Oregon WildBlog

*Please note that this hike is no longer accessible due to the Beachie Creek Fire of 2020.*

Last week, the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest shared remote camera photos of “Stormy,” a wolverine first documented in the NE Oregon forest for the better part of a decade. According to the post from the forest’s Facebook page, Stormy is “recognizable from his unique gular patch, a lighter-colored patch of fur on the throat and chest.”

Working in rural communities on the Oregon coast, I spend a lot of time with folks who, like myself, are impacted by the logging industry in many ways. Everyone I work with suffers the negative impacts of logging: Polluted water and reduced streamflows, landslides dumping mud into rivers and smothering fish eggs, and the mass poisoning of native flora and fauna from the sky. These rural communities are left with crumbling roads and schools as the industry has decreased their own taxes and automated as much of their operation as they could. 

Disappointed and disheartened. Those are the first words that come to mind when I think of the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s decision last Friday to accept ODFW’s indefensible Wolf Plan, affirming what we’ve known for a while: overwhelming public opinion and sound science take a backseat to special interest influence. Unfortunately, it’s Oregon wolves who will pay the ultimate price for this weak management Plan. 

In the fall of 2011, a radio-collared Oregon wolf with the designation OR-7 from the Imnaha Pack in northeast Oregon made history. After an epic journey across the state, the two-year-old male became the first confirmed wolf west of the Cascades since the last wolf bounty had been collected in 1947.

When we launched the Oregon Brewshed Alliance back in 2015, we were in a pre-Trump world. Sure, we still were staring the climate crisis in the face, but the progressive vibes of the Obama Presidency wrapped us all in a warm blanket of hope - hope that the folks at the top were doing their best to make the world better in all ways. That cozy era allowed those of us privileged enough to feel comfortable in our day-to-day a free pass to complacency.

We’ve won a partial victory in our efforts to stop Jordan Cove Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Export Facility from endangering communities and trashing our rivers, forests, and climate.

The release of ODFW’s annual wolf report is a big deal. As the keepers of the numbers – and keenly interested in public perception – the agency is always sure to give reporters a heads up and ensure their narrative becomes the narrative.

Regardless of the numbers, ODFW tends to paint the rosiest picture they can and are always sure to thank the livestock industry.

Oregon's forests could use a friend right now.

Clearcutting of both private and state forests is at an all-time high. Our drinking water is being polluted. Precious wildlife habitat is being lost. And communities in Oregon’s Coast Range, surrounded on all sides by miles of clearcuts, aren’t being heard by their lawmakers.

Hi there! My name is Rachel Rothman, and I am the Community Outreach and Conservation Advocate intern at the Oregon Wild office in Eugene this winter.

My work here the past three months has centered around environmental policy- forest protection, the wolf plan, aerial spraying, and other conservation issues. But outside of the work I do in the office, the other half of my position has been trying to rally college students to understand and advocate around these causes. What I found? That this is pretty difficult.