Recreation

Friends of the Columbia River Gorge kicks off the 2010 hiking season next week with a visit to the Lyle Cherry Orchard on March 13th. And in keeping with the spirit of eco-friendly recreation, you won’t need your own car to get there. Friends is organizing carpools that depart from Portland. “Our hikes educate the...
Read more »

It wasn’t all that long ago that the Oregon State Parks system was on the brink of collapse. After years of budget cuts, park maintenance had fallen so far behind that more than five dozen state parks were in danger of shutting down. But a group of Oregonians came to the rescue, and in 1998 voters...
Read more »

Oregon’s Senators are introducing a bill that would protect another 16,000 acres of wilderness in Oregon. Called the “Cathedral Rock and Horse Heaven Wilderness Act of 2010″, the bill arranges a land swap between private landowners and the Bureau of Land Management. The result is two large continuous tracts of land that can be preserved...
Read more »

Cruise the Willamette downstream from central Portland and you’ll soon realize this is not the wild river our city founders knew.  Shipping terminals, cargo vessels, scrapyards, oil tanks, warehouses and gazillions of imported cars line the riverbank. This area, as city officials like to describe it, is a working river. An important area for...
Read more »

The Oregon State Marine Board makes it official. Gas powered boat motors will be banned from Waldo Lake. The new rule was approved today at the board’s meeting in Portland. The rule bans all gas powered motors and floatplanes from the lake, except for emergencies. Electric motors are still okay to use. News about the vote...
Read more »

OFFSHORE ENERGY The House Committee on Environment and Water takes up HB 3613, which calls for a permanent ban on oil and gas exploration in Oregon’s coastal waters. This is a public hearing. Past bans were temporary and the most recent one expired early this year. It starts at 8am, Hearing Room D, at the State...
Read more »

A decades long effort to ban gas powered boat motors from Waldo Lake will most likely be settled next week. The Oregon State Marine Board has put the issue on the agenda for its next meeting, January 14 in Portland. If it passes, the rule would ban all gas powered boat motors and floatplanes from...
Read more »

Just in time for Christmas, a gift from the Forest Service to hikers. On Friday, the Forest Service gave its blessing to the Cape Horn Trail, an eight-mile loop in Skamania County with some of the most stunning views of the Columbia River Gorge. Considered one of the Gorge’s “best kept secrets”, the Forest Service decision...
Read more »

A coalition of Oregon and Western environmental groups is suing to block the construction of a new road for OHVs in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Called the Riley Ranch Access Project, this new route would allow off road vehicles into an area of the dunes where they’ve never been allowed before. “The Oregon...
Read more »

If Measures 66 and 67 fail in next month’s special election, it could mean major reductions in how much money the state spends on monitoring pollution, protecting and restoring streams, maintaining state parks, and fighting wildfires. These two measures raise about $733 million for state government by increasing incomes taxes on high earning Oregonians, and...
Read more »