Olde Reed is So Back: Canyon Day
Conflict of Interest Statement: The author is the current Greenboard signator and is in charge of Canyon Day. She promises to cover someone else's event for the second edition of this column.
This year's Canyon Day will be held on April 5, and will consist of students, staff, faculty, and neighbors pulling invasive ivy, planting native plants, and eating free food. But how did this tradition get started? The Quest sat down with Facilities Operations Manager Zac Perry to find out. In Olde Olde Reed, Canyon Day was known as Campus Day, and the goal was to clean up campus and convert the Canyon—formerly a cow pasture before the Ladd family donated it to Reed in 1910—into a park-like area, primarily covered with trees and grass. According to the Canyon Day History website, the 1915 Campus Day involved digging a 10-foot deep swimming hole at the west end of the pond, and later Campus Days involved building a dock and bath houses at the pool. According to a 1997 Reed Magazine article by Nathan Coutsoubos '97, the land bridge between the Cross Canyons and Commons was originally a dam made to fill the swimming pool. As Campus Day eventually morphed into Canyon Day, it was still primarily focused on human usage of the canyon, as clearing the underbrush and burning it was a primary activity.
By the time of Coutsoubos's article in 1997, the modern conservation focus of Canyon Day was beginning to emerge. The Canyon Day and Green Board signators purchased food and drink to bribe volunteers into working in the Canyon, similarly to today's offerings of vegan burgers, brownies, and chocolate strawberries from Greenboard (Reed's environmental student organization). When Perry arrived as a grounds technician in 1999, Canyon Day was entirely student-run, with some input from the Physical Plant and faculty. There was also a lot of enthusiasm for a conservation-focused Canyon Day at the time. Perry worked to improve coordination between groups involved in Canyon Day, build the fish ladder, and create the current long-term restoration plan that he is still executing today. The plan's goals include improving the Canyon's biodiversity and habitat suitability for wildlife, reducing invasive species, and creating a trail system. Today, Perry picks the site for Canyon Day and provides tools and native plants; while the students of Greenboard handle outreach, food, and entertainment; and the paid student interns of the Sustainability office do outreach and engagement. Perry recalls that when he started, "Every tree in the Canyon had ivy up to the top of it, and they were being choked by an understory of blackberry, and there was no trail system." Today, the successful efforts of Perry and countless students throughout the years are plain to see in the Canyon, with its thriving understory of native Oregon plants and significantly reduced ivy cover.
Canyon Day is an important part of the Canyon restoration and conservation process, but it is not the only component. The sheer number of people involved in Canyon Day enables immense progress, but since Perry started in 1999, students on Grounds Crew have also been ensuring that the progress made during Canyon Day is maintained. During regular operations throughout the year, there is a team of paid students who work for Grounds who split their time between landscaping and Canyon work. Grounds Crew student employees work in the Canyon to remove invasive plants in areas such as steep slopes that are not suitable for the crowds of Canyon Day. For those whose fancy is piqued by the tradition of Canyon Day, the next chance to contribute to this Olde Reed legacy will be on April 5.
