MUD SLOUGH CONSERVATION - To essft.com

MUD SLOUGH WETLAND
Total acreage: 550 acres
Location: Rickreall, Oregon, Polk County
Site Description:
Mud Slough Wetland, located west of Salem, is one of the most diverse, productive wetlands in western
Oregon. The site features a range of diverse shallow water habitats and vegetation, from small native
sedges to taller cattails and rushes, as well as a single deeper pond. Willow patches and restored native
wetland prairie are also present. The lack of invasive plant and animal species can be attributed to the site
preparation done prior to restoration and the continued vigilance of the landowner.
Wildlife: Virginia Rail, Sora, and American Bittern, use this wetland as a place to breed. During spring
and fall, hundreds of shorebirds can be found foraging. During fall and winter, several thousand
waterfowl and shorebirds (mainly Dunlin) can be seen. Birds otherwise rare in western Oregon, including
Black-necked Stilt, Wilson's Phalarope, and the Yellow-headed Blackbird, are known to breed here.
Site history
In 1993, grass seed farmer Mark Knaupp took the last crop of grass seed of some of his wet bottomlands
and enrolled 320 acres in the Natural Resource Conservation Service's Wetland Reserve program.
The former fescue fields now support a mix of shallow seasonal marshes and wet prairies. Broad
expanses of tufted hairgrass dominate the meadows, which also support a large population of Nelson’s
checkermallow, a showy purple flowered plant listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered
Species

Act. The combination of dense clay soils and carefully engineered low dikes and water control structures
that allow water levels to be drawn down gradually in the spring and early summer have created a diverse
mosaic of native
wetland plant communities. Landowner Mark Knaupp was so pleased with the results that he put a second
piece of his property into the Wetlands Reserve Program and is now beginning Phase 4 of a wetland
mitigation bank. Mark has changed to growing wetlands and wildlife habitat rather than commercial
grass seed. A total of..... acres are now wetland prairie.
Unlike virtually every other wetland in the Willamette Valley, the Mud Slough Wetland Preserve is
almost free of reed canarygrass and other invasive non-native plant species. It’s partly a result of
geography – Knaupp’s wetlands are near the top of a small drainage with no major upstream sources of
nonnative seeds. But it’s also the result of an intensive management strategy that has cleared the way for a
natural wetland to develop on its own.
Partnership History
In 2005, Mark Knaupp approached The Wetlands Conservancy, an Oregon non profit land trust about
putting a conservation easement and setting up an endowment to keep the land in wetland protection for
perpetuity. The mission of The Wetlands Conservancy (TWC) is protection and conservation of
Oregon’s greatest wetlands – our most biologically rich and diverse lands. In addition to traditional land
protection through acquisitions and conservation easements, TWC also promotes community and private
partnerships to permanently protect and conserve Oregon’s greatest wetlands. The Mud Slough Wetland
was one of the identified Oregon Greatest Wetlands. since 2005, TWC and Mark Knaupp have been
developing a long term management plan for the site.