Month: May 2020

Missed George’s talk? You can watch it here. In the midst of the huge drag that is Covid-19, join Coalition for the Deschutes and the Juniper Group of Sierra Club and escape for a while with explorer George Kourounis. What: Hold on tight as explorer George Kourounis shares his 20+ years of tracking down and documenting the most fearsome natural forces on planet Earth. Chasing tornadoes in Oklahoma, hunkering down in the eyes of hurricanes like Katrina & Sandy, descending deep into menacingly active volcanoes…George is the guy who runs into places that most sane people run away from, all to showcase the beauty and power of Mother Nature. George will be sharing stories, images, and videos from his most extreme expeditions in more than 75 countries spanning all seven continents. Curious about George Kourounis George Kourounis is Explorer In Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and has hosted 50 episodes of the globally-broadcast TV series “Angry … Read more

“Who hears the fishes when they cry?” Those haunting words were penned by Henry David Thoreau almost 200 years ago, a reaction to the declining salmon runs he witnessed on the East Coast. Today those fish, now long lost, have been referred to as “ghost fish.” We do not intuitively know what used to be. We suffer from ecological amnesia, accepting what we see today as normal. A hundred years after the Deschutes River was dammed and diverted in order to irrigate arid lands, how do we know what we’ve lost? Thoreau’s piercing question echoes through time. Seven years ago, the reality of my own front-yard river hit home for me. The Deschutes, our beautiful river, once teemed with fish and other wildlife. In short order last century, it was transformed from a free-flowing river to a highly managed system. Add to that mix the impact of logging, farming, housing … Read more

This article was published in the River Management Society’s 2020 Spring edition of their print and online journal. From Otters to Anglers to Itinerant Farm Workers: Looking for What Brings Us Together Why would the words of a war zone journalist be relevant to river advocates? Photographer and journalist Ami Vitale offers these insights: If we choose to look for what divides us, we will find it. If we choose to look for what brings us together, we will find that too. Water in the west is filled with conflict among stakeholder groups who often feel misunderstood and sometimes maligned by each other. There are winners and losers, but too often, rivers and all the life that depends on them are on the losing side. This had been true for the Deschutes River in Central Oregon, but positive change was finally underway. Then tensions came to a head in November 2017, … Read more