BLM OR/WA - West Eugene Wetlands Restoration Project

The Willamette Valley prairies are one of the most endangered habitats in the U.S (Noss et al. 1995). With less than half a percent of habitat remaining, and little of that in pristine condition, restoration of this native habitat is essential if this ecotype and the species that depend on it are going to survive. These prairies are threatened by the continued degradation, habitat loss, and fragmentation of their native prairie ecosystems. In 1994 the BLM partnered with the City of Eugene and The Nature Conservancy to create the West Eugene Wetlands Partnership, currently known as the Rivers to Ridges Partnership. This partnership has grown and now includes fifteen Federal and State agencies, public, private, and non-profit organizations that share a vision dedicated to improving the quality of life for residents in the upper Willamette Valley by working together to protect and enhance the region�s land and water resources and their ecosystem functions and values. The partners combined have over 20 years of institution knowledge, share staff expertise, specialized equipment, and other resources to achieve common goals and objectives that are outlined in the West Eugene Wetlands Plan (2004), US Fish & Wildlife Recovery Plan for the Prairie Species of Western Oregon (2010), and the West Eugene Wetland Resource Management Plan (2015). The overall objective of this program is to continue to partner with the Rivers to Ridges Partnership to work cooperatively to accomplish protection and conservation, as well as enhancement treatments, to an endangered ecosystem occupied by Bureau Sensitive Species, as well as federally listed plants and animals within the West Eugene Wetlands project area. This program will involve projects such as, but not limited to, maintaining wetland and prairie functions through habitat maintenance and restoration activities; collection and grow out of rare, endemic, ecologically appropriate native plant materials for restoration projects; control of noxious and invasive species in order to meet U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Recovery goals for habitat targets.