Wild in the City: Exploring the Intertwine Mike Houck, Executive Director, Urban Greenspaces Institute and Co-Founder, The Intertwine Alliance
For the past four decades, Mike Houck has been the leading voice in our community for the integration of nature in the city. He has served for more than thirty years as Urban Naturalist for the Audubon Society of Portland, and in 1999 he founded the Urban Greenspaces Institute. The Institute’s motto, “in livable cities is preservation of the wild,” speaks to his philosophy that only by creating livable cities will the rural landscape be protected and restored. And, to be livable, a city must provide urban residents with access to nature where they live, work, and go to school. He will discuss the importance of access to nature to our physical and mental health as well as the intrinsic values of nature in the city.
Mike is also co-founder of The Intertwine Alliance, an alliance of nonprofits, agencies and businesses working to create a world class system of parks, trails, and natural areas in the Portland-Vancouver region. His presentation will describe the evolution of The Intertwine and The Intertwine Alliance and efforts to protect biodiversity and watershed health inside and outside the region’s urban growth boundaries and across the urban and rural landscapes. Houck is co-editor of Wild in the City, a Guide to Portland’s Natural Areas (2000) and the new Wild in the City, Exploring the Intertwine released by OSU Press in the fall of 2011. His credits also include Wild on the Willamette—Exploring the Lower Willamette River (2003). He has been recognized for his contributions to urban green spaces locally, nationally, and internationally. A book signing will follow the lecture.
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