Nanci Bompey is public information manager for the American Geophysical Union. She is spending a week aboard the R/V Oceanus with scientists from Oregon State University who are studying the role that small rivers play in the productivity of the coastal ocean during the winter.
Nanci Bompey is the public information manager for the American Geophysical Union. She is spending a week aboard the R/V Oceanus with scientists from Oregon State University who are studying the role that small rivers play in the productivity of the coastal ocean during the winter.
A cougar, silent and unseen in the thick understory, is emitting a beacon from its tracking collar. “She’s close, about a hundred meters to the north,” says Beth Orning, a Ph.D. student at Oregon State University. Orning has evidence that cougar No. C216 is raising a litter in this hidden ravine.
Environmental philosopher Michael Nelson is lead principal investigator for the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest and a historian for the long-term research project Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale in Lake Superior.
Fire, grazing and logging have all caused problems when they occurred in the wrong place at the wrong time for too long and too intensely. But researchers and land managers are finding that, if used strategically, these disturbances can become tools to control weeds, prevent juniper invasion and limit the extent of wildfire.
Grazing helps to shape ecosystems, but the effects depend on management and the environment.