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BLM Oregon and Municipal Zoo Become Partners

The BLM Oregon State Office has teamed up with the Metro Washington Park Zoo in Portland, Oregon, to kick off construction of the zoo's “Oregon Project,” an innovative exhibit that will highlight native Oregonian plants and animals.

The Project’s forest component will be located at the northern end of the zoo in a 90-year-old natural forest, where visitors will be face to face with salmon, bald eagles, and many small mammals. While traditional zoo exhibits are usually created to look like natural habitats, this forest exhibit concept is unique in that the featured Pacific Northwest animals will actually be living in natural habitat while on exhibit.
One hundred twenty-five BLM employees, family members, friends, and local Cub Scouts volunteered to clear brush, pick up litter, paint, and do carpentry projects at the site of the Oregon Project. Crews also helped with general zoo cleanup, such as tidying the elephant pen. The Project’s coastal segment - a man-made environment - will include sea otters and threatened stellar sea lions in its rocky ocean shore portion, and tidepools with sea stars, sea anemones and other tidepool animals.
BLM specialists will help to develop and design interpretive “Oregon Project” exhibits, focusing on public lands natural resource themes: ecosystem management, biological diversity, connectivity, sustainability, and productivity. Planned interpretive materials will also direct zoo visitors to BLM “Watchable Wildlife” sites throughout Oregon and Washington. With more than a million visitors a year, the zoo will be a prime location in which to educate the public about environmental issues.

"We signed a Cooperative Agreement with the zoo that brings BLM in as a partner on the Oregon Project," said Elaine Zielinski, State Director, BLM Oregon and Washington.
One hundred and twenty-five BLM employees, family members, friends, and local Cub Scouts volunteered to clear brush, pick up litter, paint, and do carpentry projects at the site of the Oregon Project. Crews also helped with other general zoo cleanup, such as tidying the elephant pen.
The “Oregon Project’s” forest component is scheduled to open in April 1999, with the coastal exhibit scheduled to open a year later. If you’d like to learn more about BLM’s involvement with the Metro Washington Park Zoo, please contact Erick Campbell (telephone (503) 952-6382, e-mail ecampbell@or.blm.gov) or John Craig (telephone (503) 952-6035 or e-mail j1craig@or.blm.gov).

Also, visit these sites on the Web:
BLM Oregon homepage, Metro Washington Park Zoo homepage, Watchable Wildlife Program homepage.

 

Last Updated: July 15, 2003

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