How to Sign the Oak Accord
Joining the Oak Accord is easy! Willamette Partnership is here to help.
The power of the Oak Accord is that landowners doing their small part in their own backyard can result in significant improvements in oak habitat across the landscape. No project is too small and every oak tree counts! Just follow the steps below.
What’s the commitment?
- Undertake an assessment of the current (baseline) level of oak habitat quality and quantity on your property;
- Avoid and minimize any future impacts to oak habitat;
- Mitigate for any impacts that cannot be avoided; and
- Undertake a periodic (every 5 years) assessment of oak habitat on your property.
One of the benefits of participating will be access to resources and support that will make meeting the terms straightforward and reasonable. The Oak Accord is a voluntary commitment to protect and restore your native oaks and you may withdraw at any time.
Read and sign the Agreement Document to indicate your commitment to conserving oak habitat in the Willamette Valley.
Sign, date, and return this document by email or post to Willamette Partnership.
Work with Willamette Partnership to run a baseline assessment of oak habitat on your property. The assessment will be carried out by a qualified biologist and will measure the quality of oak habitat on your property. You will be provided with the results of your assessment as well as a set of recommendations for restoring or improving the quality of oak habitat on your property.
Restore your oak habitat and measure the results! With recommendations in hand, Willamette Partnership can help you put together a plan to restore your oaks. There are many technical and financial resources available to landowners to support oak restoration. Oak habitat assessments will be re-run every five years to measure the improvements that we expect to see over time as a result of your restoration work.
A few important notes:
The Oak Accord does not require that any data or information about the specifics of your property to be posted online or shared by Willamette Partnership. However, we would like to be able to:
- List the name of your business or property online and in print materials as a member of the Oak Accord. Please let us know if you would prefer not to be identified.
- Record the results from your baseline assessment in a non-public database that will be used to track improvements or changes to the quality over time both on your property and across the region. If this data is shared outside of the members of the Accord (e.g. with funding agencies or with researchers), it will be coded so that the data will not include any ownership information.
If you have no, or limited, opportunities for restoring oak on your own property, then Willamette Partnership can help you find other ways to support the protection or restoration of oak habitat in the Willamette Valley.
Get in touch with any questions.
Nicole Maness, Partner, Resilient Habitat
email | maness@willamettepartnership.org
office | 503.542.4304
