In July 2025, Mr. Paulus renewed his contract with the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) to provide real property due diligence services and evaluation of acquisition grants for the following OWEB grant programs: Land Acquisition, Drinking Water Source Protection, and Oregon Agricultural Heritage. Mr. Paulus works closely with agency staff to evaluate grant applications, review and conduct due diligence, find solutions to due diligence problems and other real property-related issues, confirm the organizational capacity of grant applicants, and review and prepare documents necessary for those grants. These projects involve voluntary willing-seller fee title and conservation easement acquisitions by land trusts and government entities across the State of Oregon. Mr. Paulus has done similar work for OWEB since 2020. Go to OWEB’s website for more info about its grant programs.
Mr. Paulus represented the landowners in the sale of the 178-acre Cherryhill Ranch, near Sheridan, to the Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District in August 2023. In addition to the typical due diligence regarding a government purchase of real property, the transaction required land division approval from Yamhill County and the release of a State of Oregon mineral right. The property contains an outstanding Oregon white oak woodland and savanna and upland prairies. The purchase was funded by the Willamette Wildlife Mitigation Program, which is managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and funds the acquisition of real property interests to permanently protect and enhance important fish and wildlife habitat in the Willamette Basin. For more info, go to the Yamhill SWCD website.
Ever want to help buy a ghost town? Mr. Paulus had his chance in 2022 when he represented the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center with the successful purchase of the former logging town of Maxville in Wallowa County. Mr. Paulus assisted with preparation of the purchase and sale agreement and due diligence review needed for MHIC to acquire this 240-acre forested parcel in Northeast Oregon. For more information about Maxville and MHIC’s interesting and inspiring history read about “Breathing Life into a Ghost Town.”
Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District purchased a 319-acre forest parcel near Estacada, Oregon for the Eagle Creek Community Forest in 2019. Mr. Paulus assisted the District in preparing the purchase agreement; reviewing the condition of title, conducting other property due diligence; and preparing the closing documents. The property, which is adjacent to Eagle Fern Park in Clackamas County, will provide the community with additional recreational activities, in addition to generating revenue from occasional timber harvests and improving habitat for fish and wildlife along several salmon-bearing streams. The District acquired the property in part with grant funds from the U.S. Forest Service’s Community Forest Program. This acquisition connects over 1,000 acres of public and conserved lands.
In January 2019, Wallowa Land Trust accepted and recorded a donation of a working lands conservation easement on private property to permanently protect 175 acres of the scenic East Moraine of Wallowa Lake. Mr. Paulus represented the landowner in preparing the conservation easement that voluntarily extinguished rights to future development and sub-division, while reserving historic rights of use such as for recreation, hunting, grazing, and farming. A portion of the property contains native bunchgrass prairie, which is given special consideration under the easement. The property encompasses two lateral moraines and rises to the crest of the East Moraine at its westernmost boundary. There it abuts another conservation easement Wallowa Land Trust secured in 2017. The land trust’s larger aim is to conserve 2,500 acres across Wallowa Lake’s East and Terminal Moraines.
Mr. Paulus represented a neighborhood group, Friends of Overlook Bluff, in protecting a majestic and unique Oregon white oak in the Overlook neighborhood of Portland. The oak tree, a city-designated Heritage Tree, was imperiled by a proposed 6-lot subdivision plan, which Friends of Overlook Bluff opposed at a City of Portland land use hearing in July 2018. Along with Friends of Overlook Bluff, and other concerned citizens, Mr. Paulus was successful in convincing the hearings officer to deny the development application on the basis that the development plan as proposed failed to adequately protect the Heritage Tree under the requirements of the city code. See the story on KGW-8 news here.
West Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District has reopened tidal flow between Dairy Creek and the Columbia River through the Sturgeon Lake Restoration Project. Mr. Paulus’ involvement in representing the District in this decades-long project began in 2013 and involved working with multiple parties, partners and jurisdictions. Legal work for the project has involved preparing a variety of easements and other agreements with private and public land owners needed to secure the rights for the District and its partners to complete the project, conducting property due diligence, and providing legal advice to the District during the course of the project. Sturgeon Lake is an important feature for both people and wildlife in the Lower Columbia River Estuary and restoring the tidal flows and wetland habitat will benefit juvenile salmon species, a variety of birds, native plants, and each winter an estimated 200,000 geese. Mr. Paulus’ role in the project was acknowledged at the project dedication in June 2019.
Mr. Paulus’ two and one-half years of involvement representing Tillamook County with the acquisition of real property interests for the Southern Flow Corridor Project successfully concluded in June, 2016. The project mitigates flooding while providing for wetland restoration and fish habitat improvement. For more information on this multi-year project visit the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership website and review a socio-economic impacts report about its benefits.