Targeting lands for protection

How do you decide which lands to protect?

Columbia Land Trust takes its stewardship role seriously. Once it accepts a conservation easement, the land trust protects the property forever, "in perpetuity." This is a significant commitment of the limited personal and financial resources of the trust. Columbia Land Trust staff and board members evaluate each conservation project with respect to the land trust's conservation goals and stewardship abilities.

Columbia Land Trust’s region extends approximately 50 miles on both sides of the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington, from the Pacific Ocean to the eastern borders of Klickitat and Wasco counties.

Columbia Land Trust conserves four types of lands .

Regional Priority Lands – Targeted focus areas for conservation based on land conservation criteria. Must have stewardship funding.

Select Lands – Landowners request conservation on their land. Need not be a priority land, but must meet project selection criteria and have stewardship funding.

Trade Lands – Lands without significant conservation values that could be sold for conservation funds.

Agency Lands – Lands that will be conveyed to other agencies, often memorialized through a memorandum of understanding.

Regional Priority Lands

Priority lands are identified in each of Columbia Land Trust’s three sub-regions in two categories:

1. Endangered or threatened fish, wildlife or plant species and communities
2. Signature landscapes

The following are priority lands within each sub-region. 

* Indicates a top-priority area.

COAST AND ESTUARY

Endangered or threatened fish, wildlife or plant species and communities:

• Chinook and Wallicut River and tributaries *
• Grays River and tributaries *
• Willapa Bay and tributary emergent wetlands and bird habitat
• Blind Creek and Blind Slough
• Columbia River cliffs between Altoona and Skamokawa
• Columbia River islands and floodplain

Signature landscapes:

• Long Beach Peninsula habitat, water quality and open space *
• Western Willapa hills forest lands

MID-RIVER

Endangered or threatened fish, wildlife or plant species and communities:

• Kalama River and tributaries *
• Washougal River and tributaries *
• Lewis River areas identified in fish Limiting Factors Analysis
• Lacamas Creek flood plain north of Goodwin Road
• Wind River
• Scappoose watershed
• Mt. Pleasant, Lawton and Gibbons creeks and associated oak woodlands
• Wetlands (2–3 acres minimum) and native forest lands (20 acres minimum)
• Columbia River floodplains and shoreline

Signature landscapes:

• Urban-area greenspaces, trails and greenways, recreation lands *
• Cascade foothills and key viewsheds
• Lewis and Clark Highway (SR 14) greenway corridor
• Highway corridors along River (Hwy 4 and 30) and historic Columbia River Gorge highway

GORGE AND EAST CASCADES

Endangered or threatened fish, wildlife or plant species and communities:

• White Salmon and tributaries *
• Klickitat River and tributaries and canyons *
• Little Klickitat River *
• Significant pine and oak woodlands* (Mosier and Rowena watersheds)
• Hood River and tributaries
• Little White Salmon River
• Rock Creek
• Lower John Day River

Signature landscapes:

• Trout Lake Valley *
• Urban green spaces
• Gorge views (Columbia Hills)
• Wasco County transitional lands
• Seven Lakes region (northeast of North Bonneville)

Since the transfer of property is a legal process donors must rely on their own attorneys, appraisers and tax specialists to ensure they receive personal and objective representation during negotiations and appropriate benefit from the transfer.

As the land trust considers each proposal for land protection, it must determine how it will hold its interest in the property. Conservation easements, outright land gifts and trade properties are the usual methods of acceptance.