Habitat sampling at Balboa, Fir Butte, Greenhill, and Vinci

This document summarizes habitat monitoring in the West Eugene Wetlands on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management Eugene District under a long term (10 year) land management implementation schedule, developed in 2005.

In 2012, we monitored Balboa, Fir Butte, Greenhill, and Vinci to assess whether they were within the habitat targets for Threatened and Endangered species, as determined by the Western Oregon and Southwestern Oregon Prairie Species Recovery Plan.

• Monitoring in 2012 occurred in May, which was earlier than in previous years at the sites. All sites had less total cover than they did previously, likely due to a difference in monitoring times.
• The plots at Balboa 1 and Greenhill 2 were native dominated while the others had greater cover of introduced species.
• The southeast portion of Fir Butte continued to have extremely high percentages of introduced species when compared to natives.
• Cover of invasive species and litter exceeded thresholds for management in habitat for Lupinus oreganus, Erigeron decumbens, and Lomatium bradshawii.
• Thresholds for woody vegetation were not exceeded at any of the sites.