Environment - Page 24

By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com Jamie Kish has a quick word for anyone who glances at an Oregon coast tidepool at low tide and comes away thinking nothing much is going on. “For every single occupant of that tidepool, low tides are actually an incredibly tumultuous time,” Kish said. “Your entire house drains and all of a sudden predators can see

TOM BANSE/Oregon Public Broadcasting NEWPORT — Earthquake researchers are eager to dig into a trove of new data about the offshore Cascadia fault zone. When Cascadia ruptures, it can trigger a megaquake known as “the Big One.” The valuable new imaging of the geology off the Oregon, Washington and British Columbia coasts comes from a specialized research vessel. The

By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com Lincoln County’s declaration of a drought emergency this week is only the first step on a path likely to result in everything from requests for voluntary water curtailment to stronger, mandatory measures if drought conditions persist. Many water purveyors all along Oregon’s central coast – there are 52 in Lincoln County — are now preparing to

By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld a lower-court ruling that invalidated an initiative banning aerial spraying of pesticides in Lincoln County. The ruling this week came less than one month after a three-judge panel of the appeals court heard arguments from both sides in a case that tested whether local and county jurisdictions have the authority

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com If it was any other landslide in a remote section Oregon’s Coast Range, there would not be much concern. Some private or Forest Service logging roads would be closed. The landowner would monitor it. And there it would sit – or move — without much attention. But in a mountain range prone to regular earth movement,

By GILLIAN FLACCUS/The Associated Press OTIS — Wildfire smoke was thick when Tye and Melynda Small went to bed on Labor Day, but they weren’t too concerned. After all, they live in a part of Oregon where ferns grow from tree trunks and rainfall averages more than six feet a year. But just after midnight, a neighbor awakened them

By MICHELLE KLAMPE/OSU News Service NEWPORT – Oregon State University has been selected to host a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration institute focused on collaborative study of the rapidly changing ocean and expanded demands on its use. The Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies, or CIMERS, will focus on four research themes: conservation, protection and restoration of marine resources;

By MICHELLE KLAMPE/OSU News Service An unprecedented combination of strong easterly winds and low humidity coupled with prolonged drought conditions drove the spread of catastrophic wildfires in the Oregon Cascades last September, a new study has found. “The individual wind and humidity conditions were rare but not unprecedented, but the combination of the two was,” said Larry O’Neill, an

By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews.com A $5 million grant from the Columbia Sportswear family will allow the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport to dramatically expand its marine life rehabilitation program and add new features about the freshwater origins of Oregon’s rivers. The funds come from The Roundhouse Foundation in Sisters, begun by the late Columbia founder Gert Boyle and her daughter,