Background - Centennial Marsh

The 1,361-acre Rice property was acquired with BPA funds on March 15, 2002. The second addition was a two parcel piece from Faulkner Land and Livestock , INC. and Bliss Point Cattle totaling 1,801 acres in on March 20, 2008.    Both will be managed as part of the Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh WMA.  Currently, IDFG is providing cost-share services to manage this project including personnel and operating expenses. This present contract is for  O&M, in conjunction with the management plan.  No Increase in O & M funding was provided with the addition of the 1,801 acres purchased in 2008.

Historically these 3,162 acres have been farmed and ranched for over 60 years.  Some of the seasonally flooded wetlands have been used for crop production, and the entire property has been used for livestock grazing.  Passive restoration techniques will be emphasized on most of the property.  Some of the former cropland and severely degraded riparian areas may need active restoration for recovery of wildlife habitat to occur in a reasonable length of time.   Some noxious weeds are present and may become a significant management concern if weed infestations that were kept in check by past management practices (i.e. agriculture and grazing) start to increase as management is shifted toward wildlife habitat.  To address these concerns, IDFG proposed an extensive noxious weed monitoring effort used on the Camas Prairie WMA and will implement on the Centennial WMA property  (BPA did not fund this requested action).

Project Goal

Interim protection of BPA's investment in wildlife mitigation on the Centennial Marsh property.

Objectives

1.   Protect wildlife habitat.
2.   Control noxious weeds.
3.   Provide information to public
4.   Remove ditches that are draining wetlands