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Johnson Creek, the murmur of the creek passing over the rolling stones is a happy sound…until it starts to rain. – Long Time Resident of Johnson Creek.
Ed Kerns interviewed by James Blanchert, spring of 2000:
It's one of the only free flowing creeks that we still have in the city of Portland, and it still has fish in it, and it has a lot of wild life. And I think that it has a lot of potential for a viable living creek yet, and there's a lot that's threatening it right now. But I think it's still got a chance of making it.
Mary Rosenbloom interviewed by Jake Lancaster, 1999:
Do you remember, I believe it was in the early 80's when they first started doing the trail along
the railroad? . . . I used to ride along that railroad all the time on horseback, and used to use it
as a pathway. There wasn't much train traffic on it and it was a marvelous thing and actually I
was on the trail recently and they expanded it a lot in the last year. I was really impressed. It
has really altered the quality of life for the people who live along it. . . . People are able see
parts of the countryside that they didn't see before and the comments that I hear all the time
from people on the trail is how much they appreciate the open spaces and the green space. I
think it gives people a little more awareness of what they're losing when development does
come in.
Planting organized by Ed Kerns. Courtesy Portland Parks Bureau
The kids will take a field trip down from the school and maybe we'll have sixty kids there. Third, fourth, and fifth graders and we'll have the plants right there, we'll have maybe twenty adults there and the kids. So the adults help the kids plant, and you should see the excitement and joy and pride the kids go at it with. – Ed Kerns
I'm not just planting trees but I'm also working with these kids at such a young age I feel like I am covertly grooming five thousand radical environmentalists for the future. – Ed Kerns
People are becoming more aware of how to value and manage a watershed and what some of the destructive elements of, of the over development and the pollution that's happening along Johnson Creek. The impervious surface that is being created daily up and down Johnson Creek, especially out in Gresham and Boring, there's so much development going on. And as people become more aware of that, and as we get more protective laws in place. That's what it's going to take to protect Johnson Creek and to improve it. – Ed Kerns
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