Oregon Incentive Program Strengths

Oregon has a variety of incentive programs that are effective in conserving habitat across the state. There are several unique qualities that characterize Oregon's incentive programs:
Many programs available

Oregon offers over twenty different state and regional incentive programs as well as a number of federal and private programs. With the large number available, landowners can choose the program to participate in and the habitat type they wish to protect or restore. The suite of programs provides the potential for several of the effectiveness criteria to be met statewide including high participation levels and effective habitat conservation. There is the potential for programs to be coordinated to target statewide conservation priority areas.
Conservation strategy in legislature

In 2001, the Oregon state legislature passed House Bill 3564 which accomplished the following:

  • Established that private lands are important for maintaining long-term ecological, economic, and social values;

  • Created a Flexible Incentives Account for habitat conservation;

  • Expanded the Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management Program's scope to include forest lands and amended the program's rules and definitions to make it more effective;

  • Added tribal governments as authorized holders of conservation easements;

  • Directed a variety of state agencies and interest groups to review state statutes, rules, policies, and programs affecting landowner decisions to implement conservation projects;

  • Directed the above group to report its findings to the Seventy-second Legislative Assembly

As a result of the legislation, a partnership called the Conservation Incentives Work Group was formed that produced a report for the 2003 legislative assembly. The group made recommendations for several incentives programs in the state to become more accessible to landowners.

In 2003, the Oregon state legislature followed the report's recommendations and made the following changes to House Bill 3616:

  • Established the important role of habitat conservation, private lands, strategic thinking, and voluntary conservation programs in the state;

  • Established conservation as a legitimate land use;

  • Adjusted The Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management Program's rules to expand program eligibility to include urban areas and "significant" habitat;

  • Created a wildlife habitat special assessment for the program to address property tax disincentives;

  • Expanded stewardship agreements in the state from exclusively forestry practices to include all rural lands.

A bill proposed for the 2007 legislative session seeks to remove a disincentive for landowners with conservation easements by creating a special assessment category for property taxes on their easement lands. These legislative changes give Oregon the ability to form ecological conservation goals and focus on habitat at the state level. They promote strategic thinking in the state and provide an opportunity for more funding to be directed towards habitat conservation.

Strategic thinking

In 1994, the Oregon Biodiversity Project was formed as a collaborative effort to develop a statewide strategy to conserve Oregon's natural biological diversity. The project produced several publications including Oregon's Living Landscape, Looking for the Big Picture, and Stewardship Incentives. These publications made the topic of biodiversity a legitimate issue of focus and discussion in the state and around the country. The project identified geographic priorities for different conservation areas in the state and has been an influential guide for agencies developing conservation strategies. Programs like the Landowner Incentives Program and Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board grants have used these documents to help target their conservation efforts. Legislation approved in both 2001 and 2003 also addressed the need for improved strategic direction in the state to target conservation programs.

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a state/federal partnership with the US Farm Services Agency. This strategic program was tailored to meet the habitat conservation priorities of Oregon by targeting stream areas in farmlands that provide habitat for threatened or endangered fish species. Oregon's CREP program was recently expanded to also include water-quality limited streams throughout the state.