Blackberries grow near the Bear Creek Greenway at Bear Creek Park in Medford. 

A unanimous Medford City Council approved a two-year, $427,500 contract to remove blackberry bushes and other vegetation in city parkland.

The contract with B&B Fire Suppression of Central Point, OK’d Thursday by the council, will primarily focus on the Bear Creek Greenway as well as along Larson, Lazy, Crooked and Lone Pine creeks.

The money will come from Council Community Vision Funds and an Oregon State Fire Marshal grant awarded to the city in May.

B&B will focus its efforts on removing noxious and flammable vegetation.

This is part of an ongoing city goal to minimize the risk of catastrophic fires.

In addition to minimizing fire risk, the project will improve sight lines and restore natural landscapes in riparian areas.

“It’s a continuation of the city’s long-time and ongoing vegetation strategy,” said Rich Rosenthal, parks director.

Improving sight lines is important for Medford police as they patrol the 3-mile stretch of the greenway trail that follows Bear Creek and has gained a reputation for homeless camps and trash. Over the past decade, the city has invested more than $1 million in vegetation removal, much of it prior to the 2020 Almeda fire that ravaged Talent and Phoenix.

The contract with B&B is the largest one the city has undertaken in a single biennial budget, Rosenthal said.

“The city has already treated the vast majority of city property along the greenway,” he said.

The parks department has performed other smaller blackberry removal efforts with various contractors. When a contract exceeds $150,000, it must go before the City Council for approval.

But removing the Himalayan blackberries is not a one-time process. They typically grow back fairly rapidly and require consistent removal to keep the blackberries from taking over again.

While the east side of Bear Creek has received a lot of attention, the west bank has a number of private properties that have significant blackberry vegetation.

“On the private property side, it is a major concern of the city,” Rosenthal said. “We’re devising tactics to encourage and potentially require property owners to reduce the fire hazard produced by Himalayan blackberries.”

The City Council has previously held a study session that could lead to code changes that would attempt to deal with the blackberries on private property.

Other areas of the Bear Creek Greenway, which stretches from Ashland to Central Point, have undertaken significant efforts to remove blackberries.

Various grants have provided $900,000 for invasive species control along the greenway, almost $1.8 million in federal highway funds has been targeted for restoration work in the Almeda Fire burn scar, and $700,000 will remove dangerous trees and reduce ground fuels, jointly funded by Talent, Phoenix and Jackson County.

The greenway isn’t the only area plagued by blackberries. The city of Jacksonville is offering property owners grants of up to $2,000 to help clear invasive species near waterways. The city has $25,000 available in the grant fund.