Author: Steve Davis

Overview

2025 was a strong and productive year for Friends of Pier Park. Through partnerships, grants, volunteers, and community support, we advanced key projects, expanded educational programs, and strengthened our financial position to support the park into the future.

Projects and Programs

Pier Park Pool Reopening

When the Pier Park Pool closed due to major maintenance issues at the start of the 2024 summer season, we made it a priority to work with Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) to ensure the pool was not permanently closed. That advocacy paid off. PP&R secured the necessary resources to complete major repairs and improvements, and we celebrated the reopening of the Pier Park Pool in mid-July for the summer season.

Learn more at

• 3 Pools, 3 Neighborhoods, 2 Outcomes
• Repairs Planned for Pier Pool
• Community Advocacy Leads to City Repairs.

Next Door Nature and School Partnerships

We expanded our Next Door Nature Program through our ongoing partnership with Sitton Elementary School. Students learned about the importance of native species while gaining hands-on experience in the park.

For the fifth consecutive year, 5th grade students continued the Understory Enhancement Program by installing native plants in areas formerly mowed beneath the Douglas fir canopy. With a grant from the Portland Garden Club, we also launched a new Pollinator Garden Program with the 3rd graders. Students learned about pollinators and installed a large pollinator garden along the path near the corner of North James Street and Bruce Avenue.

Together, these projects added more than 1,000 new native plants to Pier Park.

Music in the Park

We continued our tradition of bringing live music to Pier Park, this time by partnering with PP&R’s Summer Free for All Program. Rather than self-producing concerts, we applied for and were awarded a professionally produced show. This marked the fourth consecutive year of music in the playground meadow, and thanks to PP&R’s outstanding production, it was the best-attended and most successful concert we’ve hosted to date.

Volunteer Work Parties

Volunteer work parties remained an important part of our stewardship efforts, helping remove invasive species and maintain park infrastructure. We had a strong turnout for our spring SOLVE Earth Day event. Unfortunately, weather and staffing challenges prevented us from hosting a fall No Ivy Day event. Individual members also helped on other smaller projects throughout the year. We look forward to continuing both programs in 2026.

Learn more at 2025 Pier Park Pick-Up Review.

Frisbee Friends of Pier Park Disc Golf Tournament

In August, we hosted another successful Frisbee Friends of Pier Park Disc Golf Tournament. We are grateful to our primary sponsor, IQ Credit Union, as well as our tee sign sponsors and the tournament players for their generosity. The tournament raised over $2,500, all of which will be reinvested in park and disc golf course improvements.

Financial Report

We began the year with a treasury balance of $14,235. In 2025 we spent $9,315  on projects, programs, and operations. Grants and donations received in 2025 leave us in a strong financial position that allows us to confidently continue supporting our key projects and programs through 2026.

Our major financial contributors for 2025 programming were:

• Portland Garden Club
• Portland Parks Foundation
• Whole Foods NW Store
• IQ Credit Union
• Autzen Foundation

Thank you to all of our partners, volunteers, sponsors, and community members who made 2025 such a successful year.

Looking Ahead to 2026

In 2026, Friends of Pier Park will continue building on the momentum of this successful year. We plan to continue our environmental education partnerships, support ongoing habitat restoration and invasive species removal, and maintain our commitment to community events that bring people together in the park. With a strong volunteer base, solid partnerships with Portland Parks & Recreation, and a healthy financial position, we are well prepared to support Pier Park as a welcoming, vibrant, and ecologically resilient community resource.

2022 was another good year for Friends of Pier Park. As we recovered from the worst of the COVID pandemic, increasing numbers of visitors started coming back to enjoy the park. Meanwhile, we continued to maintain and strengthen partnerships with several outside organizations that helped us deliver significant progress on some established programs and add new ones.

We began the year with $8745 in our treasury. We spent $7184 on projects and programs. We received $5150 in grants and $950 in donations. We ended the year with $7635.

Projects and Programs:

Adding Plants – improving the environment

We purchased many more plants for two projects that we started in 2021. The Pier Park “Understory Enhancement” project added native plants under the big tree canopy in areas that were formerly being mowed. These areas better represent a natural multilevel Northwest forest understory, add visual interest, and add food and improved habitat for many animal species.

The “Woodland Garden” project added flowering plants to the gardens intended as a showplace where visitors can rest and relax. These are located adjacent to the main paths near the covered picnic area and the Playground Meadow. Both of these projects were conceived and executed in partnership with the Portland Parks and Recreation maintenance and horticulture staff.

Educating youth – enabling lifelong love of nature

With the help of a Live Greener grant from the Portland Trail Blazers
Foundation, we were able to continue the “Next-Door Nature” youth
component of our Understory Enhancement program with our partners:

• Sitton Elementary
• The Columbia Slough Watershed Council and Confluence.

This annual project engages the head, heart, and hands of 5th-grade students at Sitton through environmental education, hands-on planting, and what our roles are as earth stewards for the care of the outdoors and each other. Kids learn about our watershed and how to protect it. They learn about the benefits of native plants and how to plant them and they receive guidance from Native American artist/educators on the importance of having a strong sense of place and connection to our landscape.

Our goal is to continue to offer “Next-Door Nature” every year
going forward, if we can keep our funding up.

Volunteer Work Parties – engaging the community and improving the
environment

We hosted three major park clean-up events in 2022:

• Partnering with Solve for Earth Day in the spring
• Partnering with the University of Portland’s Pamplin School of Business students and Rebuilding Together for a second spring cleanup
• Partnering with PP&R for a fall No Ivy Day event.
• We also assisted PP&R and Stumptown Disc Golf with installing new disc golf tee pads on winter layout holes. These all-volunteer maintenance efforts make a big difference in keeping our park a unique and special place.

A big thank you goes out to the many volunteers who have joined us on those days.

Music in the Park/Pickleball Clinic – engaging community, attracting
neighbors

Early in the year Will Lewis, a Pier Park neighbor and professional sound engineer, approached us with the idea that the Pier Park Playground Meadow is a natural amphitheater that would be an excellent venue to present musical entertainment. His vision was that we could hold monthly “Music in the Park” events in each of the non-rainy season months. We liked the idea and Will became our de facto FoPP music event leader. We aimed to put on one event in 2022 to learn what it takes to host music in the park.

Our Sunday afternoon event on July 24th presented three acts, each consisting of a solo singer/guitar player. At the same time, experienced pickleball volunteers hosted a clinic at the decommissioned tennis courts on which PP&R had painted pickleball courts. All activities on this day were free and open to the public. The day was a success. We estimate around 200 people stopped to enjoy the music and around 40 came to the pickleball introduction. In 2023 we are planning to host 3 Music in the Park events.

Pier Park Discovery Walk – engaging and educating visitors and families

In 2021 we started developing Pier Park Discovery Walk handouts
intended to be used by park visitors to learn about points of interest in the park. They were completed in time to distribute them during the Music in the Park event. They have been posted on our website for anyone to download and use.

Sequoia Arts Benches – adding interest and places to rest

North Portland artists, leaders Kelly Pergande and Aren Lawler, and Oliver Ogden craftsmen delivered three unique benches made from reclaimed Pier Park Sequoia lumber to the PP&R maintenance building in July. They will be installed in 2023, one in Sequoia Grove along the path to Chimney Park and two next to the playground near the splash pad. Adding more benches in the park will be a continued focus.

Through all our efforts, FoPP strives to reach further into our culturally rich and diverse neighborhood, to empower more people in the use and care of Pier Park through the work we do together. From our Next-Door Nature project that engages historically underserved children with access to nature through a quality environmental education program to welcoming free-for-all events, and translated communications and materials like our Discovery Walk, we believe in the power of equitable access and participation in all we do.

Going forward we hope to continue to foster programs and features
that bring more of our neighbors into the park. We aim to have the
increased number of visitors and active volunteers better represent the diversity of our neighborhood and the global majority.

Thank you all for your support of Pier Park.

–Friends Of Pier Park

Partner Organization Links Below:

• https://www.confluenceproject.org
• https://www.columbiaslough.org
• https://www.pps.net/sitton

Friends of Pier Park 2020 Annual Report

Although 2020 was a most trying year, and we still have a way to go before things feel normal, it’s worth reflecting on last year’s accomplishments, disappointments, and focus areas for the coming year.

Centennial Celebration

The land for Pier Park was purchased in 1920, therefore, in 2019 we began discussing how we could celebrate this centennial with a big event during the 2020 summer. When COVID-19 struck we had to postpone any thought of that until the pandemic was well behind us. We don’t know whether that will be later in 2021or in 2022 but we’ll continue to plan and we welcome your thoughts on what would make for a great event.

Also because of the pandemic lockdown, we didn’t hold a spring Earth Day cleanup. We were, however, able to hold a reduced Fall No Ivy Day clean-up on October 24th. We had to limit participation and couldn’t provide volunteers with the usual snacks, drinks, and food for an after-party. Nevertheless the 20 volunteers, including Adena Long, Portland Parks & Recreation Director, did safely get a significant amount of work done that day. Thank you Adena for joining us at work and experiencing our favorite park up close and personal.

During the lockdown, when the pool, ball diamonds, picnic areas, skate park, playground and disc golf course were closed, the park seemed eerily quiet. However, even though many activities were curtailed, the park continued to be a refuge for many citizens who visited to walk outside, enjoy nature and partake in the limited activities that were available.

Disc Golf Baskets

One especially disappointing incident happened early during the lock down. Four of the disc golf baskets were vandalized by cutting baskets and chains down. The golf course had not been closed at the time. Speculation is that someone was upset at the number of golfers in the park and instead of raising the issue with PP&R or FoPP, they took this destructive action. As a result the remaining baskets were pulled until lockdown restrictions were later reduced. Fortunately the PP&R maintenance team was able to fix 3 of the 4 baskets and the Stumptown Disc Golf club purchased a new basket to replace the one that couldn’t be fixed.

Like everyone else, we adapted to life in isolation by moving our monthly board meetings to Zoom while we continued moving forward on a few ongoing initiatives.

Sequoia Arts Bench

The Arts Bench project was one project. Lumber from a sequoia — removed to accommodate the footbridge over the rail tracks from Pier Pier to Chimney Park — will be used to construct two benches to be placed in Pier Park. Friends of Pier Park has allocated $1000 from our funds to support this project. Local artists are donating time and materials to make the benches. Additional funds will be required for PP&R to mount the benches and to provide for ongoing maintenance. The bench designs were reviewed with PP&R to ensure the design was compatible with the required mounting hardware. The next step will be to raise the rest of the required funding.

Courts Renewal

The decommissioned tennis courts have become a second project. The tennis courts in Pier Park were deemed too expensive to maintain as tennis courts. Through email and social media, including Facebook and Next Door, we solicited subscribers and local residents for suggestions on how to repurpose the paved and fenced area. The result is a proposal to paint lines for pickleball and futsal courts and various games like foursquare and hopscotch.

We held a meeting with pickleball and futsal advocates and PP&R staff to come up with a layout to accommodate all activities. We’re now waiting for better weather to allow for cleaning and painting the surface while PP&R ensures that this integrates with their strategic city-wide plans. We’re hopeful that by late spring the painting will be done and the surface will be ready to use.

Financials

Our treasury has remained at a fairly constant level. A few donations and merchandise sales through the year were counterbalanced by small outlays for operating costs to keep the total around $4600. That includes the $1000 we have allocated for the Arts Bench funding.

We’ve started a focus on increased fundraising. In 2020 Stephanie LaMonica wrote and helped us apply for one grant. Although we didn’t win the grant, it was a productive exercise in helping us learn about the grant writing process and uncovering new opportunities for 2021.

Thank You to Subscribers/Volunteers

We thank all our subscribers for your participation throughout the year. Whether by joining us for clean up events, picking up random trash that you see while walking through the park, noting an improvement, or safety issue, donating money, buying our merchandise, or simply letting us know how much you appreciate the park, we’re glad you are involved. And look forward to seeing you in the park this year.

Thank you,

Steve Davis, Chair
Friends of Pier Park