Agencies create conservation bank

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AmeriCorps members Melody Warner, left, and Sean McKenzie plant seeds of the rare large-flowered woolly meadowfoam on Oregon Department of Transportation property near White City. The 80-acre parcel is being used as a mitigation and conservation bank to help ODOT compensate for its impacts on rare wetlands.Jim Craven

October 21, 2009

By Paul Fattig

Mail Tribune

WHITE CITY — Kai Victor and Ari Demarco put a big deposit in the bank on Tuesday.

They won't receive any monetary interest from their deposit. In fact, as soon as they made it, the deposit was no longer theirs.

But they couldn't be happier investing in the Oregon Department of Transportation's 80-acre vernal pool mitigation and conservation bank.

"We know that we are helping make a difference even if we might not be able to see the results," said Demarco, 23, an AmeriCorps member from Eugene who had just patted down the loose soil around 150 large-flowered woolly meadowfoam in a half-meter-square plot. Known by its scientific name of Limnanthes floccosa ssp. grandiflora, the woolly meadowfoam is on the federal list of endangered plants.

"This particular species only grows on a small portion of the property," said Victor, 30, an AmeriCorps program assistant in Medford with The Nature Conservancy, which is working with ODOT on the bank. "To be able to help spread these rare plants out is a good feeling."

They were among a half-dozen AmeriCorps members working on the weeklong seeding project at the site adjacent to the conservancy's 144-acre Whetstone Savannah Preserve. Both sites are filled with Oregon white oaks, buck brush and vernal pools.

The goal is to plant 6,000 meadowfoam seeds in 40 plots of 150 seeds each. In addition, they are planting 2,000 Cook's desert parsley seeds — Lomatium cookii — in 20 plots of 100 seeds. Like the meadowfoam, the parsley is an endangered species requiring intact vernal pool ecosystems for its survival.

The site is Oregon's first vernal pool conservation bank.

The bank helps ODOT compensate for its impacts on rare wetlands resulting from work on the state's transportation system.

"Essentially, the bank is utilizing the economy of scale — we're putting a large investment in a large contiguous block so we can track the actions that are taking place here as opposed to piecemeal sites scattered across southwest Oregon," explained Brad Livingston, an ODOT wetlands specialist.

"Historically, ODOT projects — passing lanes, turning lanes — will have what we call sliver fills," he added. "These are in roadside resources that are somewhat degraded to begin with due to ditches and roadside runoff."

A piecemeal mitigation approach with tiny parcels is very difficult to manage over time, he said, adding that after the sites are no longer monitored they can become overrun with invasive species.

"The idea here is a large block that services a lot of southwest Oregon, carefully managed for the long term," he said, noting that ODOT works closely with the conservancy. "They will advise us on the management because they've got unique expertise in the area. Not very many people are managing vernal pools, especially at the level they are."

Although the savannah has been impacted by livestock grazing and fire exclusion over the years, it remains largely intact, observed Keith Perchemlides, field ecologist for the conservancy.

"What we're doing is a combination of testing seeding techniques," he said. "We want to see what kind of establishment rates we get. We want to increase the numbers of these rare plants and expand their range."

For instance, the woolly meadowfoam, an annual, is only found in the northeast corner of the parcel, he said, noting about 500 plants have been located.

"There are all these vernal pool flanks it would enjoy growing on but for whatever reason it is only in a small area," he said of the ODOT block. "We're trying to invite it back in."

As for the Cook's desert parsley, the perennial cannot be found in the parcel, he said.

"It belongs in this area but we've done careful surveys for two years in a row and haven't turned up one plant," he said.

The meadowfoam can germinate as early as next month but the desert parsley requires a period of wetting and cooling before it germinates, Perchemlides said.

"Once it gets through winter, it will sprout in the spring," he said.

Noting the AmeriCorps members have been indispensable for the seeding project, local conservancy botanist Molly Sullivan said that once the work is completed at the end of the week they need only Mother Nature to sprinkle the plots with life-giving rain.

"A nice light rain to moisten the seeds and work them into the soil would be wonderful," she said.

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.

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