By ANN PORTAL
The Register-Guard

A study - one of the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest -- is under way to develop a plan for collectively managing more than 700 acres of wetlands spread among dozens of parcels of property in west Eugene.

Government officials say they hope the study will answer the thorny question of how to preserve the most productive wetlands while freeing up for development those wetlands of lesser value.

The study is receiving more than $100,000 in federal and local financial support.

Wetlands -- areas that are wet at least part of the year -- are one of the world's most productive ecosystems. They are protected by the federal government for their wildlife and plant habitat and their aid in flood control and water purification.

In west Eugene, the wetlands include marshes, ash forests, ponds and grassland prairies. A wetland area at Willow Creek, which already is leased by The Nature Conservancy for protection, is the site of three rare or endangered plants. Red foxes roam the grasslands.

Because most of the west Eugene wetlands do not look like traditional swampy, marshy wetlands, officials say they did not realize that the wetlands were there in such abundance until a preliminary survey was done last year.

"We want to be really sensitive through this whole process to try and present both sides -- the development side and the environmental side," says Steve Gordon of the Lane Council of Governments, which is under contract to the city.

The study's work plan calls for extensive public involvement, including forums to keep citizens abreast of the issues, field trips to the wetland sites and public hearings. One forum was held two weeks ago. Another is planned for June.

The biggest issue will be what to do with about 465 acres of wetlands in west Eugene that are identified in the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Area General Plan for future industrial use.

Long before the city discovered last year that the area contains significant wetlands, it invested millions of dollars to prepare the area for industrial growth. Those improvements included a $2.3 million sewer line and numerous road improvements.

It makes Eugene's wetlands situation distinctive in Oregon, where most remaining wetlands are located outside urban growth boundaries or in areas designated for uses other than industry.

A decision to make some of the Eugene wetlands off-limits to development could require expapding the urban growth boundary elsewhere. "And if we do that, it's likely to be onto farmland," Gordon says.

"There's no free lunch here. We can't walk away. We have a need to continue to provide options to attract new industry, to allow existing businesses to expand."

The potential for friction is reflected in some of the written comments offered at the wetlands workshop, which was sponsored by the city and the Lane Council of Governments.

"We must fight to protect as much (wetlands) as possible," one workshop participant said.

"It is absurd to even consider wetland conservation inside an urbanized zone," another said.

Respondents to an informal survey at the session were almost evenly divided over whether to allow some development on wetlands (17 votes) or whether to preserve "almost all wetlands" in west Eugene (16 votes).

Gordon says he wants to avoid turning west Eugene's wetlands into a battle zone. "With all the debate we've had in this community lately and all the things that go to election, I would prefer that we use the planning process to reach a compromise," he says.

Local environmentalists, who are just beginning to dip into the wetlands issue, say they are willing to try.

"We see the need to be realistic about the decision, I think, but we could say that we've compromised wetlands everywhere around the country, so we don't like to say we'll compromise some more," says Art Farley, conservation chairman of the Lane County Audubon Society.

"We're very happy that the process is going on right now. It's about time to get our act together in that sense," he says.

Wendell Wood, spokesman in Eugene for the Oregon Natural Resources Council, says his group is concerned about the preservation of wetlands but agrees that a regional approach in west Eugene is better than deciding which wetlands to preserve on a case-by-case basis.

"It's the only fair way to do it," he says. "Everything is a site-specific decision, I'm sure some of the wetlands there have been regarded as more significant than others."

At the same time, Wood says the "sad fact is that despite all the lip service that is paid, wetlands still continue to decline nationally at a very alarming rate.

Gordon estimates that west Eugene had more than 6,000 acres of wetlands in the late l800s. They have been lost primarily because of dams on the Willamette and McKenzie Rivers and changes in the Amazon Channel, he says.

"Virtually everything under 400 feet was a wetland at one time," he says.

Gordon says the study, a draft of which should be ready by July 1990, will identify which wetlands are significant, which could be filled or dredged and where and how new wetlands could be created to mitigate those lost through development. The federal government currently requires replacement of lost wetlands on an acre-for-acre basis.

He sees the potential for actually improving some of the wetlands, by bringing together some of the fragments of wetlands into larger wetland areas that would provide better wildlife habitat.

The city is backing a bill in state Legislature that would allow lottery money to pay for replacement of wetlands, treating it as a public works project to aid development. The bill itself would not appropriate money for mitigation projects in Eugene.

Rep. Ron Cease. D-Portland, chairman of the house Environment Energy Committee to which House 3144 was referred, said last week he is not yet "really clear in my mind whether this sort of program does damage to wetlands" by providing incentives to develop them.

"It is not my intent at this point to see the bill die," he said. "From vantage point as the Environment Energy Committee, I think our intent is to say, 'What does this really mean for wetlands?'"