NAWCA Grant Agreement with Columbia Land Trust
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RESTORATION SITE SPECIFIC AGREEMENT BETWEEN COLUMBIA LAND TRUST AND CLEAN WATER SERVICES Project Name: Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge This Agreement (SSA) between Columbia Land Trust (Trust), a not for profit corporation under the laws of the State of Washington, and Clean Water Services (CWS), a county service district, is effective the 24th day of September, 2019. RECITALS 1. Trust and CWS seek to conserve the vital habitats of our region. 2. Trust and CWS agree to cooperate to restore and enhance the property known as Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), containing 800 acres, more or less, located in Washington County and Yamhill County, Oregon, and described in the attached Exhibit A (Property). 3. The “Grant Project” is described in Exhibit A and in the North American Wetlands Conservation Act proposal “Tualatin River Basin – Lower Columbia River Estuary Regional Partnership Phase I” as described in the attached Exhibit B (“NAWCA Grant”). 4. Trust has received funding to restore the Property from a Grant Assistance Award Agreement No. F19AP00307 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), attached as Exhibit C (Notice of Grant Agreement Award). 5. The NAWCA Grant places certain restrictions on the transfer and use of the Property to preserve and enhance a biologically diverse wetland/upland habitat complex for the benefit of waterfowl, migratory birds and other fish, wildlife, and plant species/communities. 6. Trust desires CWS to restore the Property by completing the Grant Project pursuant to the NAWCA Grant in such manner as to enhance a biologically diverse wetland/upland habitat complex for the benefit of waterfowl, migratory birds and other fish, wildlife and plant species/communities; and insofar as is consistent and compatible with these wildlife and resource values, to provide for hiking, wildlife viewing, nature study, and similar public utilization. NOW, THEREFORE, based on the premises listed herein Trust and CWS agree as follows: A. Trust and CWS agree: 1. On or before July 01, 2021, CWS shall complete the Grant Project described in Exhibit A. 2. To acknowledge the contribution of each party in oral or written communications related to the Property. Trust and/or CWS, in cooperation with the Wapato Lake NWR, will provide mutually acceptable signs, and will erect and reasonably maintain these signs along roads, entrances, and/or convenient viewing locations in close proximity to the Property. 3. CWS appoints Carol Murdock as its Project Officer. Trust appoints Dan Friesz as its Project Officer. The parties may change their respective Project Officer at any time by providing written notification to the other party identifying the name of their new Project Officer. Correspondence pertaining to this Agreement shall be sent to the following addresses: Trust - Columbia Land Trust 850 Officer’s Row Vancouver, WA 98661 CWS - Clean Water Services 2550 SW Hillsboro Highway Hillsboro, Oregon 97123 4. To recognize the cooperative nature of the Grant Project. Such recognition shall include, but not necessarily be limited to, erecting and maintaining mutually acceptable signs by CWS and Wapato NWR along roads, entrances, and convenient viewing locations on the Property in close proximity to the Grant Project and communications related to the Grant Project. B. Trust agrees: 1. To provide funding in cash to CWS to complete the Grant Project on the Property in an amount not to exceed four hundred and eighty thousand dollars ($480,000.00) from the NAWCA Grant funds. Trust shall provide funds to CWS on or before July 01, 2021 based on the budget set forth in Exhibit A. 2. That the matching funds described in Exhibit B satisfy CWS’ obligations under Section C.7. of this Agreement. C. CWS agrees: 1. To adhere to and be bound to all provisions in the NAWCA Grant Administration Policies outlined by the USFWS as a subrecipient of this NAWCA grant 2. That it accepts and will comply, as a subrecipient and/or match provider and on Trust’s behalf and for Trust’s benefit, with the provisions of the NAWCA Grant Agreement Award. 3. Subject to the limitations in the Oregon Tort Claims Act, to indemnify and immediately reimburse Trust for any repayment or reimbursement Trust must make to FWS under the NAWCA Grant or other expense incurred by Trust under the NAWCA Grant that is caused by or results from CWS’s failure to comply with the terms and conditions of this Agreement. 4. To be responsible for raising funds to pay all costs incurred in excess of the $480,000 in funding provided by the Trust under Section B.1. of this Agreement that may be needed to complete the Grant Project as described in Exhibit A on the Property. 5. To follow all federal procurement policies and guidelines while selecting contractors and /or purchasing supplies. All procurement selection documentation shall be submitted to Trust prior to receiving payment. 6. To provide information and materials in a timely manner as requested by Trust for the preparation of reports and submission of materials required by the NAWCA Grant. 7. To provide matching funds of non-federal origin from this Grant Project towards the NAWCA grant of an amount no less than $1,240,710. 8. Neither the matching funds nor the acres committed as match to the NAWCA Grant will be obligated as match to any other funding source of federal origin. 9. That this Agreement will be in force in from the above-mentioned effective date until all parties’ obligations under this Agreement are satisfied. AGREED AND ACCEPTED: CLEAN WATER SERVICES BY: DATE: TITLE: Chief Executive Officer or Designee Approved As to Form Clean Water Services Counsel COLUMBIA LAND TRUST BY: DATE: Glenn Lamb TITLE: Executive Director Exhibit A Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge Restoration Scope of Work Legal Description The Grant Project is located within Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge on Federal property located at Township 01 South, Range 04 West, Sections 35 and 36; Township 02 South, Range 04 West, Sections 01, 02, and 12; and Township 02 South, Range 03 West, Section 07; Willamette Meridian. Current Conditions The Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) is located in the upper-third of the Tualatin River Watershed at approximately river mile 62 of the Tualatin River near the town of Gaston in northwestern Oregon. The Refuge was established in 2013 for migratory birds with an emphasis on wintering waterfowl. The approved acquisition boundary for the Refuge encompasses approximately 4,370 acres spanning both Washington and Yamhill counties including the Wapato lakebed itself, which currently is comprised of 800 acres of converted palustrine wetlands that were eliminated during the 1920’s through diking and annual draining of the lakebed to facilitate farming. As a result of the historic practice of diking and annual draining of the lakebed, the site’s hydrology has been impaired, its historic plant communities have been lost and its unique peat soils degraded. Further, with the 5 exception of wintering and migrating waterfowl benefiting from agricultural crops grown in the lakebed through the Service’s cooperative farming program, other native wildlife have largely been displaced. Proposal actions at Wapato Lake will result in the largest wetland restoration of a single wetland basin within the Willamette Valley Currently, an opportunity exists to address numerous regional resource goals related to aquatic ecosystem conservation by restoring a mosaic of palustrine wetlands that once existed on this 800 acre tract of land. Desired Future Condition Based on the USFWS’s recently completed Environmental Assessment, restoration would be achieved by seasonally managing water levels with pumping infrastructure. Pumps, rather than a weir or flashboard riser type water control structure, are necessary due to Wapato Lake’s low position on the landscape and further exacerbated by subsidence associated with decades of draining the site for agriculture. Water management would target a gradient of water depths during the growing season ranging from 0 to 3 feet and provide optimal conditions for restoring above-ground plant community structure associated with palustrine emergent, scrub-shrub, forested, and aquatic bed wetlands. Restoration would require active re-establishment of native 15 herbaceous and woody plant communities. Native flora re-establishment would follow site preparation actions aimed at eliminating or significantly suppressing any non-native, invasive plant cover that exists on site. Restoration actions are anticipated to have significant benefits to a wide range of wetland dependent species, spanning the breeding season through migration and wintering periods, and support avian species guilds such as waterfowl, secretive marsh birds, passeriformes, shorebirds, wading birds, raptors, as well as other wetland dependent wildlife such as bats, pond breeding amphibians and turtles. Upon completion of the proposed restoration, the Wapato Lake tract will represent the largest restoration effort completed on a single contiguous wetland basin in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Grant Project Goals Project goals are to restore the degraded lakebed and provide the United State Fish and Wildlife Service – Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge managers, biologist, and public outreach employees with highly-productive emergent and scrub-shrub wetland communities that will improve habitat conditions for a myriad of wetland dependent species as well as for the enjoyment of the public. The project will not affect water