Category Overview
Urban Wildlife Habitat projects fund close-to-home places to play and explore nature. As our urban areas are increasingly expanding and densifying, these grants protect important fish and wildlife habitat within five miles of densely populated areas, creating green refuges that help keep our ecosystems healthy and provide places to enjoy nature right in our backyards.
Project Highlights
This project involves the acquisition of 40 acres of shoreline, wetlands, and riparian and mixed mature upland forests on Whipple Creek, 4.5 miles north of the Vancouver city limits. The project site includes 3,000 feet of creek frontage and a diversity of state-designated priority habitats, including riparian, snags and logs, wetlands, mature forest, and urban natural open space. Region 5 WDFW has identified this site as one of the five most important urban forests in the greater Vancouver area, due to habitat diversity and quality. Clark County has designated the project site and upper Whipple Creek as part of a “Tier 1” system of critical habitat in the county. The project site supports a variety of neotropical migrant birds, pileated woodpecker, hawks, owls, deer, beaver, and raccoon. Whipple Creek supports coho (ESA Candidate), steelhead (ESA Threatened), and resident cutthroat trout. The project site borders 12 acres of protected urban open space, and is located 1.5 miles east of 280-acre Whipple Creek Regional Park and Nature Preserve.