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<br /> • The Willamette Valley daisy, one of several rare species protected at a
<br /> Nature Conservancy preserve in the West Eugene wetlands.
<br /> 30 acres of wetlands near its plant. "We had consultants make business expansion a lot easier than it had been for
<br /> three layers deep," Missar jokes. They moved 15,000 Spectra Physics.
<br /> cubic feet of fill in a rye grass field and created a winter First Gordon put together a team of engineers, plan -
<br /> pond. They burned and plowed invasive reed canary ners and financial experts from several city and county
<br /> grass, then planted the native tufted hairgrass. They hired departments and from The Nature Conservancy. which
<br /> a nursery to grow other native plants. manages about 350 acres of the West Eugene Wetlands as
<br /> . Spectra Physics spent about S900,000 on the project the Willow Creek Natural Area. Under Gordon, who
<br /> (about half of which has been reimbursed by city and believes hard work should be leavened with humor, the
<br /> state governments), all on the chance that government group became known as "The Wetheads.
<br /> regulators would approve the work and grant the fill per- Gordon calls the process "25 percent science and 75
<br /> mit. But other developers were less willing to take the percent human interaction." Indeed, the key was citizen
<br /> risk. As Missar says, "no one wanted to get arrows in their involvement, including contacting the 1 25 property own -
<br /> backs." ers who held from 1 to 200 acres in the area. Says Eugene
<br /> wetlands coordinator Deborah Evans: In looking at other
<br /> WHILE CHUCK MISSAR was busy learning more than he models, things disintegrated into winners and losers.
<br /> thought it was eossible to know about wetlands, the city Because of that, we rejected the idea of a task force or a
<br /> hired Steve Gordon to lead them out of the quagmire. citizen advisory committee and instead involved as many
<br /> The vetei• planner had to come up with something citizens as possible."
<br /> that would prevent the loss of wetlands, improve water Between 1988 and 1991, the "Wetheads" led field trips
<br /> quality, control stormwater, protect rare species, provide a to the wetlands, spoke to civic groups and school and uni-
<br /> stable development environment for business, help edu- versity classes about wetlands issues, mailed information
<br /> cate the public and allow for recreation. And it had to to property holders, and held eight public workshops.
<br /> 12 NATURE CONSERVANCY • SEP11: \IIiLR /(1CtO111:R 1993
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