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.