Nutria Pond behind the Milwaukie Public Library

Thanks for feeding and caring for a non-​native invasive species that is a threat to the entire ecosystem because they devour 25% of their body weight in plants and plant roots every day.

I wouldn’t say it’s a «treasure» but it is not the worst thing I have ever seen. What makes it not so interesting is that it’s in a weird location. I love and live near downtown Milwaukie but this site has odd access points and is right next to an apartment complex.
If you’re from out of town, don’t make this a «must see.»
Also, who likes to look at Nutrias?

There’s not really anything to do here other than look at the ducks, which are all over the Portland area, so that’s nothing special. No playground, no nothing other than a couple benches. They really need to re-​name it because there are no nutria here either. The watery area is about as large as my apartment so you can see pretty much the whole thing and there’s nowhere for them to hide. Michael’s 2012 review said the nutria have all been trapped and taken away. I gather that is still the case because they just weren’t there. I went with this in mind not even expecting to see any and was still disappointed. I guess if you’re passing by anyway it’s a decent place to sit and catch your breath for five minutes, but don’t waste your time driving here if you’re out of the area, it’s not worth the gas.

A nice park right outside the front entrance of the library. I walked here from up the street and accidentally went on the wrong side at first. I didn’t actually get down to the water as there was a very attentive goose watching me. Not sure I wanted to go there, so I took a good look and left.
I think this would be a great place to sit with a book you got at the library, but I have a feeling the grass is covered with goose poop. There were quite a few around.
Didn’t see the little critters. Boo!

I had no idea what this place was when I moved here years ago. I remember a nutria approaching me and my husband, and I thought it was Swamp Rat from Princess Bride… on a slightly smaller scale. I was certain it was going to eat us. Apparently, it just wanted bread. I screamed and ran away like a scared baby.
Now that I see that I was actually in THEIR space, it all makes sense. Cute little park and wonderful spot to hang out and read a book.

This is a cool little park, very serene and relaxing. Well, usually relaxing as sometimes the hordes of ducks and geese can be so great an number you can genuinely feel a bit overwhelmed.
If you have kids, it is a pretty fun place to take them and feed the birds. Sometimes squirrels will even come out for food so bd careful — they can bite and have sharp claws.
This is called the nutria pond but I have never seen any nutria here.
Enjoy the park!

Nice little spot but you’re not actually supposed to feed the ducks/​geese which bombard you and even the nutria will chase you down — also if you have small kids it’s not ideal because there is a LOT of bird poo.

Spoke to a local resident who told me that the nutria were all trapped and removed from this area. Too bad. Still a nice park!

I love this place, we’ve been coming here to feed the ducks since a was a little child, so I have very strong nostalgic feelings for this pretty little park. There never were nutria when I was little, but I went recently and was approached by one, who I naturally offered food to. It was a little scary at first… They have some crazy teeth, but he was as gentle as could be and it was a first for me! I’ve never been that close to a nutria before, that’s for sure, let alone fed one!

I visited the park… I saw one of those cute little fuckers. They are worth the trip, hell, the beautiful 10 block area surrounding the park is worth the trip! The park is not huge by any means, its more like a small nature reserve. Park a few blocks away and enjoy the entire surrounding areas, cute squirrels pose on the fences, wanting tips for you, taking their picture. They will snatch the food from your hands! Geese and ducks and beautiful flowers, it really is a secluded, awesome little hideaway.

Surprisingly, Nutria taste a bit like the dark meat of turkey. It is a little chewy, and has more of a slight greasiness to it. Since Nutria eat grass, buds and other items like that, they are really a clean animal. We have some sloughs and small ponds down here west of Eugene and have an abundance of them around. After skinning, I cut it up into chicken size pieces (breast, thighs etc), browned them and simmered for about an hour. Next time I will try it on a spit over a fire. Looking forward to that.

We went today but did not see any nutrias. Oh well. We did get to see ducks, seagulls, it was a nice place to stop with the puppy.

Went there today… no Nutria just ducks. A guy hanging out at the park told me that they don’t really come out there anymore. Its a really pretty spot so 2 stars

I went here based off of the reviews. I thought the nutria were scary huge rodents but my eight year old had a blast feeding them bread (she’s a nature lover and I am not). I was glad I could take her somewhere fun and interesting– it was a tiny little pond behind a library but it was the fist time we had seen anything like this.

This is one of the best outings around Portland I’ve ever had. I brought dog food (very nutritious hopefully — though next time I’ll bring carrots) and watched as the very first Nutria I’d ever seen came near to see if I had any treats. Before the evening was over 3 or 4 had come over to feed though none felt it necessary to come very close — which was OK by me.
They’re truly adorable and a real treasure.

I love to come here and hang with the Nutria!
If you feed them, make sure that you keep your fingers out of the way city slicker! They’re not vicious, your fingers just look like yummy carrot sticks!

On my morning bus rides from the Laurelhurst area to the township of Milwaukie (it’s a city? Really?!?), there was a line from a Regina Spektor song I frequently chose on my iPod to cheer me up about my impending destination:
«He was perfect except for the fact that he was an engineer/​Mothers prefer doctors and lawyers.»
No, office management at an engineering firm was not the barrel of laughs you might expect. I spent a lot of time cursing the long commute, cursing the strangely-​shaped parcels I had to ship every day, and cursing the hamlet of Milwaukie by association. Then at some point, I walked toward the main thoroughfare and found some of the most bizarre critters I had ever seen. They had heads and bodies that reminded me of beavers but with long, skinny rat tails. They foraged in groups of four or five at a time. The ducks did not seem alarmed by them in the slightest. I asked one of the engineers what the hell the things were. He paused from his stimulating photo of a storm drain long enough to inform me that the creatures were called nutria.
I researched the nutrias’ origins. They were brought to Oregon by fur trappers in the 1930s with the expectation that the rodents’ tar-​like pelts would be all the rage of debutantes all over the Northwest. This was not to be, and the nutria were forgotten and left to breed like no tomorrow all over the Portland Metro area. The pond next to the Milwaukie Public Library had become their established stomping grounds and swimming holes.
Transplant identification, maybe, but the nutria drew me in. I loved the unlikelihood of them. I loved how they resembled things that were dredged out of a swamp but continued to go about their small animal business just like the humans. When I was yelled at for not being able to visit every single package-​shipping company within five miles to find out which deliverer could get a roll of blueprints to Snohomish County by yesterday, I walked and watched the nutria scuttle around the grass. When the accounting failures of the last three operating years of the company fell on my shoulders to catalog, I stalled and visited the pond to see the nutria sniff at wet leaves. When the first snow fell and delayed all the buses for full hours at a time, I wandered back to the library and worried that the nutria wouldn’t find enough food to stay nourished. And when I finally bid adieu to the job and the village of Milwaukie, I left without saying goodbye to my not-​quite-​rat friends.
Which is good because I read they charge people at random, nibble at gardens, and probably eat babies. But not engineers, yet.

I had never heard of nutria until I came to Portland. For those of you who are in the dark, too, Nutria are most easily described as Beaver rats. Smaller than beavers, they are around the size of a house cat, with greasy beaver-​like fur, giant orange teeth that never stop growing, beady eyes and a big rat tail.
While the above description is a little nightmarish, I swear there is something cute about these little guys. If you’re looking for something off the beaten path to explore in Portland, and maybe you’re even wanting to interact with wildlife, I always recommend a visit to the Nutria just over the city line in Milwaukie.
Park at the Library and head to the little pond that sits behind it. Be sure to bring food with you – I’ve had good luck feeding them bread, bagels, and kale, but I get the feeling they would eat anything. Then stand on the little land bridge in the pond with food in hand and after awhile, these little guys will start pulling themselves out of the water to eat out of your hand. They tend to swarm around you, so be prepared! For added adventure, try this at night with flashlights.
(If you like the idea of bizarre day trips in the suburbs of Portland, but are scared of Beaver Rats, try Mount Angel Abbey instead. All the animals there are dead and stuffed).