Tryon Creek

About 15 minutes from downtown Portland, Oregon, you will find a forest.

Tryon Creek State Natural Area is the only state park located within a major metropolitan area.

It's 654 acres of lush forest, footpaths, a paved bike route, and horse trails along Tryon Creek.

This forest once held an abundance of native plants like western red cedar, salmonberry, and hazel.

But with the arrival of settlers came new species, like ivy, a popular evergreen climbing vine.

That was something introduced.

People were even planting it, you know, ornamentally, right? And it led to a forest that didn't have a lot of native plants.

That's when friends of Tryon Creek got to work.