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Working Lands for Waterbird Habitat Conservation - Harney County

County: Harney

Primary Resource Concern Addressed: 

  • Terrestrial habitat - Terrestrial habitat for wildlife and invertebrates
  • Degraded plant condition - Plant productivity and health, plant structure and composition
  • Inefficient energy use - Energy efficiency of equipment and facilities, energy efficiency of farming/ranching practices and field operations
     

Project Description
Northern pintail populations in North America have declined significantly since the 1950s and continue to remain well below the target population level.  Approximately 1/3 of the continental pintail population stops in the SONEC region every spring to rest, forage, and build body condition as they migrate to their breeding grounds in the north.  This spring migration habitat is provided predominantly by flood-irrigated fields on private lands used to produce pasture or grass hay.  A variety of ecological, economic, and social issues are creating pressure on private landowners to change production systems and/or land uses on these fields.  The purpose of this CIS is to secure 24,800 acres of flood-irrigated habitat in the Oregon portion of the SONEC through conservation easements and/or practices that improve management ability and reduce incentives for converting to other uses.

Conservation Practices Offered

  • Wetland Wildlife Habitat Management (644) 
  • Shallow Water Development and Management (646) 
  • Irrigation System, Surface and Subsurface (443) 
  • Irrigation Canal or Lateral (320)
  • Irrigation Pipeline (430) 
  • Irrigation Reservoir (436)
  • Dam, Diversion (348)
  • Structure for Water Control (587) 
  • Grade Stabilization Structure (410)
  • Pumping Plant (533) 
  • Aquatic Organism Passage (396)
  • Critical Area Planting (342)
  • Field Border (386)
  • Filter Strip (393)
  • Herbaceous Weed Treatment (315) 
  • Riparian Herbaceous Cover (390) 
  • Wetland Enhancement (659) 
  • Heavy Use Area Protection (561)
  • Irrigation Water Management (449)
  • Stream Crossing (578)

Project Partners

  • Intermountain West Joint Venture
  • Ducks Unlimited
  • Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
  • Harney SWCD
  • Lakeview SWCD
  • Lake County Watershed Council
  • NRCS Oregon
  • Private landowners

Application Questions

NRCS uses prioritization questions to evaluate applications for this initiative. See the list of workload prioritization questions on the Oregon EQIP page. Ranking questions below will also apply.

Ranking Question

  1. Will the treatment area retain historic micro topography (area has not been leveled)?
  2. How is the treatment area flood-irrigated?: 
    a) Using surface water and gravity flow 
    b) Using ground water or pumped surface water
  3. Where are the treatment areas located: 
    a) Located in Harney County HIGH Spring Migration Priority Zone
    b) Located in Harney County MODERATE HIGH Spring Migration Priority Zone
    c) Located in Harney County MODERATE Spring Migration Priority Zone
  4. What are the vegetative components of the treatment areas: 
    a) Treatment areas have a diverse mix of annual and perennial grasses and mesic pants (native and/or non-native) and are not dominated by noxious and invasive weeds
    b) Treatment areas are dominated by a monoculture of grasses or mesic plants (native and/or non-native) and are not dominated by noxious and invasive weeds 
  5. What is the haying and grazing management: 
    a) Treatment areas are both hayed and grazed 
    b) Treatment areas are hayed or grazed, but not both
  6. Treatment area receives irrigation water from a structure that has recently been upgraded or replaced as part of the Harney Basin Wetlands Initiative's Strategic Action Plan, Outcome 2.