Steering Committee Members

Ezra Cohen is a 18 year old avid birder, hiker, and basketball player. He has lived adjacent to Oaks Bottom for his whole life, and can often be found birding on the bluff at the South end of the refuge. He is the co-founder of Friends of Oaks Bottom. He will begin his first year at Macalester College in St. Paul in the fall of 2023.

Heather Katcher is a resident of Sellwood who cares deeply about protecting Oaks Bottom and educating the community about its diversity of wildlife. Heather is a Project Management Professional, and applies these skills to implement stewardship events and build collaborations with partner organizations. In her free time, Heather enjoys hiking, biking, running and yoga. 

As an Oregon native, Joshua Meyers enjoys exploring the many landscapes of our state through fishing, hiking, rock climbing, mountaineering and bird watching. This has created a passion for preserving the natural areas that are important to him. Having lived in Portland for the better part of his life, Joshua enjoys breaks from his daily life in Portland’s green spaces . Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge is his bird watching patch close to home. Through the years of birding there, he has developed a desire along with other like minded community members to preserve this unique area for wildlife and future Portlanders. 

Marianne Nelson moved to Portland in 2006, after she retired as Executive Director of a small land conservation organization in Kane County, NW of Chicago Illinois. She and her husband, an amateur nature photographer, moved to Sellwood to be within walking distance of Oaks Bottom. She is an active volunteer with several conservation organizations and has turned the treebank of their duplex into a native Oak prairie/meadow.

John Sparks is a retired community college instructor. He is an avid hiker who has been treading the trails of Portland and the Pacific Northwest for the past 35 years. John has also traveled extensively on six continents, where he has focused on exploring our planet’s varied natural environments. He also builds trails, cleans up litter, and removes invasive species.

Andrew Cohen teaches English at Portland Community College, where he leads the Humanities and Arts Initiative. He lives adjacent to Oaks Bottom, which has been a steady, generous presence for him and his family since they made their home in Sellwood 20 years ago.

Matthew Cooper generously designed this website for Friends of Oaks Bottom. We are very grateful for his expertise and the time he spent editing and perfecting it for us!

Cathy Ingram designed our logo and created many of the maps on this website. Thank you Cathy!