finally created. Some of them, such as Macleay Park, are still referred to by their original names even though they are part of Forest Park. Other parcels were acquired through government action. In 1928, the City Council's Delinquent Tax Committee transferred land to the Parks Bureau for a wildflower garden along Balch Creek. Multnomah County in that year gave the bureau perpetual use of about of land north of Washington Park. Encouraged by the City Club of Portland, which conducted a park feasibility study in 1945, civic leaders supported the Forest Park project. In 1948, Multnomah County transferred to the city another acquired through delinquent tax foreclosures. On September 23, 1948, the city formally dedicated of land as Forest Park, which as of 2009 covered more than . It is one of the largest urban forest reserves in the U.S, though its exact ranking has been questioned. The city's Parks and Recreation Department claims it is the "largest forested natural area within city limits in the United States". However, an article in the Portland Tribune said Forest Park ranked no higher than third among U.S. urban forests in 2006. In 1991, Metro, the regional governmental agency for the Oregon portion of the Portland metropolitan area, began budgeting for what became its Natural Areas Program aimed at protecting these areas in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties. By 1995, the program had targeted next to or within Forest Park for acquisition. A 2006 bond measure allowed for the purchase of more land to expand the park, to protect its creeks' headwaters and those of nearby streams in Washington County, and to link Forest Park to other public lands to the northwest. In addition to purchases to directly expand the park, since 1990 the Forest Park Conservancy has acquired 14 conservation easements covering to create a buffer of undeveloped land surrounding the park. Crime and other human impacts Multiple crimes have occurred in Forest Park, including two murders. In 2001, Todd Alan Reed, a man who preyed on heroin addicts and prostitutes, pleaded guilty to the 1999 murders of three women whose bodies were found in Forest Park near Northwest Saltzman Road, though forensic analysis showed the murders took place elsewhere and the bodies were brought to Forest Park. In 2003, jurors convicted another man of the 1996 murder of his ex-girlfriend on a Forest Park trail. Less serious crimes have included assault