The Conservation Column By Pepper Trail For this month, some exciting news of species survival – and a disease threat to bird populations. California Condors! Let’s start with the good news: California Condors are returning to the “State of Jefferson.” Sometime in the month of May, four adolescent (2-3 year-old) condors will be released on [...]
The Conservation Column By Pepper Trail Good News and Bad News for Oregon Forests First, the good news: the Oregon Forest Practices Act. In March, the Oregon Legislature passed the Oregon Forest Practices Act (OFPA) (Senate Bill 1501). This creates strong new stream protections covering more than 10 million acres of private forest land in [...]
The Conservation Column By Juliet Grable The Crisis in the Klamath Basin Last month I attended the annual Winter Wings Festival in Klamath Falls. This year, event planners revamped the festival’s programming to focus on the drought and the crisis in the Klamath refuges. The Basin is alarmingly dry, and birds are [...]
The Conservation Column by Pepper Trail Happy New Year! Well, perhaps not as happy as we might wish, with Omicron still surging and just about complete deadlock in Washington. But there are still juncos and kinglets and waxwings and wigeons to lift our spirits! And plenty of conservation work to be done. Let’s start off [...]
The Conservation Column By Pepper Trail Good News, and Not-So-Good News Climate change: Just about everything we do in conservation to protect birds and their habitats could be undone if climate change continues on its current path. Therefore, this Conservation Column focuses on two big climate change stories, one in Washington, and the other in [...]
The Conservation Column By Pepper Trail This column is filled with promising news. Not fully achieved victories, but definitely promising. And that feels pretty good. The Griffin Half Moon Timber Sale Halted In early October, a federal judge halted the 900-acre Griffin Half Moon timber sale on the edge of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument for [...]
Editor’s note: In lieu of his standard comprehensive column this month, Pepper has shared the following comments he submitted to the City of Central Point Park Planner on Sept. 26 regarding proposed changes to Mingus Pond. Thanks to Pepper for his tireless work on behalf of our valley’s birds and their ecosystems! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Subject: Comments [...]
The Conservation Column By Pepper Trail Well, this certainly wasn’t the post-pandemic we were dreaming of, but I hope everyone got out and enjoyed our beautiful southern Oregon environment before the smoke descended. Here’s hoping that by the time you read this, blue skies will have returned. This first Conservation Column back from the summer [...]
The Conservation Column By Pepper Trail This last Conservation Column for the “Audubon Year” is a summary of updates on the priority issues for the Oregon Audubon Council, the consortium of Audubon chapters in Oregon. This is an abridged version of the summary prepared by Joe Liebezeit and Bob Sallinger of Portland Audubon. Lots of [...]
The Conservation Column By Pepper Trail As I write this, Earth Day is just around the corner, so it seems an appropriate time to focus on a big-picture conservation issue: the importance of forests in the fight against the climate crisis. This recent overview is from the National Audubon Society. Forests are Important in the [...]
