Fields of dreams

NW Portland's long-fenced off and popular park is finally a whisker away from reopening

The first of more than 100 rolls of perennial rye grass sod going down in Fields Park early Wednesday morning. Click to enlarge. All photos by Walden Kirsch

It’s the day that likely thousands of folks across Slabtown and Old Town and the Pearl and Northwest Portland have been eagerly awaiting: The return of grass to long-torn-up Fields Park.

Sod going down? That sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry (or grass grow) right? Au contraire.

This has been one of the more interesting-to-watch local infrastructure projects in years.

Wednesday morning before dawn, the first crews arrived to start laying more than 3 acres of perennial rye grass sod on the park that’s been cyclone-fenced off and an active construction zone for almost two years. Why? This is a PacifiCorp project, and the power company needed to bury its cables that have been carrying power perfectly well for multiple decades sitting in muck on the bottom of the Willamette River.

Since that stretch of long-ago industrial-polluted river bottom is a U.S. EPA Superfund cleanup site—and hence must be dredged—those power cables need to be yanked up and relaid beneath the river, in a special recently dug tunnel. (Which, by the way, little-known fact, was the first tunnel ever dug under the Willamette.) And that required totally tearing up Fields Park for the tunnel’s west entrance.

Which brings us to today, and the arrival of the first of half a dozen flatbed trucks bearing huge 1-ton rolls of rye grass—144 rolls of sod in all—freshly harvested within the last 24 hours from Oregon Turf and Tree Farms in Hubbard. The work began early Wednesday and will wrap up on Thursday. We’ll all have another relatively short wait, about four weeks, for the sod to take root. Then, that forbidding fence will come down. And dogs (on leash) and their humans will be free again to cavort in Fields to their heart’s content.

Curious to learn more? Like, as one passerby asked this morning, why not just toss down some grass seed? For the answer to that question, and other riveting sod trivia, see photos and captions below.

Why not just toss down grass seed instead laying of sod? The grass pros say that seed would have taken much longer to germinate and take root—especially at this time of year in Oregon—and probably would have pushed back the reopening of Fields Park until next summer. And even then, the grass would not be as thick and pleasant to play in, lounge around in, throw Frisbees. And why rye? Compared with other grasses, rye is softer, greener and is less thirsty for water.

A man outstanding in his field. Tom DeArmond, with Oregon Turf and Tree Farms, is overseeing the Fields Park sod job. Tom has been in the grass business for 40 years. What is his lifetime, all-in, career sod-laying total? I get a hearty laugh, then a long pause, then a figure. “Many millions of square yards,” he says.

As Fields Park regulars may recall, the park could get soupy and swampy in rainy weather. So before the sod went in, a new drainage system was installed. Then surveyors came in, and the whole park was carefully regraded. How carefully? The ground is level now to within half-an-inch.

Another little-known fact: Sod is perishable—every bit as much as the eggs or meat you buy in the store. If you don’t lay sod down within about 24 hours of harvest, bad stuff can happen. The grass can dry out, or even rot. The Fields Park sod came off the ground in Hubbard less than one day ago. That augurs well for its health as it settles into its new home.

Laying down sod—versus waiting for seeds to germinate—gives Fields Park almost a full year’s jump on grass growth.

From 300 feet above, Fields Park, all dressed up—ok, half-dressed up—and ready to go. The job is scheduled to be done on Thursday. PacifiCorp folks—it’s their overall project—tell us the cyclone fence we’ve been staring at for nearly two years will come down in about a month.