Preserving Our Environment & Honoring the Land
In 2000, we partnered with The Nature Conservancy as well as state and federal wildlife officials to create a voluntary wildlife conservation area. This “Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances.” is a formal agreement between Threemile Canyon Farms, The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Portland General Electric.
Through our partnership with The Nature Conservancy, we have a 40-year voluntary conservation area on 23,000 acres (about 25% of the farm). We are also one of the first organizations to achieve a multi-species conservation agreement with U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
The Nature Conservancy manages the habitat area, while the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife performs surveys and makes recommendations. Our work with these groups serves as a national model for voluntarily protecting species at risk of being designated “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act. In fact, four threatened species and Columbia Basin grassland have remained off the federal endangered species list due in part to the agreement: the Washington Ground Squirrel, Ferruginous Hawk, Loggerhead Shrike, and Sage sparrow.
Chinook and Snake River sockeye salmon, steelhead trout, the white-tailed jackrabbit, Swainson's hawk, Western burrowing owl, grasshopper sparrow, long-billed curlew, Northern sagebrush lizard, two species of bitterbrush, two species of sagebrush, and three different grasses also benefit from the conservation area.
