Wildwood Golf Course and Crabapple Creek Restoration Project

Crabapple Creek is an important tributary of the Multnomah Channel, a section of water connected to the Willamette and Columbia rivers. It flows down from the Tualatin Mountains (often called Portland’s West Hills), through the family-owned Wildwood Golf Course, and delivers clean cool water to the lower floodplain habitats along Multnomah Channel. These floodplain habitats support native fish, amphibian, and other wildlife species. Protecting and improving water quality in Crabapple Creek helps ensure salmon and steelhead will have the clean cool water they need to thrive.

The Crabapple Creek habitat restoration project will remove overgrown invasive plants that are taking over the riparian area along the creek and replace them with native plants. The native plants will shade the creek and maintain cool stream temperatures, improve habitat, and provide important erosion control along the creek’s steep banks. The Estuary Partnership and WMSWCD are working closely with Wildwood Golf Course to select native plants that also benefit golf course operations – demonstrating that recreation and restoration can be complementary activities. This phase of restoration will focus on roughly one acre of land at the confluence of Crabapple and Patterson creeks. 

Photo above: Crew member from Ash Creek Forest Management removing overgrown invasive Himalayan blackberry along Crabapple Creek.

When the native plants are established, they will provide erosion control for the golf course, reduce sediment runoff, improve water quality in Crabapple Creek, and provide habitat for fish and wildlife, including the region’s famous northern red-legged frogs, an Oregon State-listed sensitive species.

Project Timeline

 Project Partners & Funders