OREGON: Incentives for Conservation

In 1998 Defenders of Wildlife published a statewide assessment and strategy to conserve the state's biodiversity, based on extensive collaboration with diverse interests including agencies, academics, conservationists and landowners. Click here to read more about the Oregon Biodiversity Project. The project partners recognized that regulatory processes and additional reserves were not adequate to conserve biodiversity across the landscape. Stakeholders encouraged the greater use of incentives to encourage private landowners to help implement the strategy. To address this issue, Defenders published Stewardship Incentives: Conservation Strategies for Oregon's Working Landscape. Click here to read.

In 2001, the Oregon Legislature passed HB 3564. The bill, initiated by Defenders of Wildlife and supported by a broad spectrum of stakeholders, made some important changes in the tax and land use laws to encourage and reward conservation on private lands. The bill expanded the Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management Program to include forest lands, authorized Indian tribes to hold conservation easements, and created a flexible incentives account in the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. The bill also directed resource agencies to host an interim process to address additional policy issues relating to incentives.

The interim group (established by the legislature in 2001) met for a year and produced a report with recommended policy changes. Click here to view report. The result was HB 3616, which was approved by the Legislature in 2003. The bill created a special assessment category for lands enrolled in the Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management Program, and created a new Stewardship Agreement Program.

In 2005, Defenders developed criteria for effective incentive programs and used the criteria to conduct an in-depth assessment of several state programs including Oregon. For a comprehensive summary of Oregon's incentive programs, click here.

Also in 2005, Defenders contracted with a researcher to interview private landowners as part of the Willamette Basin Conservation Project. The purpose of the interviews was to gain a better understanding of the constraints and opportunities landowners face in conservation, and to identify ways to improve landowner assistance programs. The report, called Listening to Landowners: Conservation Case Studies from Oregon's Willamette Valley, presents portraits of the landowners and their experiences with assistance programs. It also contains policy recommendations. Click here to read the report.

Conservation incentives programs:

Types of conservation incentive programs
Federal conservation incentive programs.
Oregon's conservation incentive programs.

Updated 12-05