Environmental oasis.

Byline: SCOTT MABEN The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - Trekking into Big Island is like exploring a landscape from a J.R.R. Tolkien novel.

The enchanted oasis on the McKenzie River is overgrown with chest-high horsetail and ancient maples bearing heavy branches that drip with lush moss and ferns. A thick canopy of treetops hoards sunlight from the jungle below.

On a recent sopping day, no creature stirred. Except for the distant hum of highway traffic, there were no clues that civilization was nearby, let alone minutes away.

"You come out here and it looks like you're on the moon or something, when in reality this should be the norm," said Ryland Moore, a managing director of the McKenzie River Trust. "This should be what you expect to see when you come out to see native vegetation on the McKenzie River."

The Eugene-based land conservancy recently finished a decadelong effort to buy 108 acres of the island, which sits on the south side of the river opposite Bellinger boat landing and less than half a mile north of Lively Park in the Thurston area.

Through conservation easements, the nonprofit group has orchestrated the permanent protection of more than 70 percent of Big Island, one of the last examples of healthy river habitat on the lower McKenzie. The effort is intended to benefit fish and wildlife, indigenous plants and water quality, plus keep a natural spot intact for future generations to enjoy.

It's important to save wild places along the river, and it's a rare occasion when that happens so close to a major population center, said George Grier, president of the trust board.

"We need these open spaces, too, not just parks and places where you can throw a ball and run with your dog. This has a passive impact and affects how you feel about things," Grier said.

Big Island, entirely in private ownership and not easy to reach, is closed to the public. The McKenzie River Trust will give tours of its part of the property but it also will do restoration work - decommissioning roads and trails, for example - to further limit access.

"It's a hard island to get to and we want to make it a bit harder," said Mike Running, another managing director of the trust.

Formed from gravel bars and log jams over centuries of repeated flooding and braiding of the river, such islands used to be common on local rivers. But many have disappeared and cannot be replaced, Grier said.

The biological significance of these bulges in the river has become clear only recently, after most of the unique areas were lost due to logging, agriculture, development and efforts to stop the river's natural meandering.

Big Island is rich in side-channel habitat for small fish and wintering juvenile salmon, wetlands for migratory birds, Western pond turtle habitat, and rare old growth cottonwood stands.

"This is an incredibly pristine piece of property and very productive biologically for something so close to the city," Running said.

Attracted to the calm currents, shade and nutrient-rich waters, young trout and salmon thrive in the refuge of side channels and ponds. Grier believes it's the sort of habitat that may be the key to survival for Western Oregon's last healthy run of wild spring Chinook, which spend about a year as smolt in the river and depend on safe harbors from predators.

The McKenzie River Trust hopes to protect as many such islands as possible, offering wildlife a chain of sanctuaries, Grier said, adding that for that to work, Big Island is a pivotal site.

"Our project in the lower Mc- Kenzie is like stringing a necklace with beads. And all the beads will touch each other and impact each other," he said. "This is the central bead. It provides a start for projects upstream and downstream."

The trust has been working to protect the site since shortly after the group formed in 1989. More than a decade later, the final piece fell into place in August, ensuring that the island will be preserved.

The project was no simple task. It required multiple partnerships, a good rapport with landowners, local utilities, and state government agencies, and persistence and patience.

Grier, who lives on a farm just south of the island, granted the first conservation easement on part of his property in 1992. That protected part of Cedar Creek, a tributary to the McKenzie, and bordered a great blue heron rookery.

In 1998, the trust teamed up with the Springfield Utility Board to preserve more of the island. It paid $100,000 to help the utility buy 70 acres, giving the trust 54 acres in the floodplain and on the island. SUB retained the rest to expand its Thurston wellfield along the river.

That land had been zoned for sand and gravel extraction but the previous owner was unable to obtain mining permits after neighbors voiced concerns about gravel trucks rumbling through the rural Thurston neighborhood.

In 1999, Mike and Kay Whitney, who owned a 54-acre parcel adjacent to the SUB property, were brought into negotiations. The couple agreed to relinquish their interest in the island in exchange for a home site, mobile home and water well.

"My family has taken care of this property for over 60 years," Kay Whitney said. "It's a special place. Now it will be protected forever."

To complete a deal that was growing increasingly complicated, the trust relied on part of a $1 million grant from the Eugene Water & Electric Board, which draws almost all of its drinking water from the McKenzie and saw the conservation project as beneficial to water quality above its intake systems.

Drinking water from the river is among some of the most pristine in the nation, mainly because its islands and riparian areas filter out sediment washing downstream, Running said.

The trust used part of the EWEB money to complete its acquisition of the 108 acres. It retains ownership of the land but sold the conservation easements to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, recovering what it spent. It will put the state money into future river conservation projects.

State biologists will take an inventory of the animals on Big Island to help draft a long-term management plan for the area. The goal is to limit disturbances to wildlife and special features.

In addition to protecting important juvenile salmon habitat, care will be taken to sustain breeding areas for Northern red-legged frogs and Western pond turtles, both species whose numbers have dwindled significantly in the Willamette Valley.

Other animals that have been spotted include mink, otter, beaver, deer, bobcat, cougar, raptors and herons. When the river floods, high spots on the island offer sanctuary to those and other species.

Earlier this month, biologists surveying a channel on the south side of Big Island discovered that the Oregon chub still populates its waters. The small fish hadn't been seen in the McKenzie for more than 100 years.

They also found chinook salmon as well as cutthroat and rainbow trout in the channels, proving that the fish are attracted to the habitat.

The state and McKenzie River Trust also will work to emphasize native vegetation over exotic species such as reed canary grass and Himalayan blackberries. Mature stands of willows, cottonwood and big-leaf maples help keep out these sun-loving invaders.

On the upstream end of the island, where some cottonwood logging occurred in the 1990s, the tenacious and proliferate scotch broom has encroached where the forest canopy was opened up. Thwarting its spread may become a major thrust of restoration work.

Through such efforts, countless generations will inherit an exceptional jewel among the metro area's remaining natural spots, Grier said.

"To me it's kind of a legacy that the trust can leave to the natural history of the area," he said. "That rich heritage is going to be there. The island really will be undisturbed.

"All of the critters there now and 100 years ago will be there 100 years from now. We can't really say that about many resource sites in metro area now."

CAPTION(S):

Jeff Ziller (right) with the state Department of Fish & Wildlife and Mike Sheehan with Willamette National Forest inventory species near Big Island. Ryland Moore from the McKenzie River Trust makes his way through thick stands of horsetail and maple on Big Island.