Baltimore Woods is a green fringe of oak and maple trees towering over the neighborhood north of Cathedral Park. It anchors the Willamette bluff, standing as a buffer between riverside industry and downtown St. Johns residents. and providing shelter to native plants and animals. Friends of Baltimore Woods (FOBW) formed in 1998 as a group of neighbors who set out to protect this mature canopy cover between North Baltimore and Catlin streets from increasing pressure of development in the neighborhood.
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Jim Barnas and Barbara Quinn, with Friends of Baltimore Woods, about what happens when a group of neighbors get together to preserve a woodland in the midst of their neighborhood. Friends of Baltimore Woods envisioned saving a small wooded lot so local kids could learn about nature. They ended up preserving a 30-acre corridor of Oregon oak woods, and meadows that will someday house the North Portland Greenway Trail.