Crook Point Coastal Prairie Restoration
Crook Point is a 134-acre unit of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), managed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and located along the southern Oregon coast just south of Gold Beach in Curry County. Crook Point hosts approximately 15 acres of coastal prairie, a rare and endemic vegetation community that has almost entirely vanished from the Oregon coast (Bilderback 2013). The unit contains rare plants, unique geological formations, and one mile of pristine beach with interspersed rocky intertidal areas and hosts the coastal greenish blue butterfly (Plebejus saepiolus littoralis), a species of conservation concern. The Nature Conservancy of Oregon acquired Crook Point in 1998 to protect undeveloped shoreline, extensive rocky intertidal habitats and rare native plants from development. It was one of the last privately-owned coastal headlands of Oregon. In 2000, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) acquired and assumed management of the property (Bilderback 2013).
In 2020, Oregon Coast NWR Complex staff, the Oregon Coastal Program and partners undertook the first phases of a five-year Crook Point coastal prairie restoration project. Due to a global pandemic, fieldwork was delayed until July 2020, well into the normal field season for the southern Oregon coast. Nevertheless, several first-year objectives were completed including species mapping, habitat assessment for five butterfly species of concern, preliminary restoration treatments, non-native species removal, seed collection, woody vegetation-removal, and the completion of a revegetation plan for the site. Restoration activities in 2021 included evaluating 2020 treatment effectiveness, manual and chemical treatment of non-native plants, applying prescribed fire to remove woody vegetation, revegetating disturbs areas with plugs and seed, collecting seed, and developing a habitat management plan. This project will continue through 2023 in partnership with the Institute for Applied Ecology and the US Forest Service.
