Natural Areas Habitat Management Plan

Lake Oswego’s Parks and Recreation Department (LOPR) manages over 460 acres of land to maintain and enhance the city’s natural character and beauty. As stated in its mission, LOPR provides excellence in building community, enriching lives, and caring for our urban and natural environment. Protecting and conserving our natural area parks is an important aspect of this mission as they provide important habitat for plants and animals, watershed and stormwater management, and spaces for the community to connect with nature.

Since 2011, LOPR has been removing invasive plant species and replanting with native species, thanks to two City programs: the Invasive Removal Program and the Habitat Enhancement Program. Together these programs annually fund $320,000 of this restoration work on City-owned land and provides grant funding to our local watershed councils to restore on private land.  Since 2011, over 370 acres of the City's natural areas have been in process of this restoration. 

Purpose

The purpose of this Natural Areas Habitat Management Plan is to provide a framework for consistent management of natural area parks managed by the City of Lake Oswego, in compliance with the Sensitive Lands Code and City Charter (Chapter X.Section 43. Limitations of Development) This Plan is focused on developing habitat - and area-specific management objectives and strategies that are tailored to the existing habitat conditions observed within the City’s various natural areas. This Plan was developed with an overarching management goal for Lake Oswego’s natural areas:

Enhance and restore Lake Oswego’s natural areas to provide safe and healthy ecosystems that can support a wide diversity of native plants and animals and adapt to change amidst the increase of recreation, encroachment by invasive species, climate changes, changes to natural water flows, and threats posed by wildfire and climate change.

Anticipated benefits of the Plan include:

• Providing the City with a framework for planning and prioritizing restoration activities;
• Providing a framework that can be applied to other smaller or future natural area sites;
• Ensuring transparency in how natural areas are managed;
• Providing background information to help support land use approvals for necessary enhancement activities, particularly within areas identified by the City’s Sensitive Lands Atlas (Sensitive Lands Code, LOC Article 50.05.010); and
• Streamlining project development for habitat enhancement grant applications.

Plan Development and Outreach

The process for creating this plan has included the following community and stakeholder outreach efforts: