EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A Eugene, Ore., family has agreed to sell 1,270 acres of Willamette Valley property to the Nature Conservancy for $23.4 million.
The conservation group announced the preservation deal Tuesday. It says the Wildish family property at the confluence of the Middle and Coast Forks of the Willamette River is an area of significant fish and wildlife habitat south of Springfield.
More than 700 acres of the property could have been developed for sand and gravel mining.
The purchase is contingent on funding from the Bonneville Power Administration and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. It will protect more than six miles of river and stream banks, as well as extensive wetlands, floodplain forest, oak woodlands and native prairie.
