Oregon Zoo Awards $25,000 in Grants for Northwest Conservation

PORTLAND, OR — The Oregon Zoo Foundation's awarded $25,000 to support a number of conservation efforts that will positively affect a variety of animals including Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits, Western pond turtles, Sierra Nevada red foxes and other species native to the Pacific Northwest.

“The Future for Wildlife program works to protect threatened and endangered species and the ecosystems in which they live,” said Dr. Nadja Wielebnowski, the zoo’s conservation and research manager, in a press release.

Group that received grants include:

• High Desert Museum: $3,500 to improve understanding of Deschutes National Forest carnivores, including the Sierra Nevada red fox.
• Oregon State University: $3,600 to promote the conservation of a unique freshwater sideswimmer found only in the Portland metro area.
• U.S. Forest Service: $3,345 to evaluate the effects of aspen restoration on populations of migratory birds such as warblers, wrens and woodpeckers.
• Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife: $5,000 to support pygmy rabbit recovery in the Columbia Basin. · Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council: $4,330 to enhance habitat for western pond turtles.
• Wildlife Ecology Institute: $2,725 to assess resource selection and habitat use of the Sierra Nevada red fox in Oregon.
• Woodland Park Zoo: $2,500 to explore how human development east of Seattle affects local carnivores such as bobcats, cougars and coyotes.

“Thanks to the zoo’s Quarters for Conservation program and generous individual donors throughout our community, we’ve been able to provide grants for more than 15 years to help save animals as small as butterflies and as big as elephants,” Wielebnowski said in a press release.

The Oregon Zoo Foundation works to enhance and expands the zoo's conservation efforts, as well as in areas of education and animal welfare. "Members, donors and corporate and foundation partners help the zoo make a difference across the region and around the world," according to the Oregon Zoo Foundation's press release.

To support the Oregon Zoo’s conservation efforts, visitoregonzoo.org/wildlife-partners.

Photo by Michael Durham, courtesy of the Oregon Zoo.