An international collaboration, including Oregon State University researcher Bev Law, says the health of a terrestrial ecosystem can be largely determined by three variables: vegetation’s ability to uptake carbon, its efficiency in using carbon and its efficiency in using water.
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Due to the poor returns of steelhead to the Columbia River Basin, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Tuesday it is extending steelhead fishing closures on the Deschutes River through Dec. 31.
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After several years of continual drought, it’s getting more and more difficult for Jefferson County farmers to harvest their crops. The North Unit Irrigation District believes it has a feasible, though pricey way to solve the water crisis: pumping water from Lake Billy Chinook.
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Mechanical thinning alone can calm the intensity of future wildfires for many years, and prescribed burns lengthen thinning’s effectiveness, according to Oregon State University research involving a seasonally dry Ponderosa pine forest in northeastern Oregon.
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From Sept. 18 through October 3, Oregonians are participating in SOLVE’s 38th annual Beach & Riverside Cleanup, in partnership with the Oregon Lottery. This volunteer event is aimed at improving the health of our waterways through litter pick-up and restoration work. While this event spans three weekends, most volunteer projects occurred Saturday.
Continue ReadingBy GENE JOHNSONAssociated Press SEATTLE (AP) — An administrative law judge has recommended that a Native American tribe in Washington state once again be allowed to hunt gray whales — a major step in its decades-long effort to resume the ancient practice. The Makah Tribe last legally hunted whales off the Olympic Peninsula in 1999,
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The Mirror Pond Fish Passage Advisory Committee, charged with recommending a preferred fish passage solution at the Newport Dam facility, said Thursday it’s temporarily suspending its meetings while the Bend Park and Recreation District secures funds to hire an engineering firm for a high-level analysis of fish passage options at the site.
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When warm-water fish species like bass, walleye and crappie that are not native to the Pacific Northwest, but prized by some anglers, overlap with baby spring chinook salmon in reservoirs in Oregon’s Willamette River, they consume more baby salmon than native fish per individual, new research found.
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Beginning Thursday, the Deschutes National Forest will be adding more large logs and downed trees into the Metolius River to restore fish habitat, the latest phase of a project that stretches back over a decade.
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The effects of the drought and heat on trees won’t be fully known until next spring, tree experts in Oregon say.
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By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press LA PINE, Ore. (AP) — From dusty towns to forests in the West, illegal marijuana growers are taking water in uncontrolled amounts when there often isn’t enough to go around for even licensed users. Conflicts about water have long existed but amid a severe drought, illegal marijuana farms add additional
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NASA recently tested new spacesuits designed for a return to the moon and future Mars exploration at a number of natural sites in special spots around Central Oregon and nearby.
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BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Stressed, tired and ready for winter. No, not you: That’s how the trees in Central Oregon are feeling. Leaves change colors as temperatures drop and the trees begin to conserve energy.
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Wildfire smoke has continued to cast a haze across the High Desert off and on for weeks. Now, the smoke is not only hurting the air quality outside anymore, but many folks say smoke is entering their homes.
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Oregon State University said Thursday it will lead a National Science Foundation-funded effort to discover Antarctica’s oldest ice and learn more about how the Earth’s climate has changed over the past several million years.
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The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and Lane Regional Air Protection Agency issued an air quality advisory Thursday for Central, Eastern and Southern Oregon, plus parts of Oregon Cascades due to smoke from fires in Oregon and Northern California.
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Rather than ocean oxygen levels improving, as they usually do this time of year, hypoxia off the Pacific Northwest coast is as bad as it’s been at any point in 2021, according to collaborative research by Oregon State University, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife and Oregon’s crabbing industry.
Continue ReadingBy Rachel Ramirez, CNN To avoid the worst consequences of climate change — worsening extreme weather, irreversible ecosystem shifts, loss of life and economic hardship — scientists say the world must limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The only way to do that, they say, is by making deep cuts to
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If you have only been living in Bend for a few years, you would not be wrong thinking smoky summers are usual, but only recently have the wildfire-fueled murky skies become the norm.
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Another day of thick, “hazardous”-level wildfire smoke was keeping many Central Oregonians indoors on Labor Day and prompted cancellation of another Les Schwab Amphitheater concert.
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