Please note: This is a Sole Source Notification. The State of Oregon, acting by and through the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, hereby provides public notice of the approval of Sole Source # S-63500-00014373 for Oregon Vesper Sparrow Demography Monitoring at Bald Hill Farm under the authority of ORS 279B.075. Oregon Vesper Sparrow (OVS) is an Oregon Conservation Strategy Species and Oregon Sensitive-Critical Species that has been proposed for listing under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). A draft Species Status Assessment, the pre-cursor to a listing package, is currently under review with a listing decision expected in March 2026. Bald Hill Farm, owned by Greenbelt Land Trust, is a property that the Willamette Wildlife Mitigation Program (WWMP) holds a conservation easement on. The property supports one of the largest protected populations of the subspecies in the mid-Willamette Valley on approximately 200 acres of grazed pasture and restored prairie. Unique among the WWMP sites, the farm is a working farm, with actively grazed pasture and restored prairie and oak savanna, which provides a valuable opportunity to observe nest site selection across multiple habitat types. OVS prefer semi-disturbed habitat such as grazed pastures- and this location has many such habitat types.
