[birding] Mitigation wetlands corrections

Sat Jun 19 22:02:05 PDT 2010

Hi,

I forgot the link the Oregon Field Guide video.

http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/segments/view/1698

Matthew Schneider

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Matthew" <gaviaimmer at live.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2010 7:14 PM
To: "midvalleybirding" <birding at midvalleybirding.org>
Subject: Re: [birding] Mitigation wetlands

> 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
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > birding mailing list
>>> > birding at midvalleybirding.org
>>> > http://midvalleybirding.org/mailman/listinfo/birding
>>> > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/
>>> >
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
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