A sprawling park in outer southeast Portland is on the brink of closure if it doesn’t get more funding soon, according to an online plea posted by the Leach Botanical Garden on Tuesday.

“Like all nonprofits right now, we are struggling to find the balance between increasing fees to offset inflationary costs and a mission to keep the garden accessible for everyone,” the group that operates the park wrote online.

The Leach Botanical Garden is a 17-acre park owned by the city of Portland, but its day-to-day operations are managed by Leach Garden Friends.

The nonprofit is responsible for managing all operating costs and expenses, including taxes, utilities, pest control, insurance, fundraising and facility maintenance.

For the last 20 years, the city has provided operating funds to the nonprofit to help cover those costs, according to Leach Garden Friends. That financial arrangement — and different interpretations of the most recent contract underpinning it — is at the heart of the nonprofit’s current financial dilemma.

In their last contract, which expired in June 2025, the city provided the nonprofit with about $1 million over three years.

But the city hasn’t signed another agreement with Leach Garden Friends since.

Portland Parks and Recreation staff say the City Council intended to shift more financial responsibility onto the nonprofit.

“The Agreement was designed to gradually shift the Garden toward financial independence and away from ongoing City operating passthroughs, consistent with Council direction and the structure of the license,” a parks spokesperson wrote in a statement.

But that’s not clear from the text of the contract itself.

“It is anticipated that the Parties will negotiate a new long-term agreement before the end of the term of this Agreement,” it reads.

Leach Garden Friends says it is working with city leaders to restore $450,000 in operating funds for the fiscal year that begins in July.

But the nonprofit says it can’t afford to wait that long, and is going to need another $50,000 a month to survive the next five months.

Without more immediate financial help, it might need to close by mid-March.

“The board and staff worked hard at the end of last year to increase individual donations, additional visitation, and new memberships, but it wasn’t enough to close the gap caused by the loss of $350K in city funding,” Leach Garden Friends executive director Eric Vines said. “At this point, our checking account is nearly empty, and we’re forced to make painful decisions simply to stay open.”

In its announcement, Leach Garden Friends said it will be laying off 11 staff members, who make up half of its workforce.

Starting on Feb. 22, the garden is reducing the working hours of remaining staff by half, shortening its operating hours, and cutting its public programming by 90%.

“The financial reality is we can’t keep offering the same level of service and programming with 27% less income,” Leach Garden Friends board president Bob Hyland said.

The Leach Botanical Garden sits east of Portland’s Lents neighborhood, among the city’s most diverse and socially vulnerable areas.

For the last five years, a coalition of cultural and environmental groups has brought students to the garden to learn about restoring ecosystems along Johnson Creek.

That coalition, called the Back 5 Community Habitat Enhancement Project, provides environmental education to Black and brown teenagers. It also participates in an internship program run by the nonprofit Wisdom of the Elders.

The groups remove blackberries and plant native plants among five acres at the back of the Leach Botanical Garden, to prepare that area to eventually open to the public.

“We’re working with a lot of youth who don’t traditionally have access to green outdoor spaces,” said Marlee Eckman, volunteer program manager with the nonprofit Johnson Creek Watershed Council. “They’re learning from the land. The last time David Douglas High School students came out, we had them vote on which plants they wanted to put in the ground.”

Eckman says the Back 5 project has its own grant funding that isn’t currently at risk.

“But we’re hoping that since our partnership is so strong, we’re able to continue doing programming, at least in the Back 5 if it’s not in the main garden,” Eckman said.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/02/10/nonprofit-says-portland-leach-botanical-garden-will-close-in-march-without-additional-funding/