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.

28m 59s

Fish Trap

10m 41s

Wild salmon in the Columbia River are struggling to survive. Meanwhile, hatchery salmon produced for fishermen to catch are swimming right alongside them. What’s the best way to catch those hatchery fish while protecting as many wild salmon as possible. One fisherman says he has the answer.

Smith Rock State Park Video Postcard

4m 26s

Climbers, ultra runners, and hikers revel in the first weekend after Smith Rock State Park reopens, some finding that weeks of being cooped up from COVID's quarantine has made scaling sheer walls of rock even more relevant as a way to face down fear.

Coronavirus and Wildfire

7m 31s

The coronavirus pandemic changed a lot of things in Oregon, but not the chance of a catastrophic wildfire. That means these firefighters can’t just stay home to avoid COVID-19. We came down to Southern Oregon to find out how you defend against a wildfire and a pandemic at the same time.

Crater Lake Bull Trout

5m 54s

After more than a century, an isolated population of endangered bull trout in Crater Lake National Park is finally reconnected to the rest of their original range. To do that, scientists and conservationists re-created a stream that had been redirected for irrigation more than a century ago.

Miller Lake Lamprey

8m 18s

In the late 1950s, the state unintentionally eradicated a unique lamprey species. Or so they thought. After the rediscovery of the fish in the 1990s, a decades-long rehabilitation effort is underway – led by a loose collection of biologists, retirees and students.

Pika Come Back

6m 29s

In 2016, we introduced you to an isolated population of American pika living in the Columbia River Gorge. When the Eagle Creek Fire swept through in 2017, about half of those pika colonies seem to have been wiped out. Three years on, the impossibly cute critters seem to be making a comeback… or are they?

Mount St. Helens Climb

13m 23s

Every Mother's Day, hundreds of folks climb Mt. St Helens--in dresses. It is a beloved colorful annual tradition, but few know about the inspiring woman who started it, and blazed a trail for other women in the mountains.

Elk Make Mount St. Helens Home

10m 51s

It’s been more than 3 decades now since Mount St. Helens erupted. One of the first animals to return to that landscape were elk. But they didn’t find much food. And since they can roam for miles, they left for better territory. We last reported on the vvolcano’s elk herds more than 20 years ago. Since then, life has returned to the volcano and so have the elk – in huge numbers.

Philomath Frolic

8m 12s

Philomath, Oregon was one of many towns that faced hard times as jobs left and mills closed. But today, the Philomath Frolic is an event that brings joy to people, and gives the community a place to connect and hold onto all that makes small town life great.

Backpacking the Coast Range

10m 53s

Oregon Field Guide likes to capture a bit of everything--science, wildlife, adventure, rural life-- but it’s not every day that we get to tag along on someone’s vacation. That’s what happened when producer Danika Sandoz met two women joined them for their Portland to Coast bikepacking adventure.

An Epic Model Railroad Recreates the Columbia River Gorge

6m 56s

Ever wonder what it would be like to be a giant towering over the Northwest landscape? You can find out at the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club, where even children loom like Godzilla over all the iconic sites of the Gorge, from Union Station to Multnomah Falls to the Crooked River High Bridge.

Strange creatures are showing up by the millions along the Oregon coast

4m 15s

Sometime after 2014 — no one can say exactly when — scientists started getting reports of a mysterious sea creature showing up on Oregon beaches. And not just a few either — these things were showing up by the millions, and they were unlike anything scientists had ever seen here before. They are pyrosomes, or “sea pickles” as they are sometimes called.

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