The Heernett Environmental Foundation receives the 2006 Wildlife Farm of the Year Award

The Heernett Environmental Foundation owns 762 acres southeast of Tenino, WA.  The Foundation’s goal is “to protect and preserve the native wildlife, plants, and streams throughout our community, Thurston County, and Washington State.”   The Foundation manages its property in a manner that protects and enhances fish and wildlife habitat.  Thurston Conservation District has partnered with the Foundation on several projects located on the Cozy Valley Creek area of the Foundation property.  Work completed thus far includes two culvert replacements, reshaping and adding large woody debris to three sections of the stream, and planting native trees and shrubs in the riparian area along Cozy Valley Creek.  The Foundation has also placed numerous large snags to benefit a variety of wildlife and nesting boxes to attract cavity nesting birds to the site.  Several fields in the Cozy Valley Creek area are maintained as open meadows to provide summer and winter range for Roosevelt elk and blacktail deer.  These meadows are important habitat since the majority of land surrounding the meadows is forest lands that provide cover, but little forage.  A 9.6 acre riparian forest/wetland mitigation planting is planned for installation in 2007 at the Cozy Valley site.  The Foundation was successful in obtaining funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, WA State Salmon Recovery Funding Board, and the Williams Pipeline Company to implement these projects.  Chanele Shaw, Director of Environmental Operations for the Foundation, is the project manager for these projects.

Species found on or near the Heernett property include:

1.  

1. Fish
1. Coho salmon (known)
2. Coastal Cutthroat trout (known)
2. Wildlife
1. Blacktail deer
2. Roosevelt elk
3. Black bear
4. Coyote
5. Raptors (various)
6. Waterfowl (various)
7. Bats (various)
8. Songbirds (various)
9. Cottontail rabbit
3. Plants
1. Oregon white oak (priority)
2. Many other native plants

 

2. All fish and wildlife species in the vicinity of the Foundation property benefit from habitat protection.  The restoration activities completed at the Cozy Valley site provide additional benefits, particularly to fish and other aquatic species.

The Foundation has been involved in fish and wildlife habitat protection and restoration since 1998.

The majority of the property owned by the Foundation was primarily managed as forest land.  The Foundation continues to harvest some timber from these areas, but the primary objective is preserving/enhancing fish and wildlife habitat.  The Cozy Valley site was a horse farm, but today the pastures are managed to provide summer and winter range for Roosevelt elk and blacktail deer.  Cozy Valley Creek was channelized in the past, but the instream projects completed have helped to restore a more natural channel geometry and have improved instream habitat important to coho salmon production.

Yes, permanent year-around cover is present in the mature forests that cover the majority of the property owned by the Foundation.