A flurry of federal environmental protections took place in the waning days of the Obama administration. In addition to the much-publicized expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, 100,000 acres of headwaters of the Smith River and other streams were withdrawn from possible mining by an action of the Interior Department. It is not a permanent block, though it would likely be a long time before mining interests were able to work their claims. The Kalmiopsis Audubon Society is one of

Talk of revolution breaks over the American consciousness in waves every so often, maybe more often just before and after elections. Yes! Magazine co-founder Sarah Van Gelder, who practices "solutions journalism," took a cross-country trip to find people who are already changing the country and the way it does business, one local effort at a time. The result is Van Gelder's book The Revolution Where You Live , detailing her odyssey from the Northwest to the East Coast and back. From downtrodden

A friend collapses, complaining of chest pain. You reach for the phone, call 911, and activate an app that finds people nearby who know CPR. This is not science fiction, it is an existing app called Pulsepoint . Emergency medical crews in Jackson County are embracing Pulsepoint as a way to get medical help to heart attack patients faster. The program launches in Jackson County February 1st.

It's becoming a regular part of the Dungeness crab season on the West Coast: waiting for domoic acid levels to drop into safe ranges. When they're up, the crab fishery is closed to protect human health. It's open now, after a delay. Oregon State researcher Morgaine McKibben looked into the ocean conditions that appear to contribute to the rise in domoic acid, which is a neurotoxin. The work McKibben and five other researchers produced is published in a scientific journal .

We all lose someone to death sometime. That knowledge does not really help with the grief, though. Words of comfort can... the kind that Ashland's Susanne Severeid offers in her book When Someone You Love is Dying . Her own experience with her husband's death inspired Severeid to provide the book of prose and nature photographs.

Not long after Donald Trump walks into the White House, plenty of other Americans will be walking. The Women's March on Washington will draw thousands of women to the capital to show resistance to the Trump administration. Many smaller marches are planned for communities across the country, including a march set for Ashland on Saturday. What drives the desire to march? We have two people to ask: Sharon Dohrmann, a co-organizer, and Teresa Cisneros, a featured speaker.

The Oregon Environmental Council is a non-partisan non-profit focused on the environmental health of living things in Oregon. That's rather like the mission of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. But OEC is concerned with President-Elect Trump's choice to head the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. Pruitt is a climate change denier who has taken the EPA to court on several occasions. OEC's Deputy Director, Chris Hagerbaumer, has many stories to tell about environmental

The news from Washington was expected, but it came with a surprise. President Obama did indeed decide to expand the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Jackson, Klamath, and Siskiyou Counties. But the expansion, 47,000 acres or so, did not double the footprint of the existing monument. Just the same, pro-monument groups hailed the decision and anti-expansion groups criticized it.

The child foster care system can't seem to stay out of the news for long. The very concept of foster care comes with some issues: removing children from their homes and putting them in the care of strangers. Tweaks and overhauls come about from time to time, but some issues remain. The court appointed special advocate--CASA--system is designed to keep another set of eyes on kids in foster care, and the voluntary system is always looking for new volunteers. CASA of Siskiyou County is one of many

Longtime listeners of Jefferson Public Radio will remember the name of Diana Coogle . She provided commentary for years on an afternoon news magazine program JPR once ran. Her capacity for observing and remarking on the world around her remains undiminished. In fact, she recently finished a new work, a book called Wisdom of the Heart , combining her prose with the painting of fellow Applegate resident Barbara Kostal.