Locus Focus

Before the Hanford Nuclear Reservation was created, since time immemorial

this extraordinary bend in the Columbia River was a vital and sacred place to

the Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes

of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Nez Pe...

For years Portland has been renowned for its vast urban canopy but in recent

years that canopy is shrinking. As the climate crisis tightens its noose

around our communities, trees are one of the most important allies we have to

stave off the worst impacts from a heating pla...

In late August 2021, after months of grassroots pressure, Portland City

Council rejected Zenith Energy's Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) that

was required before the company could get a Clean Air permit from Oregon

Department of Environmental Quality. Despite Zenith...

Once Oregon and Portland were environmental leaders but recently many of the

city and state's noteworthy projects and policies find themselves on a

potential chopping block. On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Bob

Sallinger, Urban Conservation director with Willamet...

At the end of this month the World Forestry Center is sponsoring a conference

called “Who Will Own the Forests.” For forest conservationists that’s a

good question. On this episode of Locus Focus, we talk with Alex Budd,

Alliance organizer for the Pacific NW Forest Climate ...

Without the Salmon there would be no Pacific Northwest as we know it. Yet

since 1991, most of the salmon runs in the Northwest have been listed as

threatened or endangered. In 2005, I produced a documentary called

Salmonlands, that takes us on a journey into the land of sal...

This program originally aired on July 17, 2023

Last June Multnomah County filed suit against several of the largest fossil

fuel and coal-producing corporations to hold them accountable for damages

from the 2021 Pacific Northwest Heat Dome, one of the deadliest and most

...

This program originally aired on July 10. 2023

On June 28, 2021, Portland State Geography Professor Vivek Shandas drove

around Portland on this hottest day ever recorded in the city, measuring the

temperatures of the pavement in various neighborhoods around town. And wha...

This Program Originally Aired on June 26, 2023

Throughout history, mankind has dammed rivers at the cost of wild fish,

Indigenous peoples, forested land, and healthy watersheds. Adding to the

havoc of today’s climate-change-induced weather extremes and water

shortages, ...

This program originally aired on June 16, 2023

In recent years it’s becoming more and more obvious that youth are the real

leaders of the climate movement. And for good reason, because they are the

ones that are going to live with the climate mess that previous generatio...