Community Science in Action: The 2025 Soil Your Undies Challenge
A playful project with a powerful message about the importance of soil health.
This spring, the Oswego Lake Watershed Council invited residents to take part in a hands-on experiment with a quirky name and a serious purpose: the Soil Your Undies Challenge.
Making the Most of the Rain: Our Journey to a Thriving Urban Habitat
Rain, rain, go away… is that how you feel during the long Pacific Northwest rainy season? If so, I encourage you to see that rain not as an inconvenience but as an opportunity. With the right approach, you can harness rainfall to support your landscape through water features, rain barrels, and rain gardens. By incorporating native and drought-tolerant plants, you’ll reduce your summer watering needs, improve soil health, and create a low-maintenance, ecologically beneficial space.
Beavers: Nature’s Engineers at Work
Beavers may be best known for their dams, but these remarkable animals are increasingly recognized as powerful partners in restoring ecosystems. Learn how beavers shape resilient landscapes—without machines, chemicals, or blueprints.
Seed Libraries: The Contents are Growing
Libraries, long known for sowing ideas, are now helping the community sow seeds and build a community around seed sharing. Lake Oswego now has at least two seed libraries, one run by the Lake Oswego Public Library and the other by Friends of Tryon Creek.
Pollinator Partners Assemble!
You might remember these striking photographs showing the impact of pollinators on our food choices – these photos show the produce section of a Whole Foods market with, and without, fresh produce made available because of pollinators:What is pollination? Pollination...
Thinking Beyond Lawn Towards Living Landscapes
Anna’s hummingbird feeding on Red Flowering CurrantPhoto credit: Mary Ann Whitney-HallArticle submitted by Peter Katon, Design Native Northwest LLCThe signs of early spring are exhilarating; the iridescent Anna’s Hummingbird darting in and out of the brilliant pink...
Wildfire Resilience
What is Lake Oswego Forest Resiliency? The idea of land resilience and community involvement requires a coupling of social and ecological resilience in rapidly changing landscapes affected by our warming climate. Land management is strongest when it adopts multiple...
Watershed Health
Characteristics of a Healthy Watershed A healthy watershed is vital to maintaining a balanced and thriving ecosystem. Key characteristics include: Dense Native Vegetation and Tree Canopy: Supports biodiversity and helps stabilize the environment. Stable Soils: Capable...
Dealing with Winter Storms
In light of the most recent storm, our hearts go out to the 30+ residents who have had trees fall on their homes, and hundreds more whose homes have been damaged by tree limbs and freezing pipes. Many of us have endured days without power and heat. We grieve, as at...
A Brief Geologic Journey Back in Time in Lake Oswego
Like everywhere on earth, today’s varied landscapes in Lake Oswego can be traced back to the rocks and earth forces of the past.