BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Four annual winter range closures take effect next Monday across the Deschutes National Forest to provide critical habitat for deer and elk. The closure areas include Cabin/Silver Lake, Metolius Winter Range, Opine Travel Management Area and Tumalo Winter Range. Motorized vehicles (including snowmobiles and e-bikes) are prohibited in the closure areas,
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SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) – Governor Tina Kotek signed Executive Order 25-29 on Wednesday saying the goal is “to increase the pace and scale of Oregon’s response to reducing carbon pollution while strengthening grid reliability and energy affordability.” On Thursday, Republican state Senator David Brock Smith of Port Orford fired back, saying the governor’s move will
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NEWPORT, Ore. (KTVZ) – The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is helping investigate the entanglement in crab fishing gear of a young humpback whale stranded earlier this week near Yachats. The whale was entangled in gear attributed by NOAA Fisheries to the Oregon commercial Dungeness crab fishery. Veterinarians from the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network
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(Update: Adding video) CORVALLIS, Ore. (KTVZ) – Floating solar panels are emerging as a promising clean energy solution with environmental benefits, but a new study finds those effects vary significantly, depending on where the systems are deployed. Researchers from Oregon State University and the U.S. Geological Survey modeled the impact of floating solar photovoltaic systems on 11
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Update: Adding video PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) — It’s a good time to be a pika in Oregon, or a volunteer trained to spot them. New survey data from Cascades Pika Watch – which included Central Oregon for the first time – shows numbers of the potato-sized mammals, as well as the people who survey them, are on the
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BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Did you know our consumption accounts for half of our greenhouse gas emissions? Did you hear that Knott Landfill is close to full? Have you heard contradictory things about recycling and whether it matters? This July, Oregon became the first state in the nation to pass a sweeping bill, the Recycling Modernization
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Update: Adding video CORVALLIS, Ore. (KTVZ) -– Scientists at Oregon State University have filed a patent on a design for a new magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent with the potential to outperform current agents while being less toxic to patients and more environmentally friendly. The new material is based on a structure known as a
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Update: Adding video LA PINE, Ore. (KTVZ —The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued an air quality advisory Monday for Deschutes County and Northern Klamath County due to stagnant air conditions trapping smoke and other air pollutants near the ground where people breathe. DEQ said it expects the air quality advisory to last until Wednesday
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CORVALLIS, Ore. – A satellite imagery analysis shows that the 2021 “heat dome” scorched almost 5% of the forested area in western Oregon and western Washington, turning foliage in canopies from a healthy green to red or orange, sometimes within a matter of hours. Damage to foliage leads to a range of problems for trees
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CORVALLIS, Ore. (KTVZ) – Rising wildfire risk in the Pacific Northwest, combined with notoriously volatile timber pricing, may lower forestland values by as much as 50% and persuade plantation owners to harvest trees much earlier than planned, a new analysis of Douglas-fir forests shows. Under the worst-case scenarios, modeling by researchers at Oregon State University
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Local and state leaders say wildfire seasons are lasting longer across Central Oregon, and the threat is only growing.
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(Update: Adding video) BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Commute Options announced Thursday the results from its region’s participation in the annual Get There Challenge, a two-week statewide event encouraging Oregonians to choose alternative transportation modes over driving alone. Out of 969 total participants statewide, 272 came from the Commute Options service area in Central and Eastern
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(Update: Adding video) BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — The High Desert Museum announced Wednesday a new honor, the first of its kind in the region, called the Schnitzer Prize of the West, that will award $50,000 annually to an individual or small group whose work addresses environmental and conservation challenges of the American West. The initiative will have a
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La PINE, Ore, (KTVZ) — Developers of an advanced geothermal energy system on the flanks of Newberry Volcano east of La Pine reported a major breakthrough Tuesday: the hottest temperature any such system has reported, at 629 °F. KTVZ Chief Meteorologist John Carroll profiled the Mazama Energy demonstration project and its goals in an August
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TERREBONNE, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Oregon Court of Appeals has affirmed the long-debated rezoning of 710 acres west of Redmond for 10-acre rural homesites, but the fight still may not be over. The court’s 34-page ruling (see below) affirmed the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals decision to uphold Deschutes County’s approval of the rezoning
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KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (KTVZ) — Salmon are making exciting progress in their return to the upper Klamath Basin, with fisheries biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and The Klamath Tribes celebrating a series of firsts as salmon reach areas where they have been absent for over a century. A few weeks after a
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(Update: Adding video) MADRAS, Ore. (KTVZ) — The manufacturer Daimler Truck, which has a headquarters in Portland and a testing office in Madras, is pushing back against the state’s ambitious clean truck mandate, warning that a lack of infrastructure and sky-high costs could lead to stagnant sales. Oregon’s effort to lead the nation in environmental
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BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Deschutes National Forest announced Tuesday that firefighters plan to start pile burning season as early as this Wednesday, if conditions are favorable. Here are the details the Forest Service released Tuesday: The Deschutes National Forest may accomplish up to an estimated 15,000 acres of pile burning throughout the fall and
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Update: Adding video BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Just below our feet, there is a universe that is busy, active and alive. Next Saturday, the High Desert Museum invites visitors of all ages to explore the interconnected, underground world of soil in the original exhibition, Soil Alive! Here’s the museum’s Monday announcement that explains what it’s all
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Two California condors hatched and raised at the Oregon Zoo’s Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation are now soaring through the open skies of Arizona, marking another important step in the effort to save this critically endangered species from extinction. Condors No. 1254 and No. 1260 — who hatched at the Jonsson
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