Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is home to the largest breeding population of Bobolinks in Oregon, which also happens to be the largest westernmost breeding population in North America. Unfortunately, throughout most of their range, Bobolink populations are declining, due to habitat loss associated with development and land-use change.
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This spring, Bird Alliance of Oregon launched a brand-new, paid, nine-month youth leadership program in partnership with Hacienda Community Development Corporation. Through our new Green Leaders program, five young adults from Hacienda will act as educators and organizers, developing hyperlocal outdoor education in response to their neighbors’ pressing needs during the pandemic.
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We received six baby Barn Owls from a Good Samaritan who found them in some bales of hay that were transported from an unknown location in Madras, Oregon. Every year, we get young Barn Owls this way! Since we were unable to put them back with their family, we will raise them here at our Wildlife Care Center.
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Eighty percent of our terrestrial migrants in North America migrate at night which provides a number of benefits. Unfortunately, artificial light that is cast into the night sky accumulates to produce “sky glow”— the hazy dome of light over our cities and developed landscapes—which mars our view of the heavens and washes out the birds’ star map.
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The State of Oregon is embarking on an effort to update its estuary management plans in the coming months. The old plans also do not embrace habitat restoration as a tool and did not involve coastal Tribes or address legacy impacts to the estuary, including disturbance of cultural resources. Bird Alliance of Oregon will be engaging in this process, so stay tuned for public comment opportunities.
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Bird Alliance of Oregon’s Community Science program spans the state, from the iconic coast, to the high desert of eastern Oregon, as well as the Portland metro region. We engage members of the public to help us better understand the ecology of birds and other wildlife as well as the habitats they depend on—and have fun doing it!
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Our Wildlife Care Center’s received a female Northwestern Garter Snake who was found injured outside of an apartment complex. While the rescuer wanted to keep her as a pet, we were thankful they came to us first, because we were able to identify her as a native species, and help her return to the wild where she can thrive.
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My autism and my interest in the natural world are deeply linked, and they’re a central part of who I am. It was because of how this interest was fostered in me by Bird Alliance of Oregon that I was able to become the person I am today.
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In a disappointing but not unsurprising decision released on the final day of March, Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) selected a cleanup plan for the 27-acre Willamette Cove site. The plan would allow up to 27,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated above human health risk thresholds to remain onsite in an underground confined disposal area covering the equivalent of more than two football fields.
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