What's the result of Momentum Alliance and Northwest Youth Corps teaming up last summer to form a crew of 10 underrepresented youth? Ten youth who spent more time in nature than any of them ever had before, 10 enthusiastic new stewards of The Intertwine. 

A Twine Wire Feature Story
 

On Oct. 21, 2015, the Port of Portland donated two wild acres on the northern tip of Ross Island to the City of Portland. The gift marks the latest development in a decades-long movement by partners of The Intertwine Alliance to rebuild and protect the island, a source of sand and gravel for Portland and the metropolitan region since the 1920s.

I’m still in shock after tallying up the Tree for All numbers this year: More two million native plants in the ground in 8 months, wow! When a bunch of Intertwine Alliance partners get fired up, roll up their sleeves, and utter the words “Bring it on,” they mean business -- and Mother Nature smiles, knowing that as a result, 100 river miles have been restored in the Tualatin River watershed in the past decade.

Taking reams of complicated scientific data and rolling it into at-a-glance grades for local watersheds -- that's the job of the City of Portland's new Watershed Report Cards. Read on for where we make the grade, and where we don't. 

The nature-based play area at Westmoreland Park -- which echoes, in design, the flow of rainwater from the Cascade Mountains to Crystal Springs -- has proven a wild (pun intended) success. Opened in October 2014, the Portland Parks & Recreation pilot project attracts kids of all ages to build forts with tree branches, pump water into hand-dug sand channels, and climb an 8-foot boulder mountain.  

There's been a lot of buzz lately about trees and human health, including in a recent popular New Yorker article. Guest blogger Erica Timm elaborates on the theme, and shares how Friends of Trees is moving the issue forward throughout The Intertwine. 

For a few years now, a Portland State University crew has been driving around in a special car outfitted with sensors, figuring out which parts of the Portland region are the hottest. They're also studying traffic-related air quality, the impact of trees on that air quality, and which neighborhoods sorely lack green spaces. With some really cool maps and tools in hand, they've joined policy makers and citizen groups to turn all this data into real and lasting impacts on human health throughout The Intertwine.