GEARHART – The clatter and buzz of new home construction cuts through the ocean-side clearing at The Reserve subdivision.

But next door, a blue heron cruises along Neacoxie Creek in peace, the sounds of its noisy neighbor blocked by gnarly old crab apple trees and towering Sitka spruce.

Here, though new property lines have parceled much of the land into half-acre lots, a seamless buffer of prairie, wetlands and forest stands undeveloped on the eastern edge of the tract, leaving enough natural habitat to keep a much larger ecosystem intact and giving new homeowners at The Reserve a pristine view of wildlife at work.

The North Coast Land Conservancy, which was instrumental in The Reserve’s eco-friendly design, is working to fold more of the Neacoxie’s neighbors into a habitat enhancement effort along the creek’s 15-mile stretch from Sunset Lake near Camp Rilea to the Necanicum estuary in Seaside.

The swath of land that flanks Neacoxie Creek as it widens into lakes and narrows down into streams connects rare coastal prairie lands with diverse wetlands and forests east of the coastal sand dunes. It also links a growing number of neighboring landowners in Warrenton, Gearhart and Seaside to habitat that nurtures elk and deer, a variety of waterfowl and songbirds and vanishing native species of plants and butterflies.

NCLC land steward Katie Voelke envisions a Neacoxie Wildlife Corridor running through North Coast neighborhoods much like a road or a municipal waterline. With small acts of stewardship such as removing the invasive Scotch broom and planting native lilies or twinberry bushes, she said, homeowners along the Neacoxie can improve the “green infrastructure” and watch as birds, elk and deer migrate right through their back yards.

NCLC started studying the flat land off the coast called the Clatsop Plains when the Oregon silverspot butterfly was first listed as a threatened species. The butterfly flourishes in vegetation found on sand dunes and coastal prairies, but development had largely wiped out its natural habitat.

To determine how much habitat was left, Voelke began walking the land along the Neacoxie and noticed the diversity of species along forest fringes and wetlands next to the creek, as well as in the creek itself.

“Through that experience, I realized that what we’re looking at is not just a coastal prairie,” said Voelke. “We’re not looking at patches or parcels. We’re looking at an entire ecosystem that’s truly a wildlife corridor.”

Voelke said even though the historic land use along the corridor has caused some degradation, “the integrity of the landscape is still connected.”

By bringing Neacoxie neighbors together, she said, the wildlife corridor project can help NCLC can learn how wildlife is already using backyard habitat and teach landowners how their parcels fit into the region’s ecosystem.

In some parts of the corridor, NCLC invites landowners to leave a buffer of natural shrubs along the edges of their yard to allow wetlands to widen their functions – or leave a snag in place for potential wood duck nesting. In the prairie lands, homeowners could create their own butterfly gardens by planting native flowers such as Douglas aster or blue violet.

Voelke has already begun collecting seeds for a native prairie plant propagation program to encourage local landowners to do native landscaping, which “provides almost a recreational value for people who enjoy watching wildlife,” she said. NCLC has also volunteered to help homeowners control Scotch broom, a rampant invasive species that was originally planted to stabilize the bare sand dunes and quickly replaced native plants along much of the North Coast.

As a land trust, NCLC owns and manages about 700 acres of North Coast habitat, including about 20 acres in the Neacoxie Wildlife Corridor. The land trust has also established about 350 acres of protected conservation easements in the region.

On its own Neacoxie property, NCLC has already begun hand-cutting and mowing down Scotch broom and removing holly. Eventually, the conservancy may be able to reclaim some natural sand dune habitat by skimming off unnatural soils that have accumulated over years of invasive plant growth.

But NCLC Executive Director Neal Maine is the first to admit the land trust isn’t going to protect all the valuable habitat in Clatsop County. Local landowners can help fill the gaps in the conservancy’s holdings by restoring pieces of their own property and inviting habitat into their back yards, he said.

“People, when they live next to a resource, they watch it,” said Maine. “This is their connection to the world. … The future of land management is not taking land from the system but engaging the people who are in the system with the land.”

That way new houses may end up in “the right spots,” and “you can still have development and have the natural components intact.”

Some landowners are already doing their part. Michael Riley has lived in the Surf Pines community for 30 years, and has left more than an acre of his property beside the creek untouched.

“Long before the (wildlife corridor) project ever existed we knew this was an important thing to keep open and intact,” said Riley, who works as a landscape designer. Riley said his house was an early installation along the wildlife corridor, and he’s since watched development grow and encroach upon the creek’s habitat.

“This particular Neacoxie corridor is really important because it’s to some degree still intact,” he said. “If you live here and watch the way things work, the animals move along it; it’s really important to their movement. The elk and the birds and animals, coyotes, they really use that area. You see it – it’s pretty critical to keep these passageways open.”

Jeanne Henderson and her husband live near the corridor on the ocean in Surf Pines, but they have seen as many as 16 elk on their property.

“It’s spectacular,” she said. “It’s so fun to watch.”

Henderson said she passes the wildlife corridor on her way home every day, and “there’s almost always a blue heron in the creek and quite often elk crossing.”

The Neacoxie Wildlife Corridor is “going to affect everybody in Surf Pines,” she said. “That land will be saved for wildlife habitat, and that helps all of us. It’s such a special thing to have that instead of another housing development.”