access to personal transportation, consider becoming a volunteer naturalist by attending Nature University. But hurry: Applications for the 2011 training course are due Nov. 4.
If you're looking to help restore native plants or simply want to take a relaxing nature hike after work, Metro has an activity for you. This week, join Metro to explore the new Chehalem Ridge Natural Area, learn about river bugs at Oxbow and check out wild animals at Smith and Bybee. Most of the events are free and registration can be completed online. Follow the links below for more information.
Learn about native plants, find inspiration for your own yard and dig in to restore and preserve natural areas throughout the Portland metropolitan region. Metro's Native Plant Center is hosting the first of several volunteer workshops on Saturday, June 19 from 9 a.m to 1 p.m. Participants will help with seed collection, seed harvesting, maintaining grow-out beds and composting while learning about native plant reproduction. No prior gardening experience is necessary.
Rex Burkholder represents District 5, which includes Northwest Portland, North Portland, Northeast Portland, downtown Portland, a portion of Southwest Portland and a portion of Southeast Portland.
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