The Greenbelt Land Trust (GLT), in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and the McKenzie River Trust in Eugene, was awarded nearly $290,000 for prairie, oak woodlands, and riparian habitat restoration in the Willamette Valley. The grant was the second highest in the nation for this new program administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The GLT will receive approximately $34,000 of the total award for habitat restoration on four properties around Corvallis and Philomath: Owens Farm, Bald Hill Farms, and two properties in Philomath.
Through the Private Stewardship Grants Program (PSGP), the USFWS offers financial assistance to inidividuals and groups to support voluntary conservation efforts on private lands for the benefit of threatened, endangered, and other at-risk species. It is imperative that private landowners become involved in conservation because, according to a 1993 study by the Association for Biodiversity Information and The Nature Conservancy, "Half of the species listed as endangered or threatened have 80 percent or more of their habitat on private lands." Private lands conservation work is particularly critical in the Willamette Valley where over 90 percent of the lands are privately owned.
The individual federally listed species that will benefit from GLT efforts in the local area include four plant species and one invertebrate: Nelson's checkermallow (Sidalcea nelsoniana), Bradshaw's lomatium (lomatium bradshawii), Kincaid's lupine (lupinus sulphereous ssp. kincaidii), Willamette Daisy (Erigeron decumbens ssp. decmbens), and Fender's blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioides fenderi).
The four sites are examples of how landowners can work to improve rare habitat types to benefit threatened or endangered species. Please watch our events and activities list for volunteer opportunities for on the ground restoration work at these sites.
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