Conservation Columns

The Conservation Column by Pepper Trail Welcome back from summer! With unprecedented heat baking the globe and political divisions at an all-time high, it's easy to focus on the negative. So let's ease into fall by highlighting two positive developments on the local conservation front. Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Expansion Wins in Court -- Again In [...]

Conservation Column By Juliet Grable The 2023 Farm Bill: An Opportunity to Get It Right Last month, The Guardian ran a story about a new study that highlights how agriculture is devastating bird populations in Europe. For the study, a group of 50 researchers analyzed data gathered from 28 countries over nearly four decades: “The [...]

Conservation Column By Juliet Grable Avian Flu Update One year ago, Pepper Trail provided an excellent summary on the status of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, aka HPAI, aka avian flu. At the time, it was evident that the newest subtype of the virus, called H5N1, was infect-ing and killing wild birds on a scale not [...]

The Conservation Column By Pepper Trail This month’s column focuses on a long-neglected but hugely important bird habitat in Oregon and the Great Basin: saline lakes. Lacking outflows, and too salty for fish, these lakes are perfect incubators for brine shrimp and brine flies, which in turn provide essential food for great concentrations of migrating [...]

The Conservation Column By Pepper Trail By now, everyone should have received their ballots in the mail. Please, remember to VOTE! It’s one of the most important things you can do to make your voice heard for conservation – and for all the other issues you care about. This Conservation Column features a local conservation [...]

The Conservation Column By Pepper Trail Happy fall! This might be the last Chat that reaches you before Election Day (November 8, but most of us vote well before that). So, let me remind everyone that one of the most important conservation actions you can take is to VOTE. Rogue Valley Audubon of course does [...]

The Conservation Column By Pepper Trail This summer brought some long-overdue good news: finally, significant federal legislation to address climate change. The name doesn’t make it obvious, but the Inflation Reduction Act is the most significant climate legislation ever to become law. It also provides many other conservation benefits. National Audubon has summarized 12 ways [...]

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 [...]