Greenbelt Land Trust
$10,000

Greenbelt Land Trust, in partnership with Samaritan Health Services, Benton County Health Department, Benton County Natural Areas & Parks, Willamette Partnership, and the City of Corvallis Parks & Recreation, is collaborating on an innovative cross-sector vision for a thriving natural landscape that supports the mental and physical health and wellbeing of members of our community through universal access to nature. We believe that all members of our community, regardless of age, health, mobility, and socioeconomic status deserve ready access to the natural world. We also believe that any access into our high-value natural areas should be well planned to minimize negative impacts to sensitive habitats. The focus of this planning effort is to envision and design a network of universal access trails at the Owens Farm and Jackson-Frazier Wetland properties, a 600-acre conservation area that includes land owned by Greenbelt, Samaritan, City of Corvallis and Benton County.

Owens Farm in Corvallis, is the site of this partnership between habitat conservation; historic preservation; health; and local governments to plan, design, and build universal access trails on this culturally and environmentally-significant property. The property includes a diverse mix of strategy habitats such as oak woodland and savanna, wetland, and upland prairies, creeks, and riparian forests as well as farmland and historic buildings. Funding from OCRF provides the opportunity to engage in community engagement, focusing on populations experiencing disparities in access to the outdoors. We plan to conduct authentic community engagement that includes holding listening sessions with those in the community experiencing disparities in access to the outdoors and hear about their lived experiences and barriers to accessing nature and build a shared vision for the trail. Community feedback will be used to make final refinements to the Conceptual Trail Plan as the shared vision for the trail.

Project Report