Two million acres of prairie, oak savanna and woodland habitat once existed in the Willamette Valley and supported a wide diversity of plant and animal species including several endemic to the Willamette Basin. Today less than two percent of the original prairie and oak savanna habitats in the Willamette Valley remain, mostly on private land. This conservation effort was motivated by the pressing need to prevent further Oregon white oak loss by conifer encroachment. Many of the existing conifer trees were large enough to shade out the oaks and madrone and were poised to create a major reduction in oak habitat. The property has maintained a high number of oak and madrone trees that will recover now that they are released using OWEB small grant funding. The location of this property in a rural residential neighborhood, neighboring a natural area municipal park, and along the BPA powerlines made reducing the fuels on site a priority.
