President Jimmy Carter – What a decent person, honest statesman, and great role model for all of us!!!!

President Jimmy Carter turned 99 on October 1, 2023. Our Director met the President on August 12, 1989, on a United flight from Portland to Denver. Sitting near him and his wife Rosalynn, the President asked to see the book he was reading: Biodiversity by E. O. Wilson. Our Director gave him the book and in return, Jimmy Carter signed [ironically] a disturbance bag that thanked him for the book. A discussion of Biodiversity followed. This meeting led our Director to establish The Habitat Institute in 1998. The Habitat Institute is a science and educational non-profit organization working to enhance and sustain habitats and their biodiversity through time, a necessary precondition for the well-being of mankind and our natural world.

President Jimmy Carter – What a decent person, honest statesman, and great role model for all of us!!!!

 

Combined Habitat Assessment Protocols (CHAP) produce an ecosystem evaluation using species, habitats, and functions.

It is based on the premise that higher functional redundancy is directly related to higher resiliency. CHAP evaluates hundreds of species, habitat components, and ecological functions concurrently to produce functional redundancy values as an indicator of the overall ecological integrity of the site or area.

Here is an example of a shortened functional assessment:

Example-of-Key-Ecological-Function-Profiles-SF-South-Bay-Download

Habitat Effectiveness & Restoration results using the Combined Habitat Assessment Protocols:

The habitat assessment of the Rattlesnake Butte 3 restoration study encompasses 173 acres (70 ha) and evaluates 20 polygons. This report discusses baseline conditions prior to any restoration activity. Baseline condition consists of three different habitat types that can describe the site, and they are Westside Oak and Dry Douglas-fir Forest and Woodlands, ponds, and Westside Grasslands. The number of fish and wildlife species that are potentially associated with the project is 191. The existing baseline conditions assessment shows a total of 2,271 habitat units for the project area.

Please see the following link (below) for the CHAP Ecological Assessment of the Baseline Conditions and Restoration Conditions: Final Report.

Grand-Ronde-Example-Effectiveness-Monitoring-Project-ReportDownload

Giving Tuesday a Generosity Movement.

Benefiting 501(c) (3) Science and Education organization , The Habitat Institute.

Join Us! In this global generosity movement “Giving Tuesday” unleashing the power of the people. On December 01, 2020 charity organizations around the world are coming together to encourage the people to do good for our communities and the world.

The Habitat Institute’s “Giving Tuesday” Facebook Campaign: https://www.facebook.com/donate/883240529146611/3367015510002699/

USACE Los Angeles District Office Awards $9.8M Indefinite Delivery Contract (IDC) to The Habitat Institute in Partnership with DR Reed & Associates to use the CHAP Science.

Great News!! The Habitat Institute in partnership with DR Reed & Associates Team has been selected by the Los Angeles District Office for an Indefinite Delivery Contract (IDC) within the Los Angeles District, and South Pacific Division of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

This contract creates access for the Los Angeles District, and South Pacific Division to use the Institute’s CHAP Science wide for sixty (60) month period or until the not-to-exceed amount of $9,800,000.00 has been met, whichever occurs first.

Awarded # W912PL-19-R-0006. Dated: 01/14/2020.

Oregon Moves to Function and Value Approach to Wetland Mitigation but Approaches Fall Short in Capturing Biodiversity Values

Oregon’s Department of State Lands has developed a new revised rule, effective April 1, 2019, which move toward functions- and values-based mitigation.  Part of the approach list the Stream Function Assessment Method, however, the method depicted falls way short of the same application used by the Habitat Institute.  The Institute actually applied the Stream Function Assessment as part of the CHAP in early 2015.  This combined approached was used to assess baseline conditions at Aliso-Wood Canyon Creeks Ecosystem Restoration and alternative scenarios developed by the Corps of Engineers.

The other approach, Oregon Rapid Wetland Assessment Protocols, similarly falls short in capturing a sites potential biodiversity.