Conservation Property For Sale

72.5 acres on Cheney Creek, Josephine County, Oregon

While conservation easements are one of our most solid and trusted mechanisms for ensuring the long term protection of important natural resource lands, the surest way the land trusts that hold them maintain quality land protection is by developing a positive working relationship with the landowner. A landowner who understands and cares about the conservation values found in the property they own is the basis of good land stewardship. This reality is never more apparent to us at the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy than when a property with a conservation easement we hold changes hands.

That is why we are working with conservation easement donors John and Lorainne Roach to help identify the appropriate conservation buyer for their 72.5 acres on Cheney Creek in Josephine County, a property we have held a conservation easement on since 2000.

The property is located three miles south of Wilderville on Cheney Creek, a tributary of the Applegate River. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has identified Cheney Creek as Core Coho habitat and the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds has designated the stream as High Value Steelhead Habitat. This, and the opportunity to enhance the stream habitat, was the major driver behind the purchase and conservation of this property.

Of the 72.5 acres, much of it is a north facing forested slope with a mix of second growth Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, and pacific Madrone. About a ¼ mile of Cheney Creek runs through the property, much of it lined with a thriving riparian forest. There is an extensive valley bottom and floodplain area, a portion of which was planted with ponderosa pine in 2004 to provide a future source of large wood to the stream that will ultimately provide much needed salmon and steelhead spawning habitat.