[birding] Re: Mitigation wetlands

[Jarod Jebousek]

Thanks Joel and Matthew for the excellent responses.  I just wanted to add a few things to this discussion.  Please excuse me for not attaching all of the text from the previous messages.  I'm sure people can refer back to it somehow if they need to.

 

Diamond Hill Wetlands: This property has been enrolled in the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP).  It is a USDA Farm Bill program administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).  Through this program, the NRCS purchases conservation easements from landowners who are currently cultivating wetlands.  The NRCS purchases the landowners' rights to farm or build structures on the land, permanently.  The landowner still retains the right to control access, recreate, and they can even sell the land, but the easement goes along with it.  The recreation is usually only quiet enjoyment and hunting, and not things that would harm the vegetation such as atv racing, organized dog training, etc.  The motivations of the landowners to enroll in this program can vary somewhat, but it is primarily the desire to create wildlife habitat and to stop farming land that is difficult to cultivate.  Both of these reasons also happen to be primary goals of the program.  The habitat restoration is payed for by the NRCS as well as cash and inkind contributions from other partners such as USFWS, ODFW, watershed councils, and SWCDs.

 

Mud Slough Wetlands at Farmer Road: While some of the site is a mitigation bank, most of this site is actually in the Wetland Reserve Program.  Actually most of the footage that was shown on Oregon Field Guide was shot on the WRP easement rather than the mitigation bank.  USFWS and ODFW were very involved in the restoration of the site.  Ray Fiori, among others, was actually running the equiment during construction.  The landowner was also very involved in the restoration of the WRP and was able to take that new knowledge along with his farming knowledge on to the private venture of mitigation banking.

 

If anyone has questions about the Wetland Reserve Program, don't hesitate to contact me.  Thanks,

 

-jarod

 

 
 		 	   		  
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