Kotek, Legislature want to pause action on wildfire hazard map to quell public frustration
The governor directed the state forestry department to pause any further action based on the map until the Legislature decides to keep, update or repeal it.
By Alex Baumhardt – Oregon Capital Chronicle
Alex Baumhardt has been a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media since 2017. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post. She previously worked in Iceland and Qatar and was a Fulbright scholar in Spain where she earned a master's degree in digital media. She's been a kayaking guide in Alaska, farmed on four continents and worked the night shift at several bakeries to support her reporting along the way.
Large crowd opposes bill that would require farms to report fertilizer use
Oregon Senate Bill 747 would require irrigated farms larger than 200 acres to report fertilizer use to help the state agriculture department curb pollution
Gov. Kotek issues emergency order allowing Port of Morrow to violate water pollution permit
Port of Morrow officials claim heavy winter rains have overloaded their wastewater lagoons, forcing them to offload contaminated water or layoff employees temporarily.
Protection for Owyhee Canyonlands dies in Congress, Oregon leaders to try again
Oregon’s “Grand Canyon” will not be protected by Congress after a proposal to do so passed the Senate but died in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Oregon getting federal money to improve habitat for imperiled western monarch butterfly
A new grant seeks to improve habitat for the western monarch butterflies, an iconic species in serious decline in Oregon and other western states.
Gov. Kotek makes final plea to Biden to make Owyhee Canyonlands a national monument
In a recent letter, the Oregon governor asked President Biden to protect “Oregon’s Grand Canyon” and a stretch of the Owyhee River in the southeast of the state.
Kotek calls for special session to cover costs of record wildfire season
Gov. Tina Kotek calls for a special session in December as the state owes more than $200 million from fighting than 2,000 fires this summer and fall.
Wildfire survivors appeal to Congress to pass disaster tax relief bill
Oregon’s U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden vowed at a recent town hall to get a bill passed by the end of the year, and potentially by Thanksgiving.
Oregon inks agreement with developers to enter entire state forest into carbon market
The Oregon Department of State Lands signed an agreement Thursday, Oct. 31, with the company Anew Climate to put the first state forest in the West into a carbon market.
House Republicans target forests for wildfire reform as grass and rangeland burns
Three prominent Oregon Republicans are calling for legislative action on wildfire policy that targets scaling back forest conservation and logging restrictions.