PROFESSIONAL PLANNERS AND PLANNING COMMISSIONS

If you are a professional planner working for a city, county or a consulting firm or if you serve on a planning commission, you have a significant role in conserving fish and wildlife habitat. The research and alternative futures analysis that served as the basis for this website was undertaken specifically to provide a scientific basis for land use decisions. In other words, it was intended to inform you of the likely consequences of your decisions and recommendations.

Biologists tell us that the greatest threat to wildlife is loss of habitat. Human activities contribute significantly to that loss through urban development, logging, fire suppression, river taming, and road construction. These activities will continue, but because we have access to excellent data, mapping tools and knowledge, we can be strategic about where and how we engage in these activities so that we maintain and restore habitat to support the full compliment of basin species.

Professional planning staff and community planning officials play a key role because they set development policy though comprehensive plans and ordinances; zone areas for development; plan roads and other infrastructure; and review developers' proposals and permit applications.

We have depended upon our land use laws and other public policies to protect fish and wildlife habitat. However, the research documented in the Willamette Basin Planning Atlas indicates that we need to do more to prevent species decline. What's more, loosening of land use restrictions through Measure 37 will result in increased development outside urban growth boundaries and in areas of conservation value.

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What can you do?

Map habitat. Work with your natural resources staff, government partners, conservation groups and local volunteers to identify key habitats in your area such as oak woodlands, wet and dry prairies, and wetlands. The mapping tool on this website will help you identify high priority restoration and conservation areas in your community. Use this information to locate future urban development outside key habitat areas.

View your community within a larger context. Look at vegetation and waterway maps at a scale that places your community within its larger surrounding landscape. Identify habitat linkages and consider the effects of your activities on that larger habitat landscape.

Work with your watershed council and adjacent jurisdictions to plan and implement conservation measures at a watershed scale so that important ecosystem relationships are addressed, not just individual habitats and species.

Extend your timeframes. Think about leaving a legacy for residents 50-100 years from now.

Cluster urban development and other forms of disturbance or land conversion so that you retain larger blocks of habitat and maintain wildlife travel corridors.

Don't build in the floodplain. Floodplains provide an important measure of safety for your community during floods. For many species they are high value areas linking aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Floodplain restoration is considered the most important single action we can take to improve habitat in the Willamette Valley. Identify areas where your river or stream might reconnect with its historic floodplain and where possible, remove bank hardening structures and restore it.

Conserve threatened systems. The Willamette Basin oak woodlands, oak savannas and prairies are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world. Yet unlike endangered species, they have no legal protection. Were they identified in your Goal 5 inventory?

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Think like a critter. If you were a western painted turtle or a red-legged frog, how would you get across that highway? Pretty scary! Use maintenance and repair projects as opportunities to make life a little easier on wildlife.

Talk to community elders and experienced naturalists. They will tell you where they observe animals and birds. For example, many long term residents (and road maintenance crews) can identify sites where road kill has been a problem for decades. Make these high priority projects. Modify road structures to improve motorist safety while accommodating animal migration.

Get creative with funding. Partner with others on mutually beneficial projects. Use highway maintenance and construction funding to improve wildlife crossings. Improve flood insurance rates by raising management standards in your floodplain ordinances, particularly by restricting construction of structures that are vulnerable to flood damage.

Seek creative tools. Oregonians have come to rely on our land use system to protect natural resources. Measure 37 lifts some of the restrictions of that system in ways that have many citizens and planners concerned about unrestricted development. Yet communities across the nation that don't have urban growth boundaries or Goal 5 find creative methods of conserving habitat and curbing sprawl. Tools such as conservation easements and transfer of development rights provide planners with useful options.

Additional Resources

Community planning tools:

Preserve Open Space, Farmland, Natural Beauty and Critical Environmental Areas Smart Growth Online

Tools and other resources for quality growth Alliance for Quality Growth

Environmental Law Institute ELI makes law work for people, places, and the planet.

Transportation planning:

Designed for wildlife biologists and engineers Wildlife Crossings Toolkit

Keeping it Simple: Easy Ways to Help Wildlife Along Roads. U.S. Dept. of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration

International Conference on Wildlife Ecology and Transportation ICOWET III Proceedings and presentations download