Oregon Office

The Northwest office specializes in working with diverse interests to conserve biodiversity with an emphasis on the protection of high priority habitats on both public and private land. This work includes policy analysis and development, advocacy and publications.

Key constituents include resource professionals in state, federal and local agencies and conservation, agriculture and forestry groups. The staff also work closely with scientists in colleges and universities and policy-makers, especially at the state and federal level, and maintain frequent contact with private foundations that support Defenders’ work.

Key Projects/Programs:

State Wildlife Action Plans: Defenders works closely with fish and wildlife agencies and other partners to implement state wildlife action plans, especially in Oregon and Washington.

Conservation Registry: Defenders is building a Conservation Registry using a simple and attractive database and web site. This registry will display conservation projects across the landscape., (www.conservationregistry.org). The registry will be tested in Oregon, Washington and Idaho before expanding to other states.

Living Lands: The Living Lands Project involves working with land trusts to help them identify and protect private lands with high biodiversity value more effectively.

Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Resource Center: Defenders is a key player in developing the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Resource Center, which will provide one-stop shopping for landowners to access information, incentive programs and assistance. Defenders is leading the effort to develop the fish and wildlife resources in this public /private partnership.

Oregon Habitat Joint Venture: Defenders’ Northwest Office provides office space and support for the Oregon Habitat Joint Venture, a cooperative effort involving resource agencies and conservation groups working to protect important wildlife habitat.

Williamette Parnership: As a member of the Willamette Partnership, Defenders is working to create the Willamette Ecosystem Marketplace. The marketplace is a system that will direct private funding to high priority conservation areas by tapping funds currently spent on ineffective mitigation projects, and combining them to conserve larger parcels and important ecological processes.

Climate Change: Defenders Northwest office staff is conducting research on the potential effects of climate change on the forests of the intermountain West.

Key Accomplishments:

• Launched a nationwide effort in 2006 to expand local land trusts involvement in biodiversity conservation efforts (2006 – present).
• Created the Conservation Registry – a database and web site that will track the location and type of conservation projects across the country (2006 – present).
• Helped establish the Willamette Ecosystem Marketplace, a new, market-based approach to land, water and wildlife conservation in Oregon (2005 – present).
• Proposed a comprehensive monitoring framework and voluntary conservation tools for state wildlife action plans and work with partners to implement it (2004 – present).
• Initiated and supported legislation that improved the effectiveness of Oregon state programs for voluntary conservation (2003).
• Initiated and supported legislation in Washington State that established a biodiversity policy for the state and led to the creation of a Biodiversity Council (2001).
• Initiated and supported sustainability legislation in Oregon that addressed the conservation of natural areas, fish and wildlife habitat and created the Institute for Natural Resources (2001).
• Initiated a successful effort to have Oregon participate in the federal Forest Legacy Program, including the development of the state’s Assessment of Need, which was approved by the Secretary of Agriculture (2001).
• Initiated, lobbied and passed legislation in Oregon that improved incentive programs in Oregon (2001).
• Published Thinning, Fire and Forest Restoration: A Science-Based Approach for National Forests in the Interior Northwest (2000).
• Secured protection for almost 23,000 acres of endangered shrub steppe habitat in the Columbia Basin through negotiated settlement with the State of Oregon, agribusiness interests and environmental litigants (2000).
• Created and maintained Biodiversity Partners web site ( www.biodiversitypartners.org) as an important and heavily used site covering a range of biodiversity conservation and management topics (1999 – present).
• Helped establish a dedicated source of conservation funding (through the lottery, Measure 66) in Oregon that has generated more than $300 million for state investments in habitat conservation and watershed improvements (1998).
• Played a leading role nationally in focusing attention on the need to expand and improve incentives for habitat conservation for private landowners (1994 – present).
• Published Saving Nature’s Legacy: Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity (1994).
• Spearheaded the Oregon Biodiversity Project, a collaborative biodiversity assessment that produced one of the nation’s first statewide conservation strategies and provided a model for the state wildlife action plans completed nationwide in 2005 (1993 – 1999).
• Published Landscape Linkages and Biodiversity with Island Press (1991).
• Supported federal funding for the Gap Analysis Program that identified important, unprotected habitats in all fifty states (1988- 1998).
• Helped launch the “Watchable Wildlife” Program that led to the publication of wildlife viewing guides in most states, and the designation of over 1000 wildlife viewing sites, signed with binoculars (1988).
• Halted the use of strychnine for above ground uses (1986).
• Successfully challenged President Reagan’s proposal to re-register Compound 1080, an extremely toxic wildlife poison (1980-81).
• Initiated and passed legislation establishing the second nongame wildlife checkoff on Oregon’s tax form (1979).