Oregon Field Guide

Series / 35 Seasons

Oregon Field Guide is your destination for outdoor recreation, ecology, natural resource and travel stories from across Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.

26m 14s

Reflections of Summer: Car Camping!

8m 14s / TV-G

Yurt, tent or trailer? Join host Steve Amen and his family on a camping adventure where they try out each different accommodation for a few nights in an effort to find the ultimate, luxurious-yet-affordable camping experience. This story originally aired in 2001.

Portland Rose Garden's summer blooms are the result of year-round work

8m 46s / TV-G

Harry Landers worked for and curated Portland's famous International Rose Test Garden from 1989 to 2017. In that time, he increased the garden by more than 7,000 rose plants. His army of volunteers tend the 650 varieties across 4.5 acres of blooms. Portland Parks & Recreation gets hundreds of new roses free every year from rose companies in exchange for providing research and evaluation.

Japan's Earthquake: Lessons for Oregon

10m 37s / TV-G

Oregon Field Guide traveled to Japan nearly four years after a devastating Magnitude 9 earthquake triggered a tsunami that destroyed entire towns, killed over 15,500 people and left more than 2,500 missing. Oregon faces the threat of an earthquake every bit as large as the one that struck Japan. Are there lessons we can learn from Japan's experience?

Steens Aspen

5m 32s / TV-G

Hardwoods are rare on Oregon's east side but that's not the only thing that makes aspen unusual. The trees sprout from rhizomes in large "clones" or shared root systems that can live up to 1000 years, though the trees themselves rarely live beyond a century. Aspen stands are eco-hotspots, creating their own food webs and providing habitat for everything from birds to bears.

Ross Island

8m 36s / TV-G

Portlanders have only limited access to one of the city’s newest parks. Ross Island, a gravel mining area, now doubles as a natural wildlife natural area. If ideas from the early 1900s had come to pass, Ross Island might have had manicured croquet courts, a ball field, livestock pavilion, yacht harbor or football stadium. We examine the history and future of the island in the center of the city.

Giant Waves

9m 13s / TV-G

Coos Bay, Oregon is one of the most spectacular wave-watching spots anywhere. The locals have always known it but few others do. Created when the right swells meet the right tides and weather conditions, these spectacular waves smash against the cliffs at Shore Acres State Park with such force that sprays shoot up several hundred feet.

Lake Abert Dries Up

15m 59s / TV-G

Oregon's third largest lake, Lake Abert dried up in 2014 for the first time since the 1930s. 3 million migrating shorebirds depend on it for food. Drought has hit that region of the state but some people wonder whether human use of Abert's only water source made things worse. Under Oregon law, Lake Abert has no legal right to any water at all.

Airstream Camping

8m 48s / TV-G

A certain breed of campers are addicted to one particular brand of trailers: Airstreams. They’re not just pulling homes with them. Many of them have some amazing history at their backs. Baker City native Wally Byam founded Airstream and started the tradition of shipping trailers across the ocean and leading caravans of Airstreams over other continents, all in an era before highways.

Oregon Chub Recovery

8m 58s / TV-G

Historically, the Oregon chub was found throughout the Willamette Valley river system, but more than a century of re-channeling the river and drying up wetlands for agriculture and residence changed all that. By the 1980s, the once ubiquitous minnow was extremely hard to find. That led to its listing as an Endangered Species. Today, the Oregon chub is the first fish to be "delisted."

Hyla Woods

9m 34s / TV-G

A family-run timber company in Oregon's coast range defines profit differently. At Hyla Woods, cutting trees must profit the health of the forest more than the owners' bank account. Peter & Pam Hayes are 5th generation loggers whose philosophy embraces the public trust, not just personal wealth.

Canoe Journey

8m 57s / TV-G

First began in 1993, this canoe trip is now a yearly event when tribes of the Pacific Northwest, come together to paddle, perform and share traditional songs, dance and celebrate life with feasting, gifting and praying.

Railriders

6m 38s / TV-G

Hop aboard your own pedal-powered railcar for a spectacular 12-mile round-trip on the old Joseph Branch rail line between Joseph and Enterprise, Oregon. Part bike, part old-fashioned railcar, a trip on a railrider is a one of a kind experience in Oregon.

Rockfish

10m 22s / TV-G

Oregon's Marine Reserves are now a few years old. Fishing is banned in them. Scientists are using SMURFS, drifters, satellites and controlled fishing to determine if they have an impact. The ambitious plans to save entire ecosystems in the ocean may take many years to have an effect.

Humongous Fungus

7m 26s / TV-G

The humongous fungus ranks as the single largest living organism in the world and it lives underground in eastern Oregon. This honey mushroom covers more than 3 square miles in the Malheur National Forest.

Gorge Logging History

9m 45s / TV-G

Despite its sheer cliffs, the Columbia River Gorge was home to a spider web of short railroads a century ago. They hauled out trees. Today, Don Nelsen, a passionate walking history-book-of-an-explorer bushwhacks off trail and finds hunks of that railroad history still lying in the forest on both the Oregon & Washington sides of the gorge.

Forest Seed Orchard

7m 55s / TV-G

We enjoy them for the beauty, recreation, and wilderness. But many of our forests begin life in seed orchards. The seeds grown in Bureau of Land Management seed orchards furnish timber companies, restoration projects, and landscapers across the world with stronger, faster growing trees as well as sustainable income for the state.

Shed Antler Hunting

5m 46s

In central Oregon there's an increasingly popular form of hunting that never kills animals. Kids and parents comb the ground in late winter searching for fallen antlers that deer naturally shed. Oregon Shed Hunters encourage responsible shed hunting in the hopes that the state leaves the sport unregulated.

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