This study was conducted to explore differences in diversity and abundance of small
mammal populations in natural and restored wet prairies in Oregon's Willamette Valley.
Mammals were live-trapped in eight Willamette Valley wet prairies (four natural remnants and
four restorations) during the summer of 2000; population abundance estimates for each...
A Willamette Valley farm cooperative was interested
in evaluating locations for their canning facilities based on
the criterion of minimizing aggregate distance to their contract
farms. This location problem presented an excellent opportunity
for a geographic application project as it was characterized by
one, a spatial distribution of farms and...
The rapid population growth and related economic
growth of the Willamette Valley has resulted in a significant
reduction in air quality over the past several decades.
Within the Willamette Valley air ventilation is very poor and
therefore the airpo1lutton potential is one of the highest
in the United States. There...
This study was initiated to characterize the distribution of Fe-Mn nodules and to elucidate trends of Fe, Mn, and P relative to the intensity of the annual cycles of reduction and oxidation. Nodules were enriched in Fe, Mn, and P relative to the soil matrix making them an integral part...
Experiments at the North Willamette Experiment Station have evaluated response of vegetables to lime and other fertilizers since 1970. The soils are moderately acid (pH 5.4 to 5.6), high in P, and better drained than most soils used for vegetable crop production in western Oregon. Typical soil acidity problems such...
Willamette Valley wetland and upland prairies are some of the most endangered ecosystems in the United States, and provide habitat for many federally listed species. Because these are dynamic systems, subject to ecological succession and invasion by aggressive non-native species, prairies require active management to maintain management goals. This is...
Willamette Valley wetland and upland prairies are some of the most endangered ecosystems in the United States, and provide habitat for many federally listed species. These are dynamic systems, subject to ecological succession and invasion by aggressive non-native species, and require active management to maintain management goals. This is true...
Willamette Valley wetland prairies are some of the most endangered ecosystems in the United States, and provide habitat for many federally listed species (Wilson et al. 1993, Noss et al. 1995, USFWS 2000, Schultz et al. 2003). A rigorous program of ecosystem restoration can protect and enhance wetland plants, animals,...
Our project goal is to protect and restore rare Willamette Valley upland prairie habitat at Butterfly Meadows (Benton County) from invasion by the noxious weed Brachypodium sylvaticum (false brome). Native prairies, which once dominated the landscape of the Willamette Valley, are considered among the rarest of Oregon’s ecosystems and are...
Our project goal is to protect and restore rare Willamette Valley upland prairie habitat at Butterfly Meadows (Benton County) from invasion by the noxious weed Brachypodium sylvaticum (false brome). Native prairies, which once dominated the landscape of the Willamette Valley, are considered among the rarest of Oregon’s ecosystems and are...
We sought to determine 1) the relationship between seedling
establishment rates of target native prairie species and field
levels of three soil nutrients (phosphate, nitrate, and ammonium)
recorded in fall, winter, and summer, 2) the effect of fire on
these three nutrients, and 3) the overall effect of fire on...
Questions: Are traits related to the performance of plant species in restoration? Are the relationships between traits and performance consistent across the functional groups of annual forbs, perennial forbs, and grasses? Do the relationships between traits and performance depend on neighboring functional groups? Location: A former agricultural field, being restored...
Question: Most results of restoration efforts are species-specific and/or site-specific and therefore are not general enough to be easily applied to other species and other sites. Our research addresses the issue of species-specific results by investigating the feasibility of using plant traits instead of taxonomic species to characterize species responses...
Explaining restoration failure can be as important as touting success. We used a series of studies to understand the failure of techniques commonly used to restore wetland prairies in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon. Burning, fallowing, and solarization (covering tilled plots with plastic sheeting to heat the soil) had...
In a series of Willamette Valley wetlands, standardized protocols were used in 2009 and 2010 to primarily assess (a) vegetation species composition and (b) relative levels of ecosystem services. Of the 60 wetlands visited in one or both years, 34 were classified as riverine and 26 as flats. Of the...
Seed size, abundance, viability, dormancy, and germination requirements strongly influence plant establishment and therefore are important considerations in restoration of native vegetation. These characteristics provide criteria for selection of suitable species, development of collection and pretreatment methods, and determination of seeding densities. The first set of objectives of this study...
Erigeron decumbens var. decumbens, the Willamette daisy, is known only from the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Herbarium records, from the 1800's until 1934, indicate that the Willamette daisy was once common and widely distributed throughout the Willamette Valley (Clark et al. 1993). However, between 1934 and 1980, this taxon was...
One goal of this environmental education curriculum is that students will gain an appreciation of Willamette Valley wetland prairies, a threatened ecosystem, and will gain an understanding of the importance of protecting these wetlands. A second goal is that students will see first-hand the processes involved in conducting scientific field...
This project defined criteria to allow only the use of existing spatial databases (and only those with comprehensive coverage of the ecoregion) to identify the HGM (hydrogeomorphic) class of mapped Willamette Ecoregion wetlands. The project then applied those criteria automatically and systematically to every mapped wetland in the ecoregion, resulting...
This study uses semi-structured interviews and an online survey to explore the structure, challenges and outcomes of a five-year National Science Foundation-funded water scarcity modelling project in the Willamette River Basin of Oregon, USA. The research team chose to facilitate broader impacts by engaging stakeholders from the study’s inception (e.g....
Floodplain forests play many important roles in the fluvial processes and environments of large alluvial rivers, including acting as geomorphological influences and habitat for native fish during high flows. Many large, gravel-bed river systems have undergone substantial change in recent centuries, resulting in loss of forested area to agriculture, reduction...