Introduction

Native Oregon white oak (Quercus garryanna) and grassland communities of Oregon’s Willamette Valley have declined in area to <10% of their pre-settlement extent due to conversion to agriculture, altered disturbance regimes, and urban and suburban development. Indeed, only remnants of these once vast plant communities remain today.

Approximately 1,000,000 acres of prairie and 500,000 acres of savanna extended across the Willamette Valley in in the early Nineteenth Century

Conservation of wildlife, from butterflies to birds, is a key goal of oak and prairie habitat restoration yet little is known of the response of wildlife to restoration efforts. As a first step towards understanding how wildlife responds to large- and small-scale efforts, the Oregon Wildlife Institute synthesized information on wildlife associations in these habitat types in the Willamette Valley. We identified several species that are strongly associated with grasslands and oak woodlands, and highlighted their ecology and approaches to their conservation. From our synthesis of existing literature, we examine the limitations of research and monitoring approaches, and suggest alternative directions for future efforts. The purpose of this website is to provide a summary of our findings and an easily accessable link to download the full report. Life history accounts and management recommendations for special status species have been excerpted from the full report and are also available as stand-alone pdf documents on this website.

Funding for our work was provided by the BLM/USFS Interagency Special Status/Sensitive Species Program.

OPB's Oregon Field Guide explored oak savannas of the Willamette Valley in a story broadcast Feb. 25, 2010. OWI ecologist Dave Vesely and his conservation detection dog Rogue are featured in the story [if only the producer had told Dave to wipe the globs of sunblock from around his eyes!]

Photo credits: white-breasted nuthatch,Charles H. Warren/NBII; banner landscape, Gary Kamer/NRCS.