Natural World

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 […]

Few experiences will put you in touch with the rhythms of the natural world quite like watching an avian migration. In Oregon, we’re lucky to witness one of North America’s greatest animal migration paths right in our backyard. Each spring and fall, billions of birds migrate along the Pacific Flyway, a route stretching from Alaska […]

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, […]

My head is crooked upward more often in autumn, my eye drawn toward vibrant trees. But when I venture to look down, I see beautiful crunchy fallen leaves and one of the most abundant and obvious plants blooming throughout Oregon’s high desert in fall: the rubber, or gray, rabbitbrush. Gray rabbitbrush, or Ericameria nauseosa, is […]

Successfully growing plants from seed in Central Oregon is challenging. It’s also fun, inexpensive and deeply rewarding, once you learn the basics. Few people understand the struggles and rewards better than Lisa Sanco, the executive director of Worthy Environmental. “There’s nothing wrong with buying plant starts from nurseries,” she says, “but it’s more economical to […]