The old building on a small highway that houses the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) is as industrial as it is utilitarian. But go around back. Read moreAncient village site is reborn again

“We were thrown to the four winds.” Read moreHow indigenous nations are rebuilding food systems

The hulking 20,000-square-foot building, sandwiched between a rough road and dark evergreen trees, is unremarkable save for a heap of cedar, pine and fir logs stacked in the muddy parking lot — half for all tribal members, half reserved for elders. Read moreWhen food is much more than a commodity

Imagine going to the sink to fill your coffee pot. Maybe you stare out the window while the pot fills, looking out over the landscape or just thinking morning thoughts. Read moreEssay: Eastern Oregon water pollution is a story of divides

Rural doctors in southern Oregon are scarce. Clinics struggle to maintain adequate staffing, and mental health programs are closing. In a county where 45% of the population lives in financial hardship, the Coquille tribe is providing a vital option to the dire health conditions many endure. Read moreTribe changes the face of Coos Bay medicine

PENDLETON — Snow plow drivers in Eastern Oregon prepare to work around the clock to keep the roads clear and safe from ice and snow. Read moreSnow road warriors clear the way

The Coquille Tribe and Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife have signed a landmark Memorandum of Agreement to co-manage Southern Oregon’s fish and wildlife. Read moreSaving the Coquille River salmon

Rick Blaine and his wife have been farming in Hood River  for almost 50 years. Read moreHow Climate Change, Urban Development are Squeezing Out Family Farmers

DEPOE BAY — Ralph Hooper sets out his lawn chairs in front of his RV. His dog, Toby, watches him from inside his 27-foot long motorhome. Hooper has been living in RVs for the last 14 years and has no plans of returning to live in a brick-and-mortar home. Read moreRV parks adding long-term slots for short-term housing

In a remote desert near the Oregon-Nevada border lies a caldera carrying the largest known lithium deposit in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world — a treasury of naturally-occurring material some see as the future of green energy and others say is better left alone. Read moreProposed lithium mine near Oregon-Nevada border stirs conflict

I moved home to Cove a lucky 13 years ago — something no one expected I would do. Read moreSetting the table for newcomers and returnees

On Feb. 25, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced that a hundred-mile stretch along southern Oregon’s coast from Coos Bay to Brookings is now a designated a ‘"call area" for deep water, floating offshore wind turbines. Read moreSouthern Oregon will soon have deep water offshore wind energy

New funding opportunities from the federal government are adding urgency to an old concern — that rural Oregon continues to leave dollars on the table through unclaimed federal grant program funding allocated to our state. It’s a historical pattern that has become even more pronounced and in… Read moreInvesting in equitable pathways to federal funding for rural communities

A rising star in the livestock industry, Alec Oliver was named 2021 Agriculturist of the Year by Oregon Aglink, a nonprofit group dedicated to agricultural education and promotion. Read moreBack in the saddle

An electrical fire destroyed most of the original Historic Butte Creek Mill in Eagle Point on Christmas Day 2015, but this fall, after extensive renovations and construction, volunteers are grinding wheat flour in the mill. Read moreHistoric southern Oregon grist mill brought back to life

If most arguments over money aren’t really about money, the lawsuit brought by several "timber" counties against the State of Oregon over forestry revenues is no exception. Read moreA battle over more than timber

Pressure was building: Laborers were hard to come by, the cost of doing business was catapulting and each year brought new regulations — yet the price Oregon growers got paid for cherries remained relatively stagnant, so profit margins were tight. Read moreBetter together

As in many large American cities, the homeless — advocates prefer to call them “houseless” — provide a jarring counterpoint to a Portland that otherwise sees itself as a self-assured center of wealth, health and progressive politics. Read moreHousing and homelessness are issues in rural Oregon, too

Nestled in the tiny Southern Oregon coastal town of Port Orford is the home base of Oregon Kelp Alliance (ORKA), self-described bull kelp defenders. This non-profit consortium of scientists, fishing enterprises, ecotour operators, regional organizations, and divers are attempting to reverse … Read moreBull kelp defenders along the Oregon Coast

Small town journalism may be a calling but it’s a business, too, and newspapers live with the same economic forces that often dog enterprise in rural Oregon. Read moreSaving Oregon's rural newspapers

When Aspen Springs Psychiatric Hospital opened in Hermiston last fall, it was hailed as a sorely-needed addition to the state’s meager supply of mental health treatment beds. Read moreAspen Springs highlights mental health crisis in Eastern Oregon

Madison Morgan’s pickup truck was busted up, but at least she got some fresh venison out of the deal. Read moreReframing roadkill: Avoiding waste

BANDON ─ Since its inception in 2012, the Wild Rivers Coast Alliance has been supporting the South Coast’s environment and conservation needs. Read moreWild Rivers Coast Alliance benefits local organizations

When Amber Latham moved to Pendleton as program director for the new branch of Oregon Recovery and Treatment Center in 2019, there wasn’t a lot of awareness among local officials about the opioid problems the community faced. Read moreStriving for Solutions — rural treatment centers combat opioid crisis

On a gravel road in the Dry Creek neighborhood of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, Dorothy Thurby visits the site of a recent waterline break. A pile of mud and pipes is all that remained following days of water leakage. Read moreWarm Springs seeks end to water woes

While an extreme example, the Holiday Farm Fire illustrates what steps are required to bring a conflagration under control, from initial attack to final containment. Read moreConflagration illustrates steps to fighting wildfires

Oregon Institute of Technology is coordinating with the Klamath Tribes to try to save endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers while using energy efficiencies to power the process. Read moreOregon Tech teams up with tribes to save endangered fish

After a devastating year of COVID, of protests, of the election, what I may be the most tired of is hearing “I just can’t understand…” Read moreWhat we need now: Bridges, ladders, imagination

Bryan Harper is a fifth-generation farmer, vice chairman of the Oregon Board of Agriculture and former president of the Lane County Farm Bureau. He’s also a pilot, former sprinter for the University of Oregon and one of only a few young Black farmers in the state. Read moreOne man's journey to reach new heights

As a sovereign nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation didn’t have to follow Gov. Kate Brown’s stay home orders and shut down any of its government facilities or enterprises to slow the spread of COVID-19. Read moreTribes learned lessons in measles outbreak

Rural institutions, with their can-do character, are every bit as critical to the pandemic response as urban institutions. Read moreThe pandemic might help rural Oregon's universities

There’s nothing like a pandemic, closed restaurants and masked lines outside grocery stores to make Oregonians rethink the food system. Read moreFood systems pivot in wake of pandemic

Rural healthcare is getting a makeover. Read moreNew health center strives to fix the healthcare provider shortage in rural Oregon

Rural Oregon is being impacted by the COVID-19 in a variety of ways. Read moreOne rural tradition closed by virus, another continues

On a windy February morning, the Northwest Connector, a bus running a route through northwestern Oregon, whizzed between coastal cities. Riders were commuting to work, returning from the hospital, en route to get groceries, out for recreation. Read moreHow a bus system changed the Northwest

With the trend of young people leaving rural communities, Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) member Emma Gerona, 23, is part of the team bringing back a youthful energy to revitalize these communities. Read moreRARE revitalizes rural communities with young professionals

The term “boarding school” elicits the vision of elite British chambers or a school for troubled delinquents, but in rural Oregon a boarding school is a necessity to help the students in the area receive an education despite the distance. Read moreRural boarding schools combat distance, create connection

Aaron Jackson, lamprey project lead, is clearly a passionate, knowledgeable, and utterly patient man. He has to be — he has dedicated his working life to a sacred and maligned, complex and long-living species with the deck stacked against its survival. Read moreLamprey return to the Umatilla River

College students studying Oregon’s urban-rural divide knew they would find contrasts between Portland and Eastern Oregon. What they didn’t expect was how much the two regions have in common, from high rents and the lack of affordable housing to the popularity of farmers’ markets. Read moreUrban-Rural Ambassador program bridges the divide

When Hermiston School District submits demographic data to the Oregon Department of Education, sometimes they get a call letting them know they made a mistake — they marked “English” as the predominate language of origin spoken by the district’s largest racial minority. Read moreAs its Latino population grows, Hermiston embraces the label of 'inclusive community'

MORO, Ore. — In Sherman County, Ore., every family gets a gift at Christmas time. Read moreWind energy in the western U.S. is growing — and so are conflicts.

FOSSIL — It was the kind of mass trauma that sends a shudder through rural Oregon’s medical infrastructure. Read moreSmall town, big emergencies

Along Oregon roads and highways, crop identification signs help drivers recognize what’s growing and living in fields they pass. Potatoes, hazelnuts, honey bees. Read moreIt’s a sign: crop identification signs help bridge urban-rural divide

“The loggers who came here with their trucks – in very, very large numbers – was a political phenomenon that will be always very memorable. They were here all day, circling the Capitol.” Read moreClimate bill returning in short session

Tourists who visit the coast and other summer destinations often want to leave with a taste of Oregon. Read moreLocal flavor drives coastal tourism

This is more than a story of “the little city that could.” It is a story of persistence, serendipity and a public-private partnership that works. Read moreHigh-speed internet a game changer in Maupin

When Tom Hottman’s father was dying of cancer, he said that his mother vehemently opposed the idea of bringing in hospice care — a service she called “death watch.” Read moreHospice care faces challenges in rural Oregon

Wild horses and burros are a staple of the American West, an ideal so revered that even Congress in the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 described the animals as “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit.” Read moreWild and Free: What happens when the Western symbols overpopulate?