Their trees, flowers, and flowing water improve our health, ease our anxieties, and serve as the stage for family reunions, weddings, and just plain fun. Parks and green spaces also clean our air, cool our hot summer days, and provide refuge for birds and animals. Most importantly, parks are the places where distinctions of race and ethnicity, wealth and class, fall away and people come together as a community.
Mission Street Parks Conservancy exists to foster community. We believe public parks play a critical role in the health and happiness of our community, and we’re committed to preserving and caring for them today and for the future. If you enjoy our parks, please support our work by becoming a member today.
Bush’s Pasture Park has several playgrounds and picnic areas located near the Bush Barn and both upper and lower Leffelle Street parking lots.
The Upper and Lower Oak Groves create a cathedral of welcoming shade for picnicking, playing, or just sitting and ‘forest bathing’.
The upper and lower pastures of the original Bush farmstead remain as open lawn. Ideal places for a ball game, playing Frisbee, or just soaking up the sunshine.
The interior of the conservatory contains plants popular in Victorian glasshouses, and there are interpretive panels that bring the history of the structure ‘to life’.
The Hillside features about 130 varieties of species and hybrid rhododendron and azaleas, and well over 300 varieties of companion plants located on a 2½ acre east facing slope.
May through August, the Garden is alive with blooms from over 170 modern and old rose cultivars. Over 2,000 individual rose plants are distributed among the garden’s 105 beds.
Pringle Creek flows along the western edge of the park, through the shade of big-leaf maples and other native trees, shrubs and ground cover. A narrow meandering path accesses the creek.
The Bush House Museum, in Bush’s Pasture Park, is preserved and interpreted to illuminate the lives and legacy of Salem’s Bush Family, the early development of Salem and Oregon history and culture.
Camas (Camassia quamash) carpet the lower Oak Grove, while the great camas (Camassia leichtlinii) can be found in the Rhododendron Hillside and among other wildflowers on the slope.
WHEN • Friday, April 17, 2026: 10am – 6pm • Saturday, April 18, 2026: 9am – 3pm WHERE As usual, our spring sale will be at the foot of the Soap Box Derby track, Mission St. SE at Church St.…
Why not volunteer to help keep the rose beds at Bush’s Pasture Park blooming and neat? Given years of budget cuts and limited staff, the Park is increasingly reliant on volunteers to keep garden beds at their best. You can…
GIS Map of Bush’s Pasture ParkThe Conservancy is starting to map the location on the park’s trees and woody shrubs, as well as the location and contents of mass planting beds. As we gather this data, the results are available through our interactive GIS map.
Plant DatabaseThe Conservancy is working to locate and catalogue all of the park’s trees, woody shrubs, and contents of mass planting beds. This allows the public to search the parks’ plant collections. Users can search our database by entering attributes such as common name, scientific name, cultivar, and plant habit.
Plant CollectionsThe park’s plant material is organized into several general and special collections. The Conservancy has developed descriptions and management policies for each collection.