Project Goal:
The Willow Creek Mitigation and Management Project has been designed to provide protection and improvement of wildlife habitat for mitigation of habitat loss as outlined in the Northwest Planning Council's 1994 Fish and Wildlife Program.  These efforts would partially fulfill BPA's obligations to protect, mitigate, and enhance wildlife habitat affected by the development of federal hydroelectric projects in the Columbia River Basin, including the Willamette River Drainage.

Background:
The Willow Creek Wildlife Mitigation Project Environmental Assessment (EA) was developed in 1995 to guide the management of the Willow Creek Natural Area for wildlife mitigation purposes.  Prior to completing the EA, a habitat assessment was conducted of the Willow Creek site to document habitat units baseline conditions for the following target species: Beaver, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-tailed Hawk, Valley Quail, Western Meadowlark, Yellow Warbler, and Western Pond Turtle.  The EA also describes five management alternatives and quantifies the increase in habitat units for the target species that would occur under each alternative.  The alternative that was selected for implementation was designed to maximize wildlife and biodiversity values on the site.  This would be accomplished by restoring, enhancing, or maintaining sufficiently large areas of a variety of habitats occurring on the site.

Location of Project:
The Willow Creek Natural Area is located in the Amazon Creek watershed in and adjacent to the City of Eugene, Lane County, Oregon.  With the recent addition of the Cuddeback, Alvord and Rathbone parcels, an area of 492 acres is currently protected at Willow Creek through the BPA wildlife mitigation program.  However, the Willow Creek Natural Area comprises one portion of a larger wetland system in the West Eugene area that is protected through a partnership between The Nature Conservancy, the City of Eugene, and the Eugene District Bureau of Land Management.  This larger wetland system includes over 1700 acres of protected wetlands as well as adjacent upland habitats that have been acquired by BLM and the City of Eugene.

Relationships to Other Projects:
Willow Creek is within the West Eugene Wetlands, a site that supports the largest remaining wet prairie in the Willamette Valley and has been identified as an important conservation area by the Oregon Biodiversity Project (1998), the Oregon Habitat Joint Venture (draft 2004), The Nature Conservancy (2004), and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (2005).  The West Eugene Wetlands are a globally significant site for the conservation of biological diversity and important community natural area, open space and education resource in Eugene, Oregon. The West Eugene Wetlands Plan (1992) is being implemented by an interagency partnership including the Bureau of Land Management, the City of Eugene, The Nature Conservancy, the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps, the McKenzie River Trust, US. Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers and the Willamette Resources & Education Network.  These agencies work together to manage wetland resources in a landscape context over the entire project area.  These partners are helping to build an interconnected network of wetlands and riparian corridors that help to strengthen the viability of habitats and wildlife populations over the entire system.  

In particular Willow Creek work complements other existing BPA funded Wildlife mitigation projects in the Willamette including:  the Burlington Bottoms Wildlife Mitigation Project (#199107800) and Willamette Basin Mitigation (#199206800).  For example, the Mt. Pisgah site, which is located about 11 miles east of the Willow Creek site, supports some similar habitats and target species (such as wetlands and riparian habitats supporting species such as the western pond turtle).  Mt. Pisgah also provides some similar opportunities for wildlife habitat enhancement, such as removal of invasive non-native species such as Scot's broom.

Work Completed in the Past:
The Amazon Basin/Eugene Wetlands project was approved in 1992 with an initial focus on acquisition, restoration and maintenance of 330 acres of wildlife habitat in the Amazon Basin/Eugene Wetlands located in the Willamette Subbasin near Eugene. A baseline Habitat Evaluation was completed for the properties in 1994 and was used as a basis for the development of a Wildlife Mitigation Plan/Environmental Assessment (BPA 1995). The Nature Conservancy purchased the 330-acre property and conveyed a wildlife mitigation easement to the Bonneville Power Administration in 1995. Between 2001 and 2004, The Conservancy acquired an additional 167 acres, completed a preliminary Habitat Evaluation, and in 2004 they were added to the Wildlife Mitigation Project and the original conservation easement area for a total of 497 acres.

From 1996 to 2005, The Nature Conservancy conducted inventory, research, and monitoring to improve our understanding of the Wildlife Mitigation Needs in support of an adaptive management program for the site.  Baseline inventories of all major species groups ("Herpetological Assessment of the Willow Creek Preserve, West Eugene, Oregon", by Christopher Pearl, 1997, "Wildlife Habitat Assessment of the Western Oak Stand, Willow Creek Preserve, Eugene, Lane County, Oregon", by Dan Gumtow-Farrior, 1998, and "Air Pollution Monitoring at Willow Creek Using Lichens" by Daphne Stone, 1998 ), hydrological conditions ("A Hydrologic Assessment for Habitat Management of the Willow Creek Preserve", by and Sarah Shafer, 1995), and restoration techniques and results ("Restoring Habitat for the Fender's Blue Butterfly: 1997 Report on Progress of Experimental Restorations", by Cheryl Schultz, 1998; "Willow Corner Habitat Restoration" by The Nature Conservancy 2005) were completed.  In 1996 a new species of stonefly was discovered at Willow Creek.  The description is published here: Systematics of the Capnia californica Species Group, Including a Morphological Phylogeny, Zoogeography, and Description of Capnia kerstii, new species (Plecoptera: Capniidae), by C. Riley Nelson, 2004.  

Baseline monitoring has been established (Habitat Evaluation Procedure 1994; "Status of the Fender's Blue butterfly in Lane County Oregon: Populations Estimates and Site Evaluations" by The Nature Conservancy 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and  "Effects of Mowing on the Fender's blue butterfly Implications for Conservation Management" by The Nature Conservancy 2004) and continued on an ongoing basis to advance an adaptive management program. The results of these studies have augmented information and refined recommendations from the Mitigation Plan.  Annual and quarterly reports have been prepared and submitted to the BPA going back to 1997.  These reports document the progress made on the Mitigation Plan.  Additional information and project highlights of the West Eugene Wetlands can be found in the West Eugene Wetlands Annual Reports going back to 1997.  

To date we have implemented 16 percent of the major habitat restoration identified in the Mitigation Plan.  In addition, we have started an additional 14 percent of the identified restoration, and have 19 percent of the entire 497 acres under maintenance.  Actions have been taken to address all major threats identified in the Plan on the original acquired properties including invasive non-native plant and predatory species.  

In the past six years we have made major progress eliminating 20 acres of Scot's broom, smaller patches of reed canary grass, and teasel from the site (only small patches of these species remain).  We have reduced the dominance of Himalaya blackberry on approximately 100 acres of the site through mowing and prescribed fire.  Over the last six years we have carefully restored over 65 acres of wet prairie and ash savanna habitat by removing invading woody vegetation.  From 2003-2005 we completed a 13 acre wet and upland restoration project at Willow Corner.  Approximately 65,000 cubic yards of fill material were removed from the site allowing for removal of non-native plants and their seed banks.  The site was then planted into native forbs and grasses and hand-weeded using contracted crews and volunteers.  We continue to restore 12 acres of oak woodland by reducing stem density, removing non-native woody vegetation and planting native forbs and grasses.

Through FY 2004, BPA project investments have totaled $3,430,738, of which $2,917,105 were for acquisition.  Approximately $54,000 was for habitat evaluation, management planning and NEPA work and approximately $460,000 was for habitat restoration, enhancement, maintenance, and monitoring.  Youth work crews have logged over 6,000 hours of work time in the past eight years, working primarily on non-native and invasive vegetation removal tasks.  Additional contributions to the project from The Nature Conservancy include additional land acquisitions, habitat restoration, and operations and maintenance. In addition the project has benefited from extensive volunteer support, including over 65 volunteer work parties totaling over 4000 hours of volunteer time removing invasive vegetation, and benefited from over 225 volunteer site monitoring visits in the past 8 years.

This Year's Statement of Work:
The Nature Conservancy proposes to continue restoration and management of the 497-acre Willow Creek Wildlife Mitigation Area located in the Willamette Subbasin as part of an existing project to mitigate for wildlife habitat affected by the development of federal hydroelectric projects in the Willamette River Drainage. During the 2006-2007 funding cycle, we will continue operations and maintenance activities that mimic or reestablish natural ecological processes, including promoting prairie habitat through prescribed fire and mowing, controlling invasive and predatory species, and monitoring the results of our actions for an adaptive management program.  Planned habitat restoration activities include: continuing ongoing projects to enhance species composition and structure to 60 acres of native wet prairie through mowing, overseeding and invasive weed control; enhancing 7 acres of oak woodlands through prescribed fre and seeding; initiating one new restoration projects to restore 27 acres of upland prairie for Fender's blue butterfly recovery; restoring 8 additional acres of invaded wet prairie by removing encroaching woody vegetation and seeding and planting native species; performing five prescribed burns in upland and wet prairie and oak savanna totaling 36+acres.  In addition we will maintain approximately 2 miles of firebreaks to promote safe prescribed burning activities and reduce potential wildfire spread.  

Proposed activities benefit most of the focal species identified in the Willamette Subbasin Plan (Primozich and Bastatch, 2004) for wetland prairie, oak woodland, and upland prairie focal habitats, including four species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Actions will target limiting factors and implementing strategies identified in the Willamette Subbasin Plan and the Willow Creek Project Plan.  This work will be completed between April 1, 2006 and March 31, 2007.