Fishers (Pekania pennanti) are medium sized mustelids endemic to North America. Two fisher populations persist in Oregon: an indigenous population in southwestern Oregon, and a reintroduced population in the southern Cascade Mountains. Despite candidacy for listing under the Endangered Species Act, current information on fisher populations in Oregon is scarce....
Background: Tidal wetlands are important habitats for salmon and a diversity of other fish and wildlife species. They also trap sediment, buffer coastal communities from flooding and erosion, and perform other valued ecosystem services. Tidal wetlands currently exist just at and above sea level, and healthy tidal wetlands are able...
This presentation summarizes the MidCoast Watersheds Council's project on the impacts of SLR on tidal wetlands in Oregon. Please see the project report for details (linked in Related Items below).
Snags provide critical habitat for nearly one-third of wildlife species in forests of the Pacific Northwest, so historic declines in snags are thought to have had a strong impact on biodiversity. Resource managers often create snags to mitigate the scarcity of snags within managed forests, but information regarding the function...
Two new studies revealed unknown long-distance dispersal and migration movements in sage grouse that offer fresh insights for conservation. Using DNA from feathers dropped at leks, scientists discovered that some grouse (about 1% of populations) travel long distances to explore breeding areas up to 120 miles away—movements that can potentially...
In recent years the Sage Grouse Initiative, led by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, has worked with many partners to accelerate the mechanical removal of invading conifer trees, primarily junipers, to restore sagebrush habitats in and around sage grouse strongholds across the West. Replicated studies from public and private...
Research evaluating effects of livestock grazing on greater sage-grouse nest survival suggests that a variety of locally-appropriate range management strategies support grouse populations. A new Montana study comparing effects of specialized grazing systems on ranches enrolled in the NRCS-led Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI) to ranches not enrolled in SGI grazing...
Most benthic marine organisms have a bipartite life with an early pelagic stage that enables dispersal of offspring, connecting spatially separated populations, and a late stage where individuals reside in a benthic habitat. Settlement of pelagic offspring to bottom associated substrates is the process that connects the two life history...
The marine environment is under increasing pressure from human activities worldwide, particularly in coastal waters, creating a need to better understand fine-scale distributions of highly mobile species that occur in the area, as they are frequently most threatened. Harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) occur frequently in Oregon’s nearshore habitat, but due...