Performance of management strategies in the protection of riparian vegetation in three oregon cities

The destruction of riparian vegetation in urban areas signals the loss of valuable ecosystem services. This paper documents the extent of riparian vegetation loss during a period of rapid development (1990 – 2002) in three Oregon cities with distinctive, local management strategies. Findings show that loss has occurred in all three cities, but this loss has been curtailed by implementation of protective policies. Moreover, more than half the losses in each city were due to a few large development projects, rather than a large number of smaller ones. The paper concludes that management strategies do limit destructive actions by small projects and that large losses are potentially avoidable with targeted attention to large-scale projects.