Discovery on Mount St. Helens
An expedition into the crater of Mount Saint Helens in search of a glacier cave system that has never before been entered.
Wilderness Healing
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.
Crystal Springs Restoration
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.
Tsunami Anniversary
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.
Wilderness Medics
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.
Reflections of Summer: Behind the Scenes: Waterfall Kayaking
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.
Summer Ski Camp
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.
Waterfall Kayaking
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.
Lizard Field School
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.
Butterfly Watching
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.
McKenzie River Trail
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.
Grande Ronde Wildflowers
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.
First Salmon Ceremony
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.
Snow School
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.
Mushrooms
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.
Ice Crawlers
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.
Disappearing Lake
South Prairie is a mysterious lake in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest that appears each spring and disappears each summer. We set out with a Forest Service botonist to paddle and hike this geologic wonder, trying to learn what's behind this phenomenon. The prairie is home to the world's largest-known population of a rare iris and some of the farthest west aspen groves in Washington.
Apple Detectives
Apple detectives from the Home Orchard Society figure out what kinds of apples grow on trees. When they find an aging man near Yoncalla, Oregon with the largest collection of apple varieties in the world, they take on the massive task of trying to preserve a living cutting from every one of his 4,500 trees. http://opb.is/orchard
Trout Creek Raptors
Gorgeous and still relatively undiscovered, Trout Creek is a great spot for recreational rock climbing. But it’s also home to protected golden eagles. This piece tells the story of how recreational climbers and land managers are crafting a compromise meant to serve the interests of both parties. The solution and cooperation that’s resulted may well be template for similar conflict areas.
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