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Leach Botanical Garden in East Portland has announced layoffs and reduced hours beginning later this month. The cuts coincide with an emergency funding push in which the garden needs to raise $50,000 a month, every month through June 30 to keep its gates open.
Leach is owned by Portland Parks & Recreation but has been operated for more than 40 years by the nonprofit Leach Garden Friends. The 17-acre garden, located at 6704 SE 122nd Ave., has been open to the public since 1983. It features 80-foot Douglas fir trees and more than 2,000 varieties of plants and is a popular wedding venue, all just off a busy stretch of Southeast Foster Road.
In 2022, the Portland City Council approved a three-year, $350,000-a-year deal to support general operations, called a pass-through. This support was meant to be “time-limited” and “designed to gradually shift the garden toward financial independence away from ongoing city operating pass-throughs,” says Mark Ross, PP&R spokesman.
The city ponied up another $100,000 in the 2025–26 budget.
“Leach Botanical Garden is an important community asset for East Portland and all of Portland,” Ross wrote in an email. “It provides unique access to nature, environmental education, and community gathering space in an area that has historically received fewer public investments. Preserving public access to the garden is a priority for the city, and its value to surrounding communities is not in question.”
On Feb. 22, the garden will lay off 11 staff members, which is half of its staff, and reduce hours for those remaining. Beginning Feb. 26, the garden will operate with reduced hours: 10 am-4 pm Thursday-Sunday. Public programming will reduce by 90% and horticulture services will be basic maintenance only.
The garden has been working to increase individual donations, encourage additional visitors and sell new memberships, but it wasn’t enough to close the gap of $350,000 in funding. The $350,000 in operating support from the city represented 27% of the garden’s annual income.
“We’ve been talking about the funding gap since it occurred and been trying to make up the difference,” says Jenn Woodward, development director. “It’s just reached a critical point where if we don’t get funding we can’t continue.”
