Ten years of restoration efforts bring a wildlife sanctuary back to life

The Willamette Confluence Preserve, a 1,305-acre natural area located between the Coast Fork and Middle Fork of the Willamette River just south and east of Eugene in western Oregon, is a sanctuary for wildlife including chinook salmon, the northern red-legged frog and the western meadowlark, Oregon’s state bird.

More than 10 years of restoration projects have been carried out — including removing barriers and allowing the river to once again connect to its historic floodplain — with the goal of improving water quality and fish and wildlife habitat and increasing species diversity. And now, with restoration a success, The Nature Conservancy has transferred care of the preserve to the accredited McKenzie River Trust. The trust has started working with community groups to provide guided access opportunities, including partnering with the local school district.

“Being so close to the hearts of Springfield and Eugene, the Willamette Confluence provides unique opportunities for connection with the wild," said Joe Moll, McKenzie River Trust’s executive director, in the Eugene Register Guard. "Exploring these connections while also ensuring the integrity and ecological health of the area will take many partners and some collective restraint. At the end of the day, this space is for the critters and the rivers that have created it.”

The preserve now features wetlands, floodplain forest and native prairie where a decade ago invasive species were thriving, and that’s good news for local wildlife Moll described as “on the edge” and considered “as threatened or endangered.” Protecting the land will also benefit the Willamette River itself, providing cleaner water and allowing it to hold more water during drought seasons.

The Land Trust Alliance has worked with the McKenzie Land Trust in the past through funding opportunities, including supporting a portion of the trust’s Wren Marsh/Waite Ranch project with a grant through the Pacific Northwest Resilient Landscapes Initiative. The Wren Marsh project expanded a 1,000-acre conservation area on the central Oregon coast to protect, restore and steward the tidal estuary of the Siuslaw River, with benefits extending to salmon, shorebirds and other sensitive wildlife species, as well as having a positive impact on climate resiliency:

Estuary wetlands, connected to adjacent waterways by levees and dikes, are resilient to climate change. The wetlands' rich, wet soil has a significant capacity to store carbon, in some cases more than forested areas. Tidal flow will bring in additional sediment that over time raises the elevation of the property, slowing the sea leave rise in that area. The land will thus be able to sustain wildlife habitat longer and more efficiently once the restoration work is complete.

It just so happens that May is American Wetlands Month, the perfect time to celebrate projects like the Willamette Confluence Preserve and Wren Marsh.

“It’s a joy,” Moll told Oregon Public Broadcasting. “It’s [the Willamette Confluence Preserve] the kind of place where you can witness big-picture change.”