So what happened was… Heather McKillip

One of the things I feel proudest of in my career is the number of people I've been able to hire and mentor, then watch grow in the organization. That's really rewarding. You hire someone, help them get established, support them along the way, and then later you see them leading.

When I moved to Portland from New Mexico in the late '90s, I came with the goal of working in parks and recreation. I had a horticulture degree, and Portland Parks & Recreation had a great reputation. I wanted to be in the public sector, not just taking care of people's estates.

My first job with PP&R was seasonal work preparing and maintaining ball fields around the city. I did that for one season. After that, I worked in private landscaping for a couple of years, but I always planned to come back as a horticulturist. In 2001, I did. 

View full size image of Pull quote: Sometimes they come in very young, without much experience or a clear long-term plan, but they just know they want to work outside.

I spent 18 years in Horticultural Services, and that ended up being a good fit for me because there was so much variety in the work. Back then, we would go out and collect seeds from native plants, then grow native plants from those seeds for park projects and Bureau of Environmental Services projects. We grew flowers for downtown pots and for parks. We did nursery work and maintained properties for other bureaus. We got involved with Green Streets as that work really took off in the mid-2000s. 

I moved into a lead role after about 10 years, then later became a supervisor. But even though I was happy in Horticultural Services, I knew I wanted the second half of my career to be more focused on parks themselves. I didn't want to retire from the bureau without being more involved in the work that takes place in parks day to day.

So about seven years ago, I moved to South Zone as a supervisor. It was a big change. It was also right before COVID.

Zone work is different in a lot of ways. You're much closer to the community. It's seven days a week. There are restrooms, playgrounds, graffiti, safety concerns, and lots of things people may not think about when they think about parks. You wear a lot of different hats.

One of the biggest things I had to learn when I moved into zone work was how much I did not know about the daily work of park technicians. In Horticultural Services, I knew plant care, nursery work, plant buying, and project work.

Zone maintenance is not that.

What surprised me most was how many different things go into keeping a park clean and safe every day, and how central the park maintenance team is to all of it. People don't realize how much happens behind the scenes. Park maintenance staff start their day at 6am. By the time a lot of people are just getting going, someone has already been in the park picking up trash, cleaning restrooms, checking the playground for safety, dealing with graffiti, and getting the space ready.

I was also surprised by how much I would end up talking about restrooms.

That may sound funny, but restrooms are a big deal in parks. During COVID especially, when so many public spaces were closed, they became even more important. Parks were busier than I think any of us had ever seen them. People were stuck at home. They needed somewhere to go. They needed open spaces. It was a challenging time for the maintenance team because there was so much uncertainty, but I felt good about how we kept showing up and kept those spaces available for people.

If I could go back, I would spend more time job shadowing early on and learning more about what park techs deal with day to day. I think that would have helped me set better expectations from the start.

I've always known that the skills that get you into one job are not always the same skills you need for the next. For me, the work became less about plants and more about people.

View full size image of Heather stands in a park, blurred trees and light post in the background.

As my work changed, I became more interested in the bigger picture, how things were organized, how to bring in new ideas and new ways of doing things. I also had to come out of my shell. I used to get anxious about public speaking and being in front of groups. I had to work through that and get more comfortable being up front, giving feedback, supporting a team, and thinking less about only my work and more about how to help others do theirs.

Of course I am proud of the projects. I was involved in helping design the new Mt. Tabor Yard and greenhouse setup, and that was a great experience. But what stays with me most is the people and the teams doing the work.

I've learned from a lot of people over the years. I often think back to my first mentor at Parks, Denise Dickens, who oversaw native plant work at the Mt. Tabor nursery. Later on, Kim Randolph spent time teaching me when I moved into supervision. Both made a big difference.

A quote someone once shared has stayed with me: people do not remember everything you did, but they remember how you made them feel. I keep that in mind as I go through my day.

I also think about seasonal employees I've hired over the years. Sometimes they come in very young, without much experience or a clear long-term plan, but they just know they want to work outside. Some end up loving it and finding a career path. I like being a part of that.

My zone includes a lot of great parks, but Sellwood stands out to me lately. It's on the bluff overlooking Oaks Bottom and the river. There are lots of mature trees. The park's over 100 years old and has an interesting history. It used to be a racetrack and is home to Portland's first public swimming pool. It's busy, but not too busy. It feels peaceful to me.

When a park is well cared for, people won't notice every detail, but they can feel it. They feel whether a place is welcoming and if someone is paying attention. I hope when people come into parks, they feel connected to nature and to each other. I hope it gives them a break from whatever's weighing on them.

This is a cool job. To work in parks, to help take care of places that belong to the community, to support the people doing that work every day.

It's a lot. I feel incredibly fortunate to do this work.