Katie Rodriguez had a great time at the 2025 UERC symposium in Portland, where over 400 experts gathered to discuss urban ecosystems. Although the absence of federal employees was noticeable, the event was still a success.
Reflecting on the event, Katie shared, “The UERC conference was great! Perfect location, wonderfully organized, and the talks were very thoughtful and high quality. Being my first UERC I wasn't expecting such a large audience (443 people!), but this meant you can easily feel the energy, sense of community, and mutual support in the room. I've never felt that so powerfully from a group of conference attendees before!”
Katie presented her work on Vancouver Lake in Southern Washington in a talk titled, "Managing A Lake That Flows Both Ways". Katie enjoyed the opportunity to share her work. Many of the presentations resonated with her, especially the afternoon keynote address by Dr. Leslie King, who encouraged attendees to “Find your GROOK.” This concept, derived from Danish poet-scientist-cartoonist Piet Hein’s phrase “grin and suk” (which translates to "laugh and sigh"). At UERC, Katie found far more reasons to laugh, than sigh.
Other standout presentations included:
- Woofs and warbles: the influence of urban dog walking on birdsong, by Grace Phillips
- Patterns in human-wildlife conflict in the Portland metro area and implications for co-existences by Dave Keiter
- Counting crows: documenting Portland’s urban roost by Gary Granger
- Northern red-legged frog use of a new under-road crossing and adjacent upland habitat by Alyson W. Yates
- Managing reed canarygrass in wetlands with minimal environmental impact by John Goetz III
- Kellogg Creek student macroinvertebrate monitoring program by Peyton Priestman and Amy van Riessen
- Planting a Miyawaki Forest in southeast Portland: process and results by Nic Tarter
To read the abstracts for these and other presentations, and to learn more about the event, visit: https://www.uercportland.org/ . To catch some of these talks more in-depth, be sure to tune into UERC’s Lunch-n-Learn series later this summer and fall!
