Category Overview
The State Lands Restoration and Enhancement category provides funding to two state agencies to help repair damaged plant and animal habitat. These grants focus on resource preservation and protection of public lands. Projects in this category help bring important natural areas and resources back to their original functions by improving the self sustaining and ecological functionality of sites.
Project Highlights
The Department of Natural Resources will conduct a restoration project within Trout Lake Natural Area Preserve (NAP). Overall 35 acres of wetland habitat will be restored through weed control, native plant establishment and hydrology improvements. There are also several old irrigation ditches that will need to be blocked to retain more water in the meadows. In the western portion of the site an old road was removed in 2014. Follow up work is needed to improve the hydrology to these drier meadows to improve overwinter habitat for migratory birds. The preserve contains high quality freshwater wetland ecosystems and supports a large population of the Oregon spotted frog, a state endangered species and federal threatened species. Trout Lake NAP is also a nesting and foraging area for the Greater Sandhill crane, a state endangered species. In addition two rare plants, pale blue-eyed grass, a state threatened and federal species of concern, and rosy owl clover, a state endangered species, are found in these seasonally wet meadows. The primary habitat to be restored is wetland.