July 10, 2003

R1allnews@r1.fws.gov or 541-867-4550

Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex - Anaflor Q. Smith, a Silicon Valley philanthropist, is being recognized for her donation of 34 acres to the Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge (NWR).

Ms. Smith co-founded the B.A.Y. Fund (Bay Area Youth Fund for Education), was a contributing founder of Hotmail, and formerly owned the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, California.

Bandon Marsh NWR is located in the lower Coquille River estuary near the city of Bandon on the Oregon south coast.

The donated land and improvements are valued at $400,000 and include a small house and shop on 11 acres of uplands.

The remaining land is comprised of 9 acres of cranberry bogs and 14 acres of riparian, forested and shrub-swamp wetlands.

The land will be officially transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during a signing ceremony in Bandon on July 16, 2003.

"We are overwhelmed at the generosity of Ms. Smith in donating her lands to the National Wildlife Refuge System," said Roy W. Lowe, Project Leader for the Oregon Coast NWR Complex.

"This donation will allow us to expand and diversify our proposed tidal marsh restoration project and provide us with needed facilities," said Lowe.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has initiated the planning phase for a 400-acre tidal marsh restoration project on Bandon Marsh NWR.

It will be the largest tidal marsh restoration project ever undertaken in Oregon.

"The donated lands are essential to our restoration project because it will allow us to remove the cranberry bogs from the Fahy Creek floodplain, reconstruct the natural stream channel and restore tidal action to the floodplain wetlands," said Project Leader Lowe.

Cutthroat trout, threatened coho salmon, migratory birds and other fish and wildlife species will benefit from this action.

This donation of land by Ms. Smith to the Bandon Marsh NWR constitutes her second contribution to National Wildlife Refuge System.

Previously, she donated funds to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to assist with maintenance and habitat management on Palmyra Atoll, a string of coral islands in the Pacific near the equator, which has now been transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for management as a refuge for the surrounding tropical life.

The Bandon Marsh donation was crafted with the assistance of her financial advisor Bill Woodson of San Francisco, who is also actively involved with conservation charities including TNC's Palmyra Project and Conservation International.

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