Environment - Page 25

The public has until early next week to weigh in on the 18 stretches of beach that the state of Oregon is proposing to monitor this summer for high bacteria counts and other potential pollution concerns. The proposed monitoring sites stretch from Seaside Beach in Clatsop County south to Mill Beach in Brookings. Five of the 18 beaches –

By STEVE LUNDEBERG/OSU News Service Oregon State University researchers who broadcast marbled murrelet calls in mature forests have found that the threatened seabirds’ choice of breeding locations is strongly influenced by whether they hear other murrelets in the area. The research by scientists in the OSU College of Forestry and College of Agricultural Sciences is important because the elusive

By MICHELLE KLAMPE/OSU News Service Poop samples are an effective, non-invasive tool for monitoring gray whale reproduction, stress and other physiological responses, a new study from Oregon State University shows. Researchers from OSU’s Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory in Newport collected 158 fecal (commonly known as poop) samples from Eastern North Pacific gray whales off the coast of

By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com Starting next month, thanks to a multi-state program years in development, Oregon residents will receive cell phone alerts to brace for an impending earthquake. The ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning system will give Oregonians anywhere from five seconds to tens of seconds notice that a quake of at least 5.0 magnitude is about to strike. The state

BY MICHELLE KLAMPE/OSU News Service A project to build the nation’s first wave energy testing facility seven miles off the coast in Lincoln County has cleared a critical hurdle as the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management awarded Oregon State University a lease to operate in federal waters. The approval last week for PacWave South is the first marine

Oregon State University has received a nearly $700,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  to provide software tools for investors interested in starting aquaculture businesses in Oregon. Researchers from several Oregon State departments will work with the nonprofit Oregon Aquaculture Association on the three-year grant from NOAA’s National Sea Grant Office. “We expect the investment and educational

By MICHELLE KLAMPE/OSU News Service Neighbors play an influential role in private oceanfront landowners’ decisions to protect their shorelines from erosion and rising sea levels, which could lead to excessive use of riprap — or armoring — of the coastline, a new analysis from Oregon State University shows. Researchers studied 25 years of decisions by property owners along the

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com A landslide that for years has been looming over a unique salmon and steelhead research center 25 miles east of Waldport, gave way during torrential rains Sunday night, wiping out a bridge and causing the evacuation of center employees and residents downstream along Fall Creek. The central Oregon coast was hit with more than eight inches

By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com A massive die off of the iconic sunflower sea star has resulted in the species’ new listing as critically endangered by a key international conservation organization. Population studies spearheaded by Oregon State University and The Nature Conservancy underpin the listing, which was announced last week by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “These sea stars