Environment - Page 20

By OSU News Service Karina Nielsen, the leader of a marine science center at San Francisco State University and an Oregon State University alumna, has been named director of Oregon Sea Grant, an OSU-based program that supports marine science, education and outreach in Newport and Corvallis. Nielsen, who earned a doctorate in zoology from OSU in 1998, will start her

By JOSHUA PARTLOW/The Washington Post During a typical fall, almost a million chum salmon pour into Alaska’s Yukon River, a torrent of wild fish that has sustained the economy and Indigenous culture in the far north for generations. Last year, that run collapsed, with salmon trickling upstream at a 10th of normal levels, forcing the state to airlift frozen fish from

LOUIS KRAUSS/Eugene Register-Guard FLORENCE — Take a drive from on Highway 126 east out of Florence and you’ll see something strange — trash bags tied to the metal reflector posts, hundreds of them, spray-painted with distressed, cartoony faces. Some of the faces look anguished, others enraged and some of the bags are just emblazoned with the word “care.” On

By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com It will likely take at least a decade to plug electricity generated by floating, deep-ocean wind turbines into Oregon’s power grid. But big steps are underway to transform the state’s electrical infrastructure and at least partially wean it from the relatively cheap, dam-produced hydropower that has kept Oregon’s lights on for the past 80 years. Within

By DIANA LEONARD/The Washington Post The United States’ tsunami system is in need of a major update, with ongoing problems that include outdated software, delayed alerts and poor communication to the public, according to a panel of tsunami experts. Its recent report sees “an urgent need for action” and advises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to overhaul aspects of the

By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com European green crabs are by no means strangers to Oregon’s coastal waters. The voracious and habitat-destroying invasive species has been found in crab pots here, particularly in sloughs and estuaries, for more than a quarter century. But spiking numbers now have state officials poised to take action to address a problem that’s severe enough in neighboring

You wouldn’t know it from the last few days, but February was a dry, cold month in the Yachats area. A rain and wind storm that pummeled the central coast the last three days of the month also delivered half of the Yachats area’s February rainfall total, according to weather watchers who report their data to YachatsNews. In spite of

By MICHELLE KLAMPE/OSU News Service NEWPORT – A comprehensive new map and report tracking whale migrations around the globe highlights where they go in the high seas and the cumulative impacts the animals face from industrial fishing, ship strikes, pollution, habitat loss and climate change. “Protecting Blue Corridors” was developed through collaborative analysis of 30 years of scientific data contributed

By JORDAN ESSOE/YachatsNews.com In a victory for customers, haulers and industry managers, agreements have been reached to allow Oregon residents to continue to recycle electronic waste for free at five collection sites across the state, including Dahl Disposal’s Waldport and Toledo recycling and transfer stations. Eight collection locations were scheduled to be dropped Tuesday from Oregon E-Cycles, a manufacturer-funded

By JORDAN ESSOE/YachatsNews.com Residents of south Lincoln County will soon have fewer places to recycle their electronic waste for free – but an uproar over the change may only be leading to more confusion. Coastal residents are used to being able to drop off their old computers or televisions at Dahl Disposal’s recycling and transfer stations in Waldport and