Native Plant Sanctuary

The Native Plant Sanctuary was developed within the Canby Community Park beginning in the Fall of 2001. We are still finding information about the early days but this much we know at this point. Please continue checking back as we fill in the blanks.

The native plant sanctuary was a vacant space in the park when the project began. The fence work took place between the fall of 2001 and spring of 2002. Building the fence was a senior project four friends (Seth Kaufman, Travis Burk, Ryan Herman, and James Arrone) took on as high school juniors. Work was done after school. They did the senior project as juniors because their teacher was retiring and there were changes coming up for the high school metal shop program. Bob Bazard, the Canby High School metal shop teacher, was the fence project advisor. The city provided support and permission to build the fence, but CHS purchased the metal for the fence and the four did all the work. The gate had a 6”x6” steel sign with their names stamped on to it in the bottom corner.

We are still investigating who designed the layout and planted the native plants within the sanctuary. Best we can tell is that the Clackamas County Master Gardeners led the project. This is however still not confirmed. (11/11/24)

The Native Plant Sanctuary fell into disrepair and quickly became overgrown with Himalayan Blackberries, Wild Cucumber, and numerous other invasive plants. The Canby Parks Department was approached by three community members who asked that they be given permission to restore the sanctuary (Tammy Baldwin, David Kleinke, Gina Taylor). With permission given they began the restoration work in March 2023 by removing the invasive plants and then mulching, planting native plants, and building trails.

The Canby Kiwanis Club stepped up and sponsored the restoration work with financial resources and people to help remove the weeds and plant natives. Over 100 community members participated in restoring the sanctuary. Joining the team and making significant contributions in time and resources to restore the sanctuary were Liz Belz-Templeman (Canby High School), Karen Hill (Kiwanis Club, President), Katherine Leppek (Canby Garden Club, President), Fred Merchant (Kiwanis Club), Nancy O’Harrow, and Bill Wilkins.

As the invasive plants were removed and the new native plants were being introduced the Canby Garden Club assumed the role of leading the effort. The garden club donated numerous native plants and made signs identifying the plants. In order to ensure ongoing support to maintain the sanctuary the Canby Garden Club made the sanctuary an ongoing project of the club with David Kleinke designated as the first project leader.

The next phase of the sanctuary is to provide it as a platform for our schools to use with their nature programs. Liz Belz-Templeman, CHS Teacher, has begun using the sanctuary as an augmentation to her class. She is providing her students with the opportunity to select, layout, and plant more native plants in the sanctuary. Her class will also be developing signage for the sanctuary to help our guests understand the importance of native plants to our ecosystem.

We are always looking for volunteers who would like to help maintain the sanctuary. If you are interested, please send David Kleinke a email at david.kleinke.canby@gmail.com