WRC Buys Ranch Along Oregon's Deer Creek

On January 10, WRC President Phil Wallin showed up on the courthouse steps in Grants Pass, Oregon, and successfully purchased the Deer Creek Ranch at a foreclosure sale auction. In May 2006, we will take title to this 870-acre ranch located on Deer Creek, a major tributary to the Illinois River in the heart of the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion. This region is one of Western Rivers Conservancy’s top priorities for conservation because of its rare biological diversity and healthy streams like Deer Creek and the Illinois River.

Working with the Siskiyou Field Institute and Southern Oregon University, WRC and partners will convert the ranch buildings on the property into a center for research and education focused on the surrounding rare ecosystems. As an outdoor classroom and laboratory, the Deer Creek Ranch is strategically located near biological ‘hot spots’ such as Eight Dollar Mountain and Squaw Creek. These nearby sites support an unusually high diversity of rare and endemic flora and fauna. For example, the forested lands along the Deer Creek Ranch include fens that host an abundance of the carnivorous Darlingtonia californica (cobra lily). The research and education opportunities at Deer Creek will benefit students, community members and visitors alike for years to come.

A private foundation in Atlanta, Georgia, committed a $3 million challenge grant to fund the project. WRC plans to hold the property until the Siskiyou Field Institute and Southern Oregon University take ownership later this year.