Wetland stretches away from you here at the edge of Oaks Bottom, the largest urban wildlife refuge within Portland city limits, 163 acres in the Willamette River floodplain between Sellwood and the Eastbank Esplanade. Oaks Bottom occupies land that floods regularly when the Willamette rises, making it unsuitable for development and therefore preserved as habitat in the middle of a major city. The refuge supports more than 175 bird species, including great blue herons, bald eagles, and a diversity of waterfowl that use the wetland as a stopover on the Pacific Flyway.
Beavers maintain the wetland hydrology; river otters fish the sloughs; coyotes hunt the meadow edges at dawn. The refuge is bordered on its west side by the Springwater Corridor Trail, a converted rail line that runs twenty-one miles from the Willamette waterfront to Boring, Oregon — a real town whose name has made it the twin city of Dull, Scotland. The Oaks Amusement Park, operating just north of the refuge since 1905, creates an unlikely juxtaposition: a century-old roller skating rink and carousel operating at the edge of a heron rookery and beaver wetland.
Portland's relationship with its natural setting has never been entirely rational, which is part of what makes it Portland.