Fernhill Wetlands Loop Hike

Overview

Fernhill Wetlands, a mecca for local birders, has been undergoing a transformation in recent years that will take decades to mature. Formerly a set of rather bleak, steep-sided wastewater treatment ponds and farm fields on 750 acres, this area south of Forest Grove has been transformed into a series of more natural looking cells that not only use nature’s processes for filtering wastewater but also provide a much more welcoming habitat for waterfowl. Mudflats have been created, water plants such as cattails and native wapato have been extensively planted, and 180 snags have been posted across the shallows. The maintenance road around Fernhill Lake is universal access. Note that the site may be closed during times of high floodwater, when the Tualatin River backs up into these wetlands. Walk past the restroom and covered picnic area to take a gravel path leading left through a landscaped corridor of plantings, including shore pine, ponderosa pine, snowberry, Oregon grape, and red osier dogwood. To your left is an area of treatment ponds being converted to a rocky filtration wetland. To the right, you can get vistas over Fernhill Marsh to the forested northern slopes of Fern Hill, the eastern end of the Chehalem Hills. Reach a trail junction: Keeping straight will take you over two scenic 40-foot bridges constructed of Douglas-fir that arch over the outlet pipes from the upper-level treatment cells. Going left at the junction takes you in a short loop around the Water Garden and a cattail pond. A multi-trunked alder stands sentinel here. At the back of the pond, the shore is lined with plantings of Pacific madrone and spiraea. Walk past a trail that leads to the center of the Water Garden, and reach the main loop trail at a shed-like structure, an “outdoor classroom,” above the shore of Fernhill Lake. Go left at the shed, and immediately come to the Dabblers Marsh Trail leading left on a wood chip tread through a thicket of red osier dogwood under a stand of cottonwoods. Pass a bench at the shore of a pond t

Trail Stats

Photos

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