Creswell couple move to keep butte a beaut.

Byline: Scott Maben The Register-Guard

CRESWELL - The view of Creswell Butte, the most prominent geographic feature in this city of 4,000, will stay intact, remaining largely free of development and logging.

A Creswell-area couple who bought 74 acres on the butte in 1995 have placed the land in a conservation easement - in conjunction with the McKenzie River Trust - that was recorded this week.

The deal caps a prolific year of conservation work for the Eugene-based land trust, which recently helped protect 200 acres near Oakland in Douglas County, 133 acres north of Fern Ridge Lake and 20 acres along the McKenzie River from Walterville to Leaburg. The group also was awarded more than $1 million in grants for its projects.

Larry Weaver said he and his wife, Sheila Hale, purchased the Creswell Butte property to prevent homes from being built on it. Their parcel covers most of the top of the 500-foot-tall butte, west of Interstate 5 on the city's south side.

The conservation easement prohibits commercial and residential development and allows trees to be cut only in rare circumstances.

"We did this with the idea of giving the land a chance to revert to an absolutely natural, untouched state," said Weaver, a research associate at the University of Oregon's Institute of Molecular Biology.

The butte has been logged several times but still contains many old trees, including Oregon white oak, incense cedar, Douglas fir and a few ponderosa pines. Other parts of the butte have been developed, including a few newer homes on the north flank. "It's been heavily touched by human hands for a long while," Weaver said. "We'd just like to give it a little respite."

The couple still own the land but have donated the conservation easement to the trust, meaning they are not compensated for agreeing to restrictions that reduce the financial value of the property. They will, however, realize a tax benefit from the donation.

A conservation easement is a legal agreement negotiated between a private landowner and a land trust. The landowner surrenders certain property rights in order to protect habitat, open space, water quality, scenery and other natural values. The easement stays in place forever, despite who owns the land.

"This is why we exist," said Mike Running, managing director for the trust. "Zoning laws won't protect it."

The land is zoned for forestry but could have been designated as marginal for timber production, making it easier to develop. That worried Weaver and Hale, who enjoy the view of the butte from their home just outside Creswell.

"About a year or two before it came on the market and we bought it, we noticed fairly clear indications of an intent to develop it," Weaver said. "Large trees were being removed and dirt was being moved around. That was a disappointment to us."

The couple wanted to work with a local conservation group to protect the property and chose the McKenzie River Trust after following reports on the nonprofit organization's work in the McKenzie River basin and elsewhere.

"It was just a very natural group to approach," Weaver said. "In recent years they have expanded and acquired a lot of property."

The trust was drawn to the property for the chance to help protect oak savanna and upland prairie habitat, which has become quite rare in the Willamette Valley.

"And this is supreme songbird habitat in the springtime," Running said. "It's just a magnet for songbirds during their migration."

The butte also offers habitat for deer and turkey, and it's home to one tree estimated to have sprouted about the time Sir Isaac Newton was learning basic math, some 350 years ago.

"It's one of the largest white oaks I've ever seen in the valley," Running said.

The easement spells out some conditions under which trees could be taken for commercial purposes, but it generally eliminates logging.

Weaver said he has spent the past few years planting young trees to replace what has been logged on the butte. He hopes that helps beat back the non-native blackberries and Scotch broom that have invaded the land.

"I think eventually the native vegetation will recover and overwhelm that stuff," he said.

Over the years, groups of residents approached city officials with proposals to buy the butte and protect it, City Councilor Mike Dubick said.

"Unfortunately, the cost of purchasing the land was beyond the city's ability," Dubick said. "I'm gratified somebody else has found a way to do that."

Even though the land remains private, most residents probably will appreciate knowing it will be protected, he said.

"I certainly would hate to see the whole top of it lopped off," said Dubick, who lives at the base of the butte.

PROTECTING LAND AND NATURE

Other recent McKenzie River Trust projects include:

Gill Property: A conservation easement, donated to the trust by resident owner Marilyn Gill, for 200 forested acres seven miles northeast of Oakland. Largely oak trees and open prairie, the owner retains the right to some small-scale cattle grazing. Development and clear-cutting are now prohibited. The land offers habitat for salmon and Columbia white-tailed deer.

Lower Coyote Creek: A 133-acre conservation easement, just north of Fern Ridge Dam and west of Alvadore, purchased by the trust for $199,500. The easement protects three-fourths of a mile of Lower Coyote Creek and 133 acres of wetland and prairie habitat. Elk, beaver, waterfowl and deer take refuge on the site.

Roberts' Preserve: A 13-acre parcel along Deerhorn Road with several streams that feed into the McKenzie River, old-growth cottonwoods and rock outcroppings. It complements a nearby pair of river islands, totaling 17 acres, protected in 1996. It also provides a scenic buffer between the river and adjoining timber company land. The property was donated to the trust by Jacqueline and Irving Roberts.

Baxter Acquisition: With funding from the Wessinger Family Foundation of Portland, the trust purchased 7 1/2 acres along Deerhorn Road just downstream from the Roberts property. The trust donated the land to the Bureau of Land Management, which in turn will make improvements to a nearby boat landing, called Mud Hole. A memorial to Fred Wessinger also will be established there.