Environment - Page 12

By APRIL EHRLICH/Oregon Public Broadcasting DEPOE BAY — Like many sea creatures, mussels along Oregon’s coastline are struggling. Their population took a sudden nose dive this summer, and researchers aren’t sure what’s behind the die-off. This mystery is what brought Oregon State University professor and marine ecologist Bruce Menge and his research team to a tide pool in Depoe

BY MICHELLE KLAMPE/OSU News Service Oregon State University researchers are joining a new multi-institution earthquake research center dedicated to the study of the Pacific Northwest’s Cascadia Subduction Zone, which is capable of producing earthquakes comparable to the largest recorded globally. The National Science Foundation has awarded $15 million over five years to the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center – to

By ALEX BAUMHARDT/Oregon Capital Chronicle A tropical weather system called El Niño is beginning its march up the coast of Oregon, likely bringing with it a warmer winter and warmer water for some marine life. Oregonians on the coast could see flooding when rain mixes with higher tides. In the mountains, areas hoping for snow are more likely to get

By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews Whether an aerial spraying of herbicides in the South Beaver Creek watershed by a timberland owner will occur is still uncertain despite a company consultant saying last week that it was highly unlikely. The planned helicopter spraying of herbicides is opposed by the Seal Rock Water District, Lincoln County commissioners, residents who use district water, and

By NOAA FISHERIES Almost twice as many gray whale calves swam north with their mothers to their Arctic feeding grounds this spring compared to last year, according to a new count by NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center. The results suggest that the eastern North Pacific population of gray whales that migrate along the West Coast may be stabilizing

By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews Most of Oregon’s congressional delegation is hailing what they call a 60-day pause in federal efforts to develop floating offshore wind-energy platforms off the southern Oregon coast. Their comments, made in a letter to the director of the federal agency overseeing wind-energy planning, came after the government identified two draft “wind energy areas” off Coos Bay