Michel Wiman, October 2018, with special thanks and photos courtesy of Tara Davis, Willamette River-Rio Laja Twinning Project; Heath Keirstead of the Benton County Soil and Water Conservation District; and Kathleen Westly of Marys River Watershed Council. Why are one-third of all migratory bird species worldwide in decline? Most research points to habitat loss as […]
Category Archives: IAE
Seasons of Herbert Farm Natural Area
By Anna Ramthun September 2018 The Herbert Farm Natural Area is undeniably special. Located just south of Corvallis, the area was an important gathering and foraging spot for local Native American tribes, and is still regarded as an important cultural area by the modern Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde. The Institute for Applied Ecology […]
Restoring Pioneer Butte, one stick at a time
By Andrew Esterson September 2018 Wow, what a day and what a great volunteer crew we had to help with the Institute for Applied Ecology’s (IAE) Pioneer Butte restoration project! First and foremost, thank you to all of the Oregon State University students that volunteered for IAE’s Pioneer Butte project with the Center for Civic […]
Tramplers, Stumblers and Rollers: Observations from our first 2 weeks as interns
By Samantha Hooper and Mary McKean May 1, 2018 The first two weeks of Conservation Research field work were an immersion in the spectacularly interconnected landscape of Oregon’s native and exotic plant life. We joined Andrew from IAE’s Habitat Restoration team at the West Eugene Wetlands for our first field day, where we mulched a […]
Students Love to Dig Holes for the Rare Thin-Leaved Peavine!
When middle school students from Eugene, Oregon were asked what they liked most about helping plant new populations of a rare plant, many enthusiastically replied, “digging holes is the best thing ever!” IAE’s Habitat Restoration and Ecological Education Programs teamed up on a project to not only teach students about a rare plant that occurs […]
Willamette Daisy Planting at Baskett Slough NWR
This spring IAE staff and volunteers, as well as many folks from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, helped over 1700 Willamette daisy plants find a new home at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), located about 10 miles west of Salem. It was a perfect day for planting – not too hot, not too cold, […]
Put a Bird on It!
Do you ever get the feeling that you are being followed? That there’s something out there watching your every move? Well, on the last Crater Lake seed collection trip, the team discovered that was exactly the case. As they harvested seed from marumleaf buckwheat (Eriogonum marifolium), they discovered they were being shadowed by a tiny […]
Natural history of checker-mallows of western Oregon
If you rode your horse or walked through western Oregon grasslands on a late May day 200 years ago, chances are you would have seen checker-mallows aplenty among the many wildflowers. Today these grasslands are few and far between, but in some habitat remnants checker-mallows still make a showy spring bloom. There are over 20 […]
Mulford’s milkvetch research update
It takes a full day of driving from western Oregon to reach the closest populations of Mulford’s milkvetch (Astragalus mulfordiae) in the Owyhee Uplands of Malheur County. This rare species occurs in scattered populations in rangelands of Oregon and southwestern Idaho, mostly on sandy soils on rolling hills, flats and near the Owyhee and Snake […]
National Native Seed Conference 2017
Native plants drive habitat restoration and seed industries nationally and globally. Designed to bring together restoration practitioners, seed producers, academics, and agencies, the National Native Seed conference is a bi-annual chance to network across disciplines and areas of interest. The 2017 National Native Seed Conference was the largest and most successful yet. Over 330 people […]
Tree planting at Herbert Farm
On February 1st 2017 a crew from R. Franco Restoration planted 7,500 trees and shrubs at Herbert Farm and Natural Area, a City of Corvallis property in Benton County, Oregon. IAE is helping Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, who hold a conservation easement on the property through the Willamette Wildlife Mitigation Program, to restore […]
Al Kitzman receives 2016 Ecological Conservation Award
The 2016 Ecological Conservation Award was presented to Al Kitzman for his long-term contributions to habitat restoration in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Al retired in 2014 from the Benton County Natural Areas and Parks Department after 34 years of service. He managed several natural areas and parks for their habitat and recreational values, including […]