Hendricks Park gets beauty treatment.

Byline: Ben Fuchs The Register-Guard

The midmorning sun slowly burned off a thick halo of fog that topped Hendricks Park on Saturday, sending beams of light to the fern-covered forest floor. Looking up, park visitors could catch glimpses of the clearing sky among 100-year-old firs, maples and oaks.

Until recently, this picturesque spectacle was little more than a dream: Non-native English ivy, a hardy and aggressive plant that climbs trees and covers undergrowth habitat, had taken hold in the park, blanketing much of the vegetation.

"Four or five years ago, you could barely see any sunlight coming through," said David Moon of Eugene. Moon, the president of the Friends of Hendricks Park, a Eugene-based nonprofit group that serves as the park's unofficial caretaker, was one of about 20 volunteers who joined city workers Saturday to remove non-native plant species and repair damage from the recent snowstorms.

Many of the volunteers spent the morning removing the herb Robert, better known as "Stinky Bob" to the Hendricks Park faithful. The pungent non-native species moved in after workers removed ivy from large portions of the 78-acre park last year, said John Moriarty, a Friends of Hendricks Park member who helped coordinate the cleanup.

Pulling "Stinky Bob" from the muck next to a drainage canal in the park, Eugene resident and Friends of Hendricks Park member Erik Fisher said he didn't mind the messy work.

"You can see the results," he said, pointing to a nearby slope that had been cleared of most non-native species. "It's satisfying."

Elsewhere in the hilly park, Keith Stanley, a parks specialist with the city, worked with a chain saw to remove fallen trees from trails used by hikers and joggers.

About 15 trees fell in the park during the snowstorms that hit Oregon in the past two weeks, he said.

"We try to keep (the trails) as open as possible," Stanley said.

The storm hit the park's rhododendron garden especially hard, as wet, heavy snow brought a number of oak trees and rhododendron bushes crashing to the ground.

City workers had removed most of the damaged vegetation by Saturday, but a number of sawed-off rhododendron stumps and splintered oak limbs served as reminders of the storm's wrath.

Back on the other side of the park, the volunteers said cleaning up after the storm proved to be a challenge.

"Sawing isn't all that easy if you're not used to it," said Rachel Foster of Eugene.

She said the group's work would benefit the public in a number of ways.

"We wanted to make sure it wasn't hazardous," Foster said. "That was the main concern. But it also looks nice."