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Ross Island History and Future

Wednesday, February 25, 2026
7:00pm - 8:00pm

Location: Mt Tabor Presbyterian Church, Copeland Commons
5441 SE Belmont St, Portland

Our friends at Mt Tabor Presbyterian invite us to join them for a presentation by Urban GreenSpaces Institute director, Mike Houck, about the history and potential future of Ross Island, an area important to wildlife and recreation and water quality in the Willamette Valley. The event is free, but space is limited, so we ask that you register here in advance.

Mike Houck has worked for more than 55 years on urban natural resources in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region. Mike founded the Urban Greenspaces Institute in 1999. The Institute’s motto, In Livable Cities is Preservation of the Wild, reflects the Institute’s philosophy that we need to create cities that are livable and loveable, cities that provide access to nature where people live, work and play.

Mike has been recognized by Heidelberg, Germany’s Gold Medal award for Urban Nature Initiatives; Architecture Foundation’s Honored Citizen Award; a PSU Urban Pioneer; a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design; and as an Honorary Landscape Architect by the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Presentation: Mike’s first involvement with Ross Island came in 1979 when he and colleagues from Portland Audubon met at City Council to urge protection of a 55-nest Great Blue Heron colony. He has tracked the island’s trajectory over the past 47 years, including serving on a Ross Island reclamation committee that rewrote the 1979 restoration plan. Ross Island is actually a four-island archipelago: Ross, Toe, Hardtack and East islands. He is now advocating for a Ross Island Archipelago—Holgate Channel—-Ecological Refuge. His presentation will track the island’s past and possible futures.