Funding through this proposal will enable Capitol Land Trust and its project partners to conserve one of the largest, most intact and strategically important riparian/freshwater wetland habitat complexes in the Deschutes River watershed. By acquiring, through fee-simple acquisition, approximately 427 acres of prime habitat along one mile of the Deschutes River main-stem and nearly all of Ayer and Elwanger Creeks, the project will create the largest contiguous, protected habitat area in the lower Deschutes Watershed. The project will protect multiple Priority Habitat types (riparian, corridor, freshwater wetland, in-stream, snags and logs) that collectively provide habitat for multiple Priority Species including salmon, migratory and resident bird and waterfowl, raptor, mammal, and amphibian species. Protection of this site is specifically identified as a “High Priority” action in the Salmon Habitat Protection and Restoration Plan for Water Resource Inventory Area 13, Deschutes; and is identified in the Squaxin Island Tribe South Sound Watershed Action Conservation Plan as the highest protection priority within the lower watershed. This project builds upon prior protection and stewardship successes on adjacent sites and alleviates imminent threat by preventing more than 115 homes that have already received preliminary plat approval. WWRP funding will be greatly leveraged to acquire a site with an estimated market value of more than three times the WWRP request.