One group of sandhill cranes skips the long migration to California and spends winter at Sauvie Island, near Portland. In summer, they head only to British Columbia, while other populations venture farther north to Alaska. This information was gleaned by researcher Gary Ivey after he put satellite trackers on the legs of cranes in Oregon and again in Alaska.

We tag along with shepherdess Briana Murphy as she wields her herd of brush-eating goats from the sublime vineyards of the Willamette Valley to the industrial wastelands of NE Portland.

Tim Palmer has written 22 guidebooks to nature, rivers, and wild places. We joined him for some paddling to get his thoughts on the river life and why Oregon has access to some of the best rivers in the west.

Sage grouse, a desert bird that depends on sagebrush, has been in decline. The US government may add it to the endangered species list. Ranchers fear the grouse could become their spotted owl, restricting use of western lands. A number of groups are adopting conservation measures in hopes it will be enough to stop the listing as endangered.

An expedition into the crater of Mount Saint Helens in search of a glacier cave system that has never before been entered.

An Oregon photographer who was just 8-years-old when the Wilderness Act passed celebrates 50 years of protecting public lands in a most personal way. Peter Marbach not only seeks out wilderness for his nature photography but he says it was vital to his own healing from emergency heart surgery. His favorite spot is an alpine meadow off tail and high above timberline on Mount Hood.

In the early 2000s we visited Portland's Reed College campus to look at what was then the beginning of an effort to bring salmon back to an urban stream. We returned this past summer to see how things have turned out. We find an urban creek that's now home to river otters, brook lamprey, steelhead and salmon.

The March 27, 1964 "Good Friday" earthquake rocked Southcentral Alaska with 5 minutes of shaking. The magnitude 9.2 earthquake left communities in ruins and triggered a tsunami that traveled south at over 500 mph towards Oregon. When the tsunami struck Oregon and California hours later, it destroyed homes, flooded communities and killed 11 people. It remains the largest tsunami in U.S history.

The Reach and Treat Team trains every month to take professional paramedic skills into the wild. AMR provides advanced life support in the wilderness when medics join in rescues in the snow, dangling from ropes and in rushing rivers. 

Kayakers say that the only way to see the depths of the Salmon River Gorge is to learn how to kayak over 50-80 foot waterfalls. So how did the Field Guide crew get it all on video? We share the behind-the-scenes story of bushwhacking, rappelling, waiting and chasing as we struggle to capture a rare adventure beyond the trails end.

Mt Hood, Oregon has the distinction of being the only place in North America that can offer skiers the opportunity to train year-round. One camp - Mt Hood Summer Ski Camps - has been training tomorrow's stars of snow sports since the 1970s. We check in with the latest group of up-and-coming "campers" as they hone their skills on the summer slopes.

The Salmon River gorge near Mount Hood thunders with the sound of waterfalls ranging from 10 feet to over 80 feet high. But they are impossible to visit by foot. We join a group of daring kayakers who embrace the thrill of kayaking over waterfalls in order to visit a spectacular canyon that can't be seen any other way.

Student biologists learn the how-to's of  wildlife research by studying the life and death of lizards in Oregon's Alvord desert. For 15 years Dr. Roger Anderson has been leading students on a three-week immersion into lizard ecology and behavior. Students cope with the primitive conditions of life in a desert encampment while enduring the blazing sun and harsh desert conditions.

Nature photographer Chris Carvalho used to collect butterflies. Now he just collects images of them. Going on a hike with him often doesn't end up covering much ground as butterflies easily distract him. His macro photography reveals a world of colorful wings and complex camouflage.

26-miles of clear lakes, dramatic waterfalls and majestic old-growth forests earn this Oregon river corridor the nickname “America’s #1 Trail.” We check in with the hikers and bikers, as well as forest managers and a geologist to explore all things Trail.

In 1993, former Eastern Oregon University agronomist Andy Huber began acquiring land in the Grande Ronde Valley to create a non-profit native plant reserve. Along with restoring the land and propagating native seeds, Andy’s site is also the only US site where Mountain Lady’s Slipper orchids are grown from seed. We visit along with the Oregon Orchid Society to see three native orchids in bloom.

Centuries before we had fish biologists and resource management, the Native Americans along the Rogue River had the Stone Chair and a ceremony to honor the first salmon. Tribes have rediscovered the Stone Chair and have renewed the First Salmon Ceremony with a new purpose.

A dose of science sneaks into a fun field trip. While students learn to build an igloo at Mount Hood they also get a lesson in water, snow and hydrology. Educational Recreational Adventures takes students whose family roots trace to Africa and the Middle East to Snow School.

A world of odd shapes, textures and colors reveals itself every year as the rains set in. Mushrooms sprout their fruit. Mycologist Nancy Weber has found more than 300 types of fungi in her forested backyard. In southern Oregon, Robert Coffan, Darlene Southworth and Johnathan Frank discovered the only mushroom in the world that grows entirely underwater, in the waters of the Rogue River.

Two Oregon scientists discover two new species of ice crawlers, an extremophile that lives in and under snow fields. Researchers from OSU have found them living in the Cascades near Belknap Crater and near Corvallis up high on Marys Peak. The caramel colored insects look a bit like earwigs and thrive in a very limited temperature range right around the freezing point.