Native grasslands (upland and wetland) were once a dominant habitat type in the Valley. Today less than one percent remains making it one of the most critically endangered ecosystems of the United States. Because so little remains, we used unmanaged pasture, grasslands within protected areas, and pasture/hay landcover types to represent grasslands, but only if they occurred in areas mapped as prairie on the 1951 historical vegetation map of the Willamette Valley.

Because one of our goals is to recover grassland birds as represented by western meadowlark and Oregon vesper sparrow and we want to work where we know these birds are located, we highlighted areas within 2 kilometers of a recent documented occurrences of either species.

Because one of our goals is to recover grassland birds as represented by western meadowlark and Oregon vesper sparrow and we want to work where we know these birds are located, we highlighted areas within 2 kilometers of a recent documented occurrences of either species.

Oak savanna is a component of grasslands, characterized by widely spaced oak trees in a grassland setting. Similar to native grasslands, less than one percent of this habitat remains. In the absence of disturbances such as fire, conifers invade and many historic savannas have converted to forest.

Because one of our goals is to recover savanna species as represented by western bluebirds, we highlighted areas within 2 kilometers of recent documented occurrences of western bluebirds.

Oak woodlands generally occur along the transition between grasslands of the valley floor and higher elevation conifer-dominated forests (Christy and Alverson 2011). Similar to savannas, in the absence of disturbances such as fire, conifers invade and convert oak woodlands to mixed forest types. Because most oak woodlands have been invaded by conifers, we had to include areas dominated by other types of trees but include retain a sizable minority of oak trees. Actions will be needed to restore these areas to oak woodlands.

Because one of our goals is to recover oak woodland species as represented by the slender-billed white-breasted nuthatch, we highlighted areas within 2 kilometers of recent documented occurrences of white-breasted nuthatch.

Riparian areas are known by many names: bottomland hardwood forests, gallery forests, wetland or riparian forests, riparian shrublands, and willow shrublands. They are most prominent along low-elevation floodplains and lower river terraces. Like other native habitats of the valley, there has been a significant loss of these habitats.

We split riparian areas into two component parts: forests and shrublands, and selected yellow warbler and yellow breasted-chat to represent them. We highlighted riparian areas within 2 kilometers of recent documented occurrences of either species.

We split riparian areas into two component parts: forests and shrublands, and selected yellow warbler and yellow breasted-chat to represent them. We highlighted riparian areas within 2 kilometers of recent documented occurrences of either species.

There is a high degree of overlap between mapped riparian areas and other important habitat elements which have been mapped by others. These include: Wetlands of Conservation Concern as mapped by The Wetlands Conservancy for the Western Governors Association’s Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool or CHAT (WGWC 2013);

There is a high degree of overlap between mapped riparian areas and other important habitat elements which have been mapped by others. These include: Anchor Habitats – areas with opportunities to reconnect the river to its historic floodplain with limited social impact that were mapped as part of the Willamette Planning Atlas (Hulse et al. 2002) and by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB 2014)

There is a high degree of overlap between mapped riparian areas and other important habitat elements which have been mapped by others. These include: critically important instream cold water refugia (cold points) as mapped by Hulse et al. (2007)

There is a high degree of overlap between mapped riparian areas and other important habitat elements which have been mapped by others. These include: Zone of Influence – locations of revetments that if removed would provide a high degree of fish habitat restoration with limited social impacts that were mapped as part of a US Army Corps of Engineers’ study (Hulse et al. 2013).