CHILOQUIN — Imagine, instead of an ice cream truck, a reading truck. It could drive through rural Chiloquin, Fort Klamath and Sprague River, showing families how to teach young children about early literacy, and giving out goodies along the way. Or, businesses could offer little prizes to children for reading and spelling the names of … Read more
For years, foresters and conservationists have been trying to create new markets for western juniper in Oregon. The species has overrun some parts of the state, and is sucking scarce water from Oregon’s high desert. A handful of custom sawmills that are willing to work with the small knotty tree have experimented with juniper fence … Read more
SWEET HOME, Ore. — The great forest just east of town beckoned to Dan Rice when he was a young man, as it had to his father and grandfather before him, both proud loggers in a time that now survives mostly in black-and-white photos and in the talk of old men. He and his brothers … Read more
Sustainable Northwest has secured a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to research the structural characteristics of Western Juniper, which grows across wide swaths of Eastern Oregon. The grant for $64,990, from the U.S.D.A. Rural Development’s Rural Business Enteprise grant program, will help certify the value of Western Juniper for commercial uses…
The same railroad embankment that failed to stop the disastrous Vanport Flood of 1948 remains a weak link in Portland’s levee system designed to prevent floods. A new engineering assessment of the Columbia River levee system found four problem areas that don’t meet stiffer federal flood-protection standards enacted after Hurricane Katrina. The biggest one is … Read more
For entrepreneurs in the south Willamette Valley an organization, cleverly called RAIN, is aiming a spotlight on the resources available in communities south of Portland and gathering momentum for its own funding vehicle. The Oregon Regional Accelerator & Innovation Network ( RAIN) formally started in May and since then the board and its executive director … Read more
Portable classrooms, the bane of students and teachers everywhere, are getting a green makeover courtesy Portland State University. Margarette Leite, a PSU professor of architecture, initiated a project to reimagine the temporary classrooms as healthy, clean places for their inhabitants…
As students file back into school this fall, some will be studying in green modular classrooms designed at Portland State University. The first batch of the innovative portable classrooms are being deployed at five schools in the Edmonds School District in Washington and the Corvallis Waldorf School…
Bureau Plans to Develop 25-Acre Site for Off-Road Biking (Portland, OR) – An island of unused land at the confluence of two freeways takes another step towards becoming a new city park in east Portland, and a regional off-road biking destination. Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) has acquired the 25-acre Gateway Green property, with plans, … Read more
Eight companies were in the inaugural class of the Eugene RAIN business accelerator that launched Monday. The accelerator is an intensive 12-week mentorship and business development program. The program is part of a broader state-backed economic development initiative called RAIN, which stands for Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network…