[birding] Mitigation wetlands

Sat Jun 19 19:14:12 PDT 2010

Hi all,

The wetlands on Farmer Rd that Joel mentioned are part of the Mud Slough 
Mitigation Bank.  Oregon Field Guide ran a section on Mitigation Bank 
Wetlands in 2008 including part about Mud Slough.  The section does a good 
job explaining mitigation banks.  Here's a link to where you can view the 
section.

http://nfwf.conservationregistry.org/projects/3755

Matthew Schneider
Silverton, Oregon
gaviaimmer at live.com

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Joel Geier" <joel.geier at peak.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2010 5:30 PM
To: "rich armstrong" <richarmstrong at comcast.net>
Cc: "MidValley Birds" <birding at midvalleybirding.org>
Subject: Re: [birding] Mitigation wetlands

> Hi Rich & all,
>
> Evergreen Mitigation Bank and Diamond Hill wetlands are both private
> property, not county or city land. Neither has anything to do with tax
> problems or foreclosure avoidance. Each is a unique situation so let's
> take them one at a time:
>
> Evergreen Mitigation Bank is a private venture by Oregon Wetlands LLC,
> which has been written up in the Corvallis Gazette-Times. Ray Fiori
> (formerly the manager of E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area) is one of the
> partners, so that's why he was out there. The idea is to provide a
> mechanism for developments that impact small wetlands in the Corvallis
> area to compensate by purchasing wetland restoration "credits" in the
> mitigation bank, which is set up to manage the habitat basically in
> perpetuity.
>
> This is a fairly new concept in Oregon, though I think the Astoria
> Airport Mitigation Bank is based on a similar idea. Oregon Wetlands LLC
> has another mitigation bank at One Horse Slough north of Lebanon. At
> both places they are planting and maintaining native grassland &
> riparian species, meeting some very impressive targets in terms of the
> percentage of native vegetation (like, 99%).
>
> Opinions may vary, but to me this is an improvement over the 1980s &
> 1990s type of "compensatory wetlands," which developers were required to
> put in to compensate for loss of hydrologic function when they built
> over wetlands. An example of the old type of "compensatory wetland" can
> be seen in the K-Mart parking lot off of Circle in north Corvallis
> (sometimes good for parking-lot gulls, but not much else). With a
> mitigation bank, instead of lots of small, ecologically dysfunctional
> "wetlands" (more like pits lined with rip-rap) you get a larger wetland
> that can provide real ecological function, such as nesting habitat for
> American Bittern, Wilson's Phalarope, and Streaked Horned Lark.
>
> Regarding access to Evergreen Mitigation Bank, last spring Ray announced
> a walking tour of the property through this list-serv, which I think
> some of you participated in. They don't allow unrestricted public access
> due to concerns about vandalism and other illegal activities. My
> understanding is that the neighbors of the property have been helping to
> keep an eye out for trespassers, so birders going out there on their own
> could trigger a lot of unnecessary hassle.
>
> I don't know of any birders going out there on their own for
> recreational reasons, though I think one or two ornithologists from OSU
> have done some nesting surveys in past years. I don't get down that way
> often myself, but I know that in past years Corvallis birders have had
> good results by birding from the pullouts during spring shorebird
> migration, before the vegetation grows in too high.
>
> Possibly confusing the issue, there is also an Evergreen Creek property
> right across Bellfountain Rd. which recently came into the hands of
> Greenbelt Land Trust. I don't know much about that property or how it
> will be managed. However, having this new greenbelt property adjacent to
> the mitigation bank will surely be a good thing in terms of an ecosystem
> that can function on a larger scale.
>
> As for Diamond Hill wetlands, this is a totally different situation of a
> private landowner (MDAK Farms?) which has been working with federal (&
> state?) agencies under various conservation incentive programs. There
> are other people on this list who know a lot more than me about the
> details.
>
> My understanding of that access situation is that public access is
> restricted for reasons similar to those for Evergreen. Again, some OSU
> ornithologists have been out there for monitoring projects, but the rest
> of us have to bird the place from the road.
>
> You can see some good birds from the road in these places, depending on
> the season and the height of the vegetation. The private restorations
> along Livermore Rd. and Farmer Rd. that I reported on earlier today are
> similar in terms of access and visibility issues. Maybe you can hear the
> birds over the berms but you can't necessarily see them. Still, you can
> have a pretty good birding experience just walking along the road, if
> you take your time.
>
> Doing these meadowlark surveys for ODFW has been good for me, in terms
> of teaching me some patience. I've come to realize that if you spend an
> hour standing around a stretch of road, you'll eventually hear, and
> probably see, most of what's there, even if you can't see over the
> berms.
>
> At least from my point of view, it's good to have these exceptionally
> good private restoration projects to augment the overall amount of
> habitat that's available to birds in our area. Even if you can't get
> into all of the habitat, eventually the birds will spill into areas that
> are more accessible to the birding public.
>
> Those of you who know me well, know that I'm a big fan of the Swedish
> model when it comes to public access to the outdoors, see:
>
> http://www.sverigeturism.se/smorgasbord/smorgasbord/natrecspo/nature/every.html
>
> However, implementing this model in Oregon would require some major
> changes in our concepts of liability law, not to mention a major
> cultural shift in terms of respect for lands that we do all have access
> to (check out the roads in the Siuslaw National Forest just south of
> Toledo, for an example of why this wouldn't work here, or at least not
> yet).
>
> So within the culture that we live in, I'm happy to have these private
> restoration projects and to respect the reasons why these property
> owners can't just leave the gates wide-open for birders, since by doing
> so they'd have to let in everyone. But hopefully over time some
> protocols can be set up that will improve access for those of us who are
> willing to be responsible.
>
> Happy birding,
> Joel
>
>
> On Sat, 2010-06-19 at 15:47 -0700, rich armstrong wrote:
>> 1. i have been to both evergreen wetlands and diamond hill wetlands (near
>> brownsville).
>> 2. both are frustrating because you can't actually go on them.
>> 3. WHY? i would like to understand this.
>> 4. what little i think i understand is that these lands get donated to 
>> the
>> city or county because of tax problems or forclosure avoidance, and
>> therefore, the city or county owns these lands??? is that right?
>> 5. if so, why can't birders go on them?
>> 6. and how do certain birders get to go on them?
>> Rich Armstrong
>> 541-753-1978
>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Joel Geier" <joel.geier at peak.org>
>> To: "MidValley Birds" <birding at midvalleybirding.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 9:26 AM
>> Subject: [birding] Bittern nesting at Evergreen Mitigation Bank
>>
>>
>> > Hi All
>> >
>> > Last Thursday (10 Jun) Ray Fiori was doing vegetation surveys at the
>> > Evergreen Mitigation Bank wetlands SE of Philomath, and flushed an
>> > AMERICAN BITTERN from a nest. Here's his description:
>> >
>> >> an American bittern jumped up between my legs and almost gave me a
>> >> heart attack.  It had 5 mallard size eggs, which were a solid gray
>> >> color. The nest was dead grass shaped into a shallow bowl on top very
>> >> saturated soils.  It was in an area with some nitrogen runoff from the
>> >> adjacent field out in the prairie dominated by almost head high Tufted
>> >> hairgrass and meadow barley, ~200 yds west of the emergent marsh areas
>> >> on the south side.
>> >
>> > He's also found a WILSON'S PHALAROPE nest in the same general area, 
>> > also
>> > two phalaropes predated by RED-TAILED HAWKS within the past week. GREAT
>> > HORNED OWLS nested successfully at this site again this year, in the
>> > riparian growth along Evergreen Creek.
>> >
>> > For directions to Evergreen Mitigation Bank, see Site A10 on the Alsea
>> > Falls Loop of the Willamette Valley Birding Trail,
>> > www.willamettebirding.org
>> > The site is private land so you can't wander out into the restorations
>> > on your own, but you can scan it from several pullouts on Bellfountain
>> > Rd. The bittern and phalarope nests are straight out (west) from the
>> > first pullout south of Evergreen Creek -- pretty far out but with luck
>> > you might see or hear them flying around.
>> >
>> > Happy birding,
>> > Joel
>> >
>> > --
>> > Joel Geier
>> > Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> >
>>
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>
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