Continue reading →

Filed under: Fish & Wildlife, Land use, Elk, Oregon Field Journal, Treeverse

Remember that scene in Honey I Shrunk the Kids where Rick Moranis is lost in the back yard? The blades of grass seem like skyscrapers and a passing ant is an enormous and terrifying monster. I couldn’t help but imagine this scene at the Discovering Wildlife Lecture Series when Dan Rosenberg of the Oregon Wildlife Institute described his study that tracks the movements of hatchling turtles. Continue reading →

Filed under: Fish & Wildlife, Water, Oregon Field Journal

If you're not familiar with Bull Trout, it's not your fault. They've largely been missing from the Willamette River Basin for the past 50 years. Continue reading →

Filed under: Fish & Wildlife, Water, Oregon Field Journal

You've seen them in your garbage, in the alleyway, or as two yellow eyes at night. Raccoons are ubiquitous, even near downtown Portland, where pavement outcompetes dirt. Continue reading →

Filed under: Fish & Wildlife, Oregon Field Journal

If there's a common thread linking the poisonous spiders of the world, that web likely stretches through the Portland lab of Greta Binford. She's a star in the arachnosphere. Binford milks the venom from spiders and has a collection of 600 of the world's most poisonous arachnids living in her lab at Lewis & Clark College. Continue reading →

Filed under: Fish & Wildlife, Oregon Field Journal

Oregon Field Guide reported on the problem of invasive feral pigs in Oregon in 2009. This video sums up the problem nicely: Feral pigs can wreak havoc on the landscape, hurt people and native wildlife, and spread disease. They multiply quickly, and Oregon (unlike California) still has a shot at eradicating them entirely. But hunters still like them, and private landowners have fueled the invasion by raising exotic pigs for hunting that wind up escaping into the wild. Continue reading →

Filed under: Fish & Wildlife, Feral pigs, Oregon Field Journal

  Continue reading →

Filed under: Fish & Wildlife, Oregon Field Journal

Crazy ideas sometimes work. This one got half of what we wanted. Continue reading →

Filed under: Water, Oregon Field Journal, waterfall

Not a single chick has survived this year at the world's largest colony of Caspian terns. Researchers call it "complete colony failure." Meanwhile, on the very same island in the mouth of the Columbia River, the world's largest double-crested cormorant colony also faces mass nest collapse. Continue reading →

Filed under: Fish & Wildlife, bald eagles, cormorants, Oregon Field Journal, Terns

Nanotechnology is often hailed as the greatest technological advance since the chemical revolution. Super strong bike frames? Nano can do that. Odor-free socks? Nano does it. Disappearing sun screen? Nano’s the solution. But nanotech bug killer? Slow down, says the EPA in a press release today. Continue reading →

Filed under: Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, epa, nano, nanomaterials, nanosilver, nanotech, nanotechnology, Oregon Field Journal, pesticides