As we publish Jim Anderson’s farewell column this week, Publisher Aaron Switzer offers this look back at the long relationship between our beloved Natural World contributor and the paper. I find it hard to believe that there will be a Source Weekly without a Jim Anderson column. Jim began writing for the paper after our first […]
Jim Anderson
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides
A Place for Injured Wildlife
A rehab facility east of Bend offers help for birds and more
On a weekend in July, the new wildlife rehabilitation facility, Think Wild, east of Bend, created traffic jams with its open house. The facility once housed another wildlife rehab facility that went belly-up. Think Wild is a new organization, sort of like the Phoenix rising from the ashes. Its board of directors is made up […]
Posted inOpinion
Letters to the Editor
Priorities for Human Survival Abuses of every kind are in the news these days, but there is an abuse that effects our entire planet, and that is the population explosion that overwhelms all resources and aggravates environmental quality. We need to dramatically slow the birthrate over the entire world so as to better manage the […]
Posted inOpinion
Letters to the Editor
Corrections: In our 10/18 endorsement in the Bend mayor’s race, we erroneously stated that sitting councilors running for mayor who did not win the mayor’s race would be removed from office. Should Bill Moseley or Sally Russell not win as mayor, they will fill the remainder of their term(s) as Councilor—not be removed. If one […]
Posted inOutside
The World of Lizards
And how grandkids can bring some spirit to your backyard
If you want to know (and would like to see up close) what kind of wildlife you have on your place—either in town or out in the country—just turn your grandkids loose and they’ll find it/them. I have a particularly inquisitive grandson, Daxon, who can find a needle in a haystack. He started seeking living […]
Posted inOutside
Hjelp humlene med bolplass!
Or how to help native pollinators in Central Oregon
I never know what my wife and I will come home with when we go out on our seasonal look-see at the 150+ golden eagle breeding sites we’re responsible for watching over. Sometimes we’ll come home with only one American badger sighting for the day, or none, which is very sad. Other times we’ll witness a […]
Posted inOutside
Look out!
The Nature of our Earth is in big trouble
I‘m going to make a prophecy—though not quite as innocuous as Roger Tory Peterson’s of 1936, when he predicted the cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis, would someday populate the U.S. His prophecy was that the cattle egret, which had arrived in South America early in the ’30s—presumably after flying across the Atlantic Ocean in a storm, […]
Posted inOutside
Why Not Sleep Through Winter?
The antics of hibernating critters
The longer I live, the more I wish scientists would succeed with “induced hibernation,” especially for old duffers like me. I hate winter! Well, not really. I do enjoy going out with my family getting in the winter wood, something I’ve been doing almost all my life, but not a much as I did when […]
Posted inOutside
What to do about outdoor cats?
If you’re dealing with feral or outdoor cats in your own yard, here’s what to do—and what not to do
A somewhat recent news story featured a dead cat, hung over a fence for all to see. Very sad, but one-sided. Sure, the guy who did it was wrong—very wrong—and broke the law killing his neighbor’s cat. But what about the cat, who was trespassing on that neighbor’s and others neighbors’ private property? As readers of […]
Posted inOutside
Natural World
The arrival of a new trumpeter swan in Sisters
Aspen Lakes, on the Cyrus family property near Sisters, is involved in an exciting wildlife project. The project is in cooperation with the Trumpeter Swan Society, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the benevolent people at Aspen Lakes. There are only three trumpeter swans in the breeding program in […]