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Help prevent cormorant killing on the Oregon coast
This week the Oregon legislature is considering a resolution encouraging the Secretary of the Interior to allow Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to kill cormorants that eat salmon. Please send emails to the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee respectfully letting them know that you strongly oppose House Joint Memorial #2 which seeks to allow ODFW to kill native cormorants to protect salmon.
Help stop Senate Bill 246
Please help us stop Senate Bill 246, which would shift the costs of industrial site development – including clean-up of Superfund sites – and costs of environmental mitigation to the taxpayer in the form of forgivable loans. Industry should pay to mitigate for their impacts on the environment and polluters should pay to clean up the sites they contaminate. Please email the Oregon Ways and Means Committee today and tell them you’re opposed to shifting the costs of cleaning up industrial pollution to the taxpayer.
Audubon opposes killing of birds by U.S. Army Corps in the Columbia River Estuary
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proposing to kill gulls in the Columbia River Estuary to protect salmon, including hatchery fish. The Audubon Society of Portland strongly opposes these actions. The Corps is casting a widening web of death that already includes sea lions, while failing to address the primary man-made causes of salmon decline.
Why Audubon supports bill to ban feeding of raccoons
The Audubon Society of Portland is supporting a bill in the 2013 Oregon legislature that would add raccoons to the list of "potentially habituated animals" because we believe it will help reduce conflicts between humans and raccoons that result in the death of hundreds of raccoons across Oregon every year.
Action alert: Submit West Hayden Island comments and attend the hearing!
We need your help to save West Hayden Island! The Planning and Sustainability Commission is about to begin public hearings on West Hayden Island in order to forward a recommendation to City Council. Please join us May 7 at the hearing, 5-9 p.m. at 1900 SW 4th Ave., Portland. You can also help out by submitting comments via email to the Planning and Sustainability Commission.
Conservation groups express concerns about budget cuts to Mayor Hales
Portland-area conservation groups sent a letter to Mayor Hales to express their concerns about potential cuts to Grey to Green Programs and other natural resource programs in the fiscal year 2014 budget. Read the letter.
Action alert: West Hayden Island hearing
The Planning and Sustainability Commission is about to begin public hearings on West Hayden Island in order to forward a recommendation to City Council. Please save the date: 5-9 p.m., Tuesday, May 7. West Hayden Island is one of Portland's most important natural areas. Its 826 acres of bottomland hardwood forest, wetlands, meadows, floodplains and shallow water habitat near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers provide irreplaceable habitat for federally listed salmon and imperiled bird, bat and amphibian species.
Celebration of life for David Fouts held April 7
A celebration of life will be held for David Fouts on April 7, 2013 at 2 p.m. at the Sauvie Island Grange Hall, 14443 NW Charlton Road. Following the celebration, a work party will form and go to the area behind the Bybee-Howell House where David placed a pole for Purple Martin gourds. Sixteen gourds will be hung for the soon-to-return martins. Anyone interested in continuing the work that David did to provide habitat for the Purple Martins should talk with Judith Fouts at the celebration.
Action alert: Your voice is needed to protect food for seabirds!
The Pacific Fisheries Management Council, which sets catch levels on the west coast for important seabird prey like anchovy and sardine, recently released a draft of a long-awaited plan calling for practical steps to protect forage species that form the base of the ocean food web. The Council will vote on the plan at its April meeting, and Audubon California and the Audubon Society of Portland will be there to speak up. Please help let the Council know that a healthy ocean ecosystem is important to you - send a letter today.
Groups file petition to revoke Steens transmission line approval
Audubon Society of Portland and Oregon Natural Desert Association have petitioned Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to revoke the decision to allow industrial scale wind development on Steens Mountain. The crumbling financial and regulatory framework for a proposed industrial wind facility on Steens Mountain has spurred on conservationists to petition the Secretary to withdraw its approval of the project, which they contest is ill-sited and illegal. The December 2011 decision approved a plan allowing a developer, Columbia Energy Partners, LLC (CEP) to build a high-capacity transmission and dozens of wind turbines on the remote and iconic mountain, located in southeast Oregon.
Portland Audubon humanely euthanizes bald eagle found injured on I-84
The Audubon Society of Portland’s veterinarian has humanely euthanized a bald eagle that was admitted to Audubon’s Wildlife Care Center yesterday. The male eagle had been hit by a car on Interstate 84 near Rocky Butte, and sustained injuries that caused paralysis in the bird’s lower body.
Fremont Peregrine spotted in Seattle
A Fremont Bridge Peregrine has shown up in Seattle! This female Peregrine Falcon hatched on Fremont last year and was banded by Portland Audubon conservation director Bob Sallinger as a nestling; last week, she was observed in Seattle, where Ed Deal got this photo of the bird having a snack.
Portland Audubon and Humane Society of the United States announce trapping reform legislation
Today at the State Capital, the Audubon Society of Portland and the Humane Society of the United States will announce legislation to reform Oregon's barbaric trapping regulations, considered to be among the worst trapping regulations in the United States. Senate Bill 494 would eliminate the use of body-gripping traps such as leg hold traps and neck snares for commercial and recreational purposes, and would require these traps to be checked every 24 hours when used for other purposes.
Portland hosts Pacific Seabird Group's annual conference, Feb. 20-24
Staff from the Audubon Society of Portland will be presenting about Marbled Murrelets at the 2013 Pacific Seabird Group conference, which will be held in Portland Feb. 20-24.
Celebration of Life for Ron Spencer to be held Saturday, Feb. 23
A Celebration of Life ceremony will be held for Ronald Leyden Spencer on Saturday, Feb. 23.
Wildlife Care Center holds open house Jan. 27
From baby owls to bobcats, the Audubon Society of Portland’s Wildlife Care Center takes in more than 3,000 orphaned or injured native animals each year and works to rehabilitate them for release in the wild. The public can get an eye-opening look at this process during the care center’s free open house, Sunday, Jan. 27.
Christmas Bird Count Wrap-up
The Portland Christmas Bird Count was conducted Saturday, Jan. 5, under cloudy, chilly skies. Nevertheless, a new record 230 field counters found a new record 129 species.
Court Halts Clearcutting in Murrelet Habitat
A federal court judge has halted 11 timber sales and all logging activities in occupied marbled murrelet sites in the Tillamook, Clatsop and Elliott state forests. The ruling stops logging in murrelet habitat until the resolution of a case filed by Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity and Portland Audubon Society asserting that the state's logging practices are harming the federally protected seabird in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Learn about Oregon's coast at November ocean events
This November, Oregonians can learn about research at the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve and the future of the state's coast at two ocean-themed events.
Mayoral and City Council candidates weigh in on environmental issues
Find out where Portland Mayoral and City Council candidates stand on issues related to the health of our rivers.
