Project Description and Goals

This report describes a case study project that took place in the Muddy Creek watershed, a 125 square mile (32,000 hectare) area in the Willamette River Basin of Western Oregon. The case study illustrates a framework for important considerations, qualities, and types of information intended to help local communities create alternative scenarios for land conservation and development.

The goals of this project are

  1. to improve understanding of the relationship between human use of land and its effects on ecological resources,
  2. to use this improved understanding to enhance the ability to predict the effects people's activities have on the valued water quality and biodiversity functions of these resources,
  3. to provide products useful to local communities in their efforts to create, evaluate, implement, and monitor land conservation and development plans, and
  4. to clarify which aspects of this approach are locally specific and which are transferable to other communities, landscapes and regions.

To accomplish these goals we are guided by four objectives:

  1. selecting a representative case study area within the Willamette River Basin,
  2. characterizing the study area and representing shared community concerns for its future and the natural and cultural factors effecting possible futures,
  3. working with people who live in and make their living from the study area to create a spectrum of possible futures that depict conservation and development activities in varying in intensities and locations, and
  4. evaluating each possible future for its effect on biodiversity and water quality, two broad indicators of landscape condition.

In pursuit of these objectives we were constrained to use "best available data".

Background

 

Planning for Growth and Change in the Willamette River Basin
Ecosystem Management and Watershed Planning

 

Supporting Institutions

This two-year interdisciplinary project was funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency Region 10's Western Ecology Division Environmental Effects Research Lab (ERL) and involved researchers at the University of Oregon , Oregon State University , the Canadian Wildlife Service, and E&S Environmental Chemistry, a private firm.

 

 

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the diverse contributions of the following people:

DAVID BUCHANAN, SAM CROCKER, GARY BLANCHARD, KAREN FINLEY, JENNIFER AYOTTE, RICK FLETCHER, GEORGE ICE, SAGE KEPPINGER, DR. JOHN BERRY, TOM MELANSON, MIKE DUNN, LON JENSEN, KEITH PETERSON, KAREN STROHMEYER, STEVE SMITH, CLAIR KLOCK, JIM HECKER, BOB SHULA, RICH SUMNER, JOAN BAKER, STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITY OF OREGON DEPARTMENT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE FALL 1995 LANDSCAPE PLANNING AND DESIGN STUDIO, ED ALVERSON, JOHN CHRISTY, BENTON SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT, CANADIAN WILDLIFE SERVICE ENVIRONMENT CANADA OTTAWA CANADA, PAUL ADAMUS, BOB ALTMAN, JOE BEATTY, RAY BENTLEY, SANDY BRYCE, BRUCE BURY, LESLIE CARRAWAY, DOUG COTTAM, BLAIR CSUTI, DAN EDGE, ERIC FORSMAN, ELEANOR GAINES, MANUELA HUSO, BOB JARVIS, REBECCA GOGGANS, JOHN HAYES, ROSS KEISTER, KARL MARTIN, KATHY MERRIFIELD, MARK MEYERS, MAURA NAUGHTON, KIM NELSON, DEANNA OLSON, NEIL TEN-EYCK, B.J. VERTS, DAVID VESELY, JERRY WOLFF.