Habitat sampling at Fir Butte, Oxbow West, and Vinci
The West Eugene Wetlands (WEW) Project is a cooperative venture by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Eugene District, and others to protect and restore wetland ecosystems in the southern
The West Eugene Wetlands (WEW) Project is a cooperative venture by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Eugene District, and others to protect and restore wetland ecosystems in the southern Willamette Valley of Oregon. This unique program involves a partnership of federal, state, and local agencies and organizations to manage lands and resources in an urban area for multiple public benefits. In 2005 the BLM developed a long term (10 year) land management implementation schedule for its parcels within the West Eugene Wetlands project area.
The purpose of this project in 2007 was to conduct monitoring at three sites, Fir Butte, Oxbow West, and Vinci, in order to provide data to assess whether these sites were within their habitat target ranges, for two rare and threatened species, Erigeron decumbens ssp. decumbens (Willmette Valley) and Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidi(Kincaid’s lupine), as determined by the Western Oregon and Southwestern Oregon Prairie Species Recovery Plan.
Our surveys indicated that only two thresholds for management were exceeded during the 2007 monitoring period.
- Vinci exceeded the woody species threshold for management with 12% canopy cover, exceeding the 5-10% threshold set for wet and upland prairie habitats.
- All three sites exceeded the invasive species threshold in 2007. Fir Butte was found to experience the most invasive species encroachment, with 239% invasive species cover.
- Our sampling methods in 2007 were not sufficient to determine if there had been a loss in the cover of number of native plant species.
- The threshold for management of thatch was not exceeded at any site.
