Our region is a unique place
The Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area — together with the surrounding rural lands — is a special place. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, the region supports not just 2.1 million people, but a rich diversity of fish, wildlife, and habitats. Salmon continue to spawn in area streams, despite many obstacles, as they have for thousands of years.
The region’s buttes and backyards play host to native bees that pollinate flowers and vegetables, and to migrating orange-crowned warblers and painted lady butterflies that pause to rest and feed on their way north. Local parks are shaded by massive Douglas firs that first started growing in the days of Lewis and Clark; today, the cracks in those conifers’ thick bark serve as roosting spots for the silver-haired bat, which can consume large numbers of mosquitoes as part of its diet. Coho, warblers, butterflies, bats, Douglas firs—these are just some of the myriad native animals and plants that call the Portland-Vancouver area and its environs home.
An ecological crossroads
In addition to the region’s resident species, many non-resident animals pass through, resting and feeding here as they migrate between larger natural areas—those in the Coast Range and Cascades to the east and west, in the Willamette Valley and Puget Trough to the south and north, or to breeding grounds farther north and wintering ground to the south.
Without the region’s network of parks, waterways, backyard habitats, and rural landscapes, some species would not be able to complete their migration, or they would not find suitable habitat when they are pushed out of their home range because of habitat loss or degradation. In the future, connectivity between functioning habitats will become even more important as species attempt to adjust to climate change and habitat loss.
Find yourself on The Intertwine
This is why The Intertwine Alliance is working to raise awareness of the need to preserve the land, water and habitat in the Portland/Vancouver Metropolitan Region. The more we find ourselves on The Intertwine, the deeper our connection to the nature around us.