This guide is your passport to the Portland area’s world-class collection of public gardens. 

Tanner Springs Park

NW 10th Ave & Marshall Street, Portland, OR 97209

Tanner Springs Park is an urban oasis of imperiled oak-prairie and wetlands - a microcosm of the richness the Willamette Valley once held. Less than 5% remains of the original 1.7 million acres. Tanner Springs Park in Portland’s Pearl District is owned and managed by Portland Parks & Recreation. The park is a design experiment transforming a contaminated city block into a healthy legacy oak-prairie bioswale that filters rainwater from the city within its boundaries and recirculates it through the park. Reclaimed materials create textural backdrops and footpaths to frame and experience nature both at street level and below. Over 72 species of native plants provide a continuous smorgasbord for native pollinators and other wildlife.

Photos courtesy of Gail Massoll, Michele Shapiro, Judy Conley, Thomas Becker, Orlin Orbmiser, and Alice Brocoum

Date Established: 2005

How Many Acres: .92

Must See Highlights:

  • Many plants in the park are culturally significant for Native Americans. In Spring, the blooms of camas punctuate bright blue flowers across the prairie. In Summer, Wapato throws white blooms with arrowhead leaves up from the pond. In Fall, Oak acorns are distributed by birds and squirrels popping up in odd, yet perfect places.

  • The focal point of the park is a wetland pond framed by an art wall designed with undulating reclaimed train rails. Cobalt-blue art glass panels of “abstractions of lost wildlife” are hand painted by Herbert Dreiseitl and cut into the rail ties creating an outdoor stained-glass window.

  • Paths of basalt blocks reclaimed from ship ballasts and street cobbles create textural paths through oak-prairie habitat and over waterways.

  • A Rainwater Pavilion with a leaf-shaped roof channels rainwater into the pond.  It is dedicated to Graham Clark a beloved Portland City Planner.

  • Three major parks in the Pearl District were conceptually planned by the landscape firm Peter Walker & Partners to relate to each other “Three parks, like pearls on a string…” within close proximity are Jamison Square Park for art and reflection, Tanner Springs Park for contemplation and nature viewing and The Fields Park for picnicking and sports. Tanner Springs Park was designed in 2003 by Atelier Dreiseitl (Germany), Green Works, P.C. (Portland), Portland Parks & Recreation, Portland Development Commission, and a project steering committee of public and private stakeholders.

Admission Details: Free

Key information or ideas: The stewardship community at Tanner Springs Park builds on the legacy oak-prairie stewardship of the past.  The connection of Native people to their land goes back to time immemorial. This habitat of the Willamette Valley was cared for by the Kalapuya along with other tribes.  The land where Tanner Springs Park sits was one of these lands. The plant blooms at Tanner Springs are our seasonal reminders of the love the Kalapuya gave to the land. They were the quintessential sustainable stewards we have to thank for the beauty here for us to steward.

Garden Types

  • Experimental Urban Wetland

  • Natural Land

Activities and Interests: 

  • Birding

  • Native Gardening

  • Art & Sculpture

  • Community Science

  • Landscape Sustainability

  • Historical Reclamation

  • Weddings & Events

Volunteer Opportunities: Celebrate our patch of imperiled oak-prairie in the Pearl by joining our stewardship community. Friends of Tanner Springs started with a chat over hiking boots which lead to stewardship opportunities at Tanner Springs Park and hasn’t missed a step since 2015. Tanner Springs Park is owned and managed by Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R). The Friends of Tanner Springs partner with PP&R and have received support from the Portland Parks Foundation to build a vibrant program offering habitat restoration, community science, and photography. Come join us. Contact: Fotannersprings@gmail.com

Social Media Handles:

Website: Friendsoftannersprings.org

Instagram: Friendsoftannersprings

iNaturalist: Tanner Springs Park Project Page

 
 
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