Trust will complete purchase of island.

Byline: Scott Maben The Register-Guard

The McKenzie River Trust will finish buying Green Island this year thanks to a $450,000 federal grant. The purchase of the 856-acre parcel, used for farming most of the past century, is the start of an ambitious habitat conservation effort on the northern edge of the Eugene-Springfield metro area.

The money is part of a $960,000 grant for several southern Willamette Valley projects and comes from the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission.

The Eugene-based land trust announced a year ago that it intended to buy the group of one large island and seven small ones that make up Green Island, located at the confluence of the Willamette and McKenzie rivers west of Coburg.

The organization agreed to pay about $1.7 million for the land after the Green family, longtime owners of the property, lowered the price by $500,000 as its contribution to the restoration project.

The trust's goal is to restore and conserve habitat for a variety of birds, fish and mammals. The property borders 430 other acres of public land, making the combined area one of the largest urban wildlife reserves in central Lane County.

The McKenzie River Trust teamed up with the Greenbelt Land Trust in Corvallis and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to compete for the grant - one of 17 awarded nationwide. Altogether, the money will be used to work with landowners to protect more than 1,800 acres of wetlands and riparian habitat.

"The money is fantastic," said George Grier, manager of the Green Island project. "Because this is such a cooperative process, I think it sends a good message about how important this project and all the projects in the Willamette Valley are in the whole scope of things."

In addition to the Green Island tract, the funds will be dedicated to habitat projects in the Marys River and Muddy Creek watershed in Benton County. Those projects will conserve wetland habitat that is important for migratory birds, including waterfowl, shorebirds and Neotropical birds.

A portion of the grant also will go toward enhancement of waterfowl habitat at the William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge four miles north of Monroe.

The Green Island complex once separated the main Willamette and McKenzie river flows, requiring use of a ferry to move farm equipment to and from the fields.

The Green family was the largest equity holder in Agripac before the vegetable-processing cooperative went bankrupt in 1999.

The family was losing money on its crops and stopped farming about two years ago. But some of the property continues to be leased for growing grass seed.

The land trust is close to establishing a conservation easement that will preserve the land for eternity. It also has started extensive wildlife and habitat inventories, researching the historic river channels and removal of invasive, non-native species, primarily blackberries and Scotch broom. Native plants will be established in those areas.

"We've started to do blackberry removal on the Willamette side of the island, so that's looking great," Grier said, "and we're getting a much better picture of what the property will yield as far as the restoration opportunity."

Eventually, the rivers will be allowed to reclaim the farmland.

Floods will punch through banks and berms, cutting new channels throughout the confluence area and creating attractive habitat for salmon, bull trout, waterfowl, river otters and other native species.

Public access to the site will be secondary to conservation priorities, to be carried out in collaboration with federal, state and local agencies, adjacent landowners and The Nature Conservancy.