Damian Fagan

Poaching impacts all fish and wildlife across Oregon,” said Yvonne Shaw, Protect Oregon’s Wildlife’s Turn In Poachers (TIP) campaign coordinator. “The illegal killing of fish and wildlife not only complicates biologists’ ability to maintain species populations across the state, but it removes opportunity from hunters and anglers who harvest and from residents, recreationists and others […]

Flu season is upon us and it’s not just restricted to humans. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as avian influenza or bird flu, is a spreadable virus that affects wild birds, poultry, livestock, pets and, in rare cases, humans. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed the current strain of the […]

Pinyon jays are raucous, gregarious birds often associated with piñon-juniper woodlands throughout the Great Basin ecosystem and up into Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The bird’s range pretty much patterns with the distribution of two-needled and one-needled pinyon pines, except for jay populations that live in ponderosa pine forests in the Northwest. Though widely distributed, […]

Volunteers conducted a fish rescue operation over several days in mid-October, after reduced flows stranded fish in a mile-long side channel at Lava Island Falls along the Upper Deschutes River. The event was organized by the Deschutes River Conservancy, with help from volunteers and staff from fisheries and environmental consulting firm Mount Hood Environmental. Several […]

Last week, I participated in the Olympics…the Odolympics, that is — better known as the “Odonata Olympics.” Sponsored by the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, Sociedad de Odonatalogiá Latinamericana and Odonata Central, this week-long Olympian citizen science effort focused on recording dragonflies and damselflies, members of the Odonata order, to provide a snapshot of distribution […]