Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge

Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge
Part of the wetlands at Oaks Bottom
Type	Urban park
Location	Portland, Oregon
Coordinates	45°28′13″N 122°39′34″W / 45.47028°N 122.65944°W / 45.47028; -122.65944Coordinates: 45°28′13″N 122°39′34″W / 45.47028°N 122.65944°W / 45.47028; -122.65944
Area	141.22 acres (57.15 ha)
Created	1959
Operated by	Portland Parks & Recreation
Status	Open 5 a.m. to midnight; north parking lot closes at 10 p.m.

Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge is a city park of about 141 acres (57 ha) in southeast Portland, in the U.S. state of Oregon. Located in a floodplain along the east bank of the Willamette River near Sellwood, the park is known for attracting a wide variety of birds. In 1988, the park was named Portland's first wildlife refuge, and in 2004, it was designated the city's first migratory bird park.

The elongated park, which parallels the river, includes a large shallow lake on the east side of the Springwater Corridor. The Corridor is a hiking and biking path that also runs parallel to the river between Sellwood and downtown Portland. Between the lake and the Corridor is a Portland Traction rail line on a berm. Slightly south of the refuge are Sellwood Park and Sellwood Riverfront Park, and Oaks Amusement Park is to the west, near the river. To the east, the top of a bluff above the lake is mainly residential, though one of the buildings is a mausoleum and crematorium with a huge great blue heron mural (Portland Memorial Mausoleum Mural ) overlooking the wetlands. A 1-mile (1.6 km) hiking trail wraps around the east side of the lake beneath the bluff. A side trail connects the east trail with Sellwood Park. To the north are mixed woodlands, shrubs, and a few open fields, and a trail crossing the north section of the refuge links the Corridor to a parking lot at the top of the bluff. West of the north part of the refuge are two islands, East and Hardtack, that belong to the Ross Island group in the Willamette. Ross Island is the site of a heron rookery.

Before the Bottom became a park, the raised bed of the rail line had largely separated the wetlands from the river. The south part of the wetlands had been altered by a sanitary landfill that the city acquired in 1969 to prevent its development as industrial land. The city later filled the north end of the park with debris from construction of Interstate 405 through downtown Portland. The plan in the early 1970s was to fill the rest of the wetlands and to use the space for museums, perhaps a course, and a gondola lift to transport visitors from the top of the bluff to the park. Public pressure from the Audubon Society of Portland, the Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League, and The Nature Conservancy helped persuade the city to stop filling the wetlands. In 1988, after many years of debate, officials designated Oaks Bottom as the first urban wildlife refuge in Portland. Since then, Friends of Oaks Bottom, a volunteer group, has helped the city's parks department with trail maintenance, habitat restoration, and information services.