Gorge Recovery | Wave Energy | Foster Care

• Last fall, the Eagle Creek Fire burned around 50,000 acres of wilderness in the Columbia River Gorge. Much of the burn site is still closed to the public. We check in with Miranda Mendoza, an Oregon State Park ranger and Karen Young of the West Columbia Gorge Chamber of Commerce to see how the ecology and economy are recovering from the fire.

• Gathering energy from ocean waves is possible, but it isn't happening at a large scale in the U.S. yet. However, a new testing facility on the coast might help wave energy companies get off the ground ... if the testing facility gets off the ground itself. Burke Hales, professor at the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, tells us about the project.

• In the next installment of our occasional series on the state's child welfare system, we talk to Ben West and State Sen. Sara Gelser (D-Corvallis) about their contrasting views and experiences. West and his husband Paul Rummell are adoptive parents through the foster system and recently formed the new advocacy group called Oregon Foster Families First. Gelser is chair of the State Senate's Human Services committee and a longtime advocate of reform and oversight of the Oregon Department of Human Services in her role as a lawmaker.

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