Dan Moeller strolls through a sloping field of Roemer's fescue, a wispy grass that covers a prairie at the Cooper Mountain Nature Park.
Moeller, conservation program director at the Metro regional government, describes the various ways the agency has tried returning the prairie to a more natural state since opening the 230-acre Beaverton park in 2009.
Controlled field burns help rid the field of invasive plant species and create a healthier environment for Quercus garryana -- Oregon white oak -- to thrive. Working with a local rancher to get grazing cows into the field helps, too, consuming invasive plants.
The ongoing maintenance near the top of Cooper Mountain is one of the projects Metro's Parks and Nature office oversees. The regional government owns more than 17,000 acres of parks, trails and natural areas in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties.
The elected Metro Council board of directors says a maintenance levy headed to the November ballot would support projects like the one at Cooper Mountain.
The measure will ask voters to renew the current parks and natural areas local-option levy that funds restoration and maintenance. A 'yes' vote in the Nov. 8 election would extend five-year levy funding beyond June 2018, to June 2023. The continued rate would be 9.6 cents per $1,000 in assessed home value -- about $20 a year for the owner of a home with $200,000 in assessed value.
The current levy is expected to raise $10 million to $12 million a year over its lifespan. Its successor, if approved by a simple majority of voters in the three counties, would raise about $16 million a year for five years. If passed, the rate would remain the same as the current levy, but the amount raised each year is projected to increase because of rising property values and population growth.
Voters in the three counties approved the current funding mechanism in May 2013, roughly 60 percent to 40 percent.
Much of Metro's land was acquired with money from natural areas bond measures that voters approved in 1995 and 2006.
As it did in 2013, Metro has enlisted a pollster to gauge public sentiment for a parks levy and again found strong support. This time, the firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates polled 600 voters in early June, with 72 percent in favor of the levy, 26 percent opposed and 2 percent who said they did not know or wouldn't answer.
In 2013, the levy faced no organized opposition and none has yet emerged this time.
But levy opponent John Charles, president of the Cascade Policy Institute, said he anticipates being a voice of opposition, called on to debate Metro Councilors about the need for the levy, its spending and Metro parks policies in general. That's a role he played for the 2013 levy, as well.
And, as in 2013, Charles said levy revenue would promote activities that have little to do with public access to Metro-owned properties. He said too many Metro-owned land parcels are not open to the public and he also faulted a Metro policy of prohibiting dogs, even on a leash. Dogs, and other pets, are banned because of concerns their presence would disturb native wildlife. However, pets are allowed at boat ramps and on-leash at Broughton Beach. They're also allowed on designated regional trails that run through Metro sites, such as the Marine Drive Trail through Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area or the Ice Age Tonquin Trail through Graham Oaks Nature Park.
"I think the case is even stronger now that this levy is unnecessary," Charles said, pointing to an audit by the Office of the Metro Auditor that faulted the agency's method of measuring the performance of Nature in Neighborhoods grant recipients.
More than $18 million in Nature in Neighborhoods grants have been awarded to local governments and community-based organizations since 2006. In a December report, Metro Auditor Brian Evans said methods of monitoring individual grant projects could be improved.
Charles said he mentioned the audit to commissioners before they voted to put the levy on the ballot.
He said he was the only person at the June 30 meeting who spoke against it.
"The room was filled with people who'd received grant money from it," he said, "so naturally they thought it was a good idea."
If voters turned down the levy, Metro would "have to ramp back pretty much everywhere," said Commissioner Carlotta Collette. "We would really scale back our operations to the degree we would rely more on our partners to do a lot of the maintenance. And frankly, they're not in any position to help" because of budgetary constraints.
The levy also would be needed to continue paying for Collette's favorite funding recipient - nature education programs aimed at "kids who don't experience nature regularly ...we can partner with communities of color to help get those kids out experiencing the woods."
--Allan Brettman
503-294-5900