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2 November 2025 Charbonneau Villager

News from the CCC Board

By KATHY HARP, PRESIDENT & TED MAST, COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

Fireside chat focuses on irrigation management, protecting tree canopy and more

“ Keeping Charbonneau Shady” was the theme of our Fireside Chat held on Oct. 1. The health and well-being of Charbonneau’ s oak tree canopy, irrigation management issues and landscape design improvements along Southwest French Prairie Road were topics of discussion. We heard from Charbonneau Country Club President Kathy Harp, Jim Meierotto, Charbonneau general manager; Rick Schram, Charbonneau property manager, and two guest speakers – Kelly Crouch from Pacific Landscape Services and Nathan Lawerence of Good News Tree Service.

Kathy Harp opened the program and discussed meetings with city of Wilsonville staff, including the city attorney, dealing with the much-needed maintenance of our aging irrigation system. Our irrigation repair costs are running an average of $ 5,000 a month in 2024 and 2025. Charbonneau and the city of Wilsonville operate on what is called a memorandum of understanding( MOU) that divides responsibilities for maintaining Charbonneau’ s crown jewel, the

J. Brian Monihan Publisher brian. monihan @ lakeoswegoreview. com

Corey Buchanan Villager Editor corey. buchanan @ lakeoswegoreview. com city-owned 803 oak trees that line French Prairie Road.

Jim Meierotto discussed some of the key points in the 30-page MOU document with the city. Determinations will be made through the memorandum regarding irrigation, or lack of it, on the median strip of French Prairie and the possible removal of about 30,000 square feet of grass and replacement with river rock. Any of these steps taken will all be done with the goal of protecting the long-term health of the trees. Talks like this one, along with feedback from residents, will be reported to the City Council. An inventory of the oaks with tree tagging is also being planned.

Rick Schram talked about changes he has seen in his nearly 30 years working in Charbonneau. He spoke about the different irrigation sources at CCC. He also talked about the seemingly astronomical cost of maintaining our aging irrigation system. We are about a year into the plans developed with the city to abandon irrigation in the median strip and soon in portions of the inside loop of French Prairie. The city requires us to water no more than 20 minutes three times a week on French Prairie Road. Rick showed a map and photos of the areas where we want to remove turf.

Kelly Crouch spoke next. Kelly is a 19-year veteran with Pacific and has been in Charbonneau for 16 years. His presentation showed the three areas of turf removal and renderings of what they would look like with river rock and possibly some drought tolerant

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971-204-7809 native plants. With photos Kelly showed the challenges Pacific( the company with the orange trucks) goes through to mow over the exposed tree roots and also displayed numerous shots of broken irrigation pipe torn apart by tree roots.

Our second guest speaker, Nathan Lawrence, has worked with local HOAs and individual Charbonneau residents almost since the community’ s inception. He spoke of the uniqueness of Charbonneau with our oaks being the crown jewel. But they are right behind most of us in age; at 60 years old our oaks are becoming senior citizens. Many are planted in tight spaces and, with the ever increasing hot and dry summers, our trees are competing for limited resources in an environment lacking in soil volume and adequate water.

Nathan is working on a management plan for the city to deal with the Charbonneau oaks. It is broken down into timelines for short, medium and long-term care. He also noted that all of our oaks are Red Oak, Scarlet Oak, and Pin Oak. We do not have any of the White Oak that has been in the news lately as the species that is susceptible to the Mediterranean Oak Borer.

The talks were followed up with questions for our speakers from residents in attendance. Both reports mentioned here, the MOU with the city and the Oak Tree Management Plan, are available if you would like a copy. Please contact the office to request one.

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Boys & Girls Aid

By CATHY LOFFINK

Our club has two membership levels

Recently I was given a story that we can all learn by. It was short and, for simplicity’ s sake, was a timeline of a child during various years growing up to becoming a woman and

LOFFINK a peek at what she sees in the mirror in different chronological years. Yet I thought this could apply to anyone from child to adult, from age 3 to 80. To give an example, at age 3 he or she sees themselves as special, then over the years that vision changes. Maybe at age 15 they see themself as a misfit, clumsy and self-conscious. Moving to age 20 they may see a person who is changing, but which way. Then onto 30 when they are ready to conquer the world or too timid to try. This goes on until the year of 80, when the view is of a person who no longer bothers to look, just wants to have fun and enjoy everything.

If you look at yourself in this manner you may be surprised at what you really saw over the years and the evolution of the beautiful person you are now and the support you had along the way. Then think of a child in foster care and imagine when they see. Perhaps they are too afraid to look at the reflection of themselves

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The Charbonneau Villager is a joint publishing partnership between the Charbonneau County Club and the Wilsonville Spokesman.

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