aprilehrlich.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

The Fix our Forests Act is getting a hearing in the Senate Ag Committee next week:

submitted 3 hours ago • 0 comments

Earlier this month, DEQ warned its staff not to click a hijacked link it included in a statewide press release. If they clicked it, it would install malware on their computers. It didn’t share the same warning with the general public who also received that email. www.opb.org/article/2025...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

A ransomware group has released over 2.5 terabytes of files it says it stole from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s internal servers. The agency has provided little info on the attack that happened two weeks ago. www.opb.org/article/2025...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

NEW: Western officials are scrambling to make sure they're prepared for fire season. “Forest fires aren’t going to take four years off just because of who’s in the White House,” @govofco.bsky.social told me earlier this month. w/Jordan Wolman: www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

The Bureau of Land Management is no longer being shy about prioritizing logging in Oregon’s forests. I can’t say I ever noticed it using the hashtag #TimberDominance at the end of a press release before.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

I'm deeply curious how this was organized, if not through the city or port. It includes several city of Portland employees (including PBOT director), the head of the Metro chamber, and nonprofit advocacy leaders.

submitted 13 days ago • 4 comments

American Meteorological Society (@ametsoc.org) just issued a (fully justified) dire statement regarding rapidly accelerating & potentially disastrous efforts to decimate weather & climate enterprise in U.S. If implemented, this would cost many lives & cause major/ long-term economic harm.

submitted 12 days ago • 37 comments

There’s now a rap video promoting PDX’s wooden ceiling and how it’s“giving sustainability.” This video (according to the O) was not a paid ad by the Port. youtu.be/WTt7x8KRTS4?...

submitted 13 days ago • 3 comments

Great rundown from @carlosfuentes.bsky.social on a bill requiring Google, Meta pay Oregon news outlets for content/info those tech companies take for free and profit from. $122 million est. annual damages is less than 1/3 of 1% of Alphabet’s $350 billion revenue. www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

submitted 15 days ago • 4 comments

Federal budget cuts have hindered repairs on the Pacific Crest Trail, leaving hikers to face rougher, potentially unsafe terrain due to unaddressed storm and wildfire damage.

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

Environmental groups in Southern Oregon got a win in court this week in a lawsuit over old-growth forests. #oldgrowthforests #forests

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments

The lawsuit claims the creamery’s marketing led consumers to believe its milk is sourced from small, family-owned, lush-green pasture-based dairies in Tillamook County, when in reality, it sources two-thirds of its milk from east of the Cascades near Boardman.

submitted 26 days ago • 8 comments

PacifiCorp is appealing the massive 2023 class-action lawsuit that’s expected to award billions of dollars to up to 5,000 Oregonians. An appeal could reverse judgements for wildfire victims who have already gone through trials. www.opb.org/article/2025...

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Chile’s lithium boom promises jobs and money — but threatens a critical water source. grist.org/energy/chile... #AtacamaDesert #Chile #Water #Lithium #Mining

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments

Last week BLM released its environmental review of a lithium project that involves drilling across thousands of acres of sagebrush desert. It only gave 5 days for public input. People submitted over 1,500 comments. Now they’ve got more time. www.opb.org/article/2025...

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Oregon is completely free of drought and abnormal dryness for the first time since November 2019, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Some fun weather stats and what it actually means here: tinyurl.com/4r3rhbzt

submitted 32 days ago • 4 comments

Insurers are increasingly using drones to take aerial photos of people’s homes & make policy decisions. Two Oregon lawmakers are asking them to stop using this type of data to drop homeowners’ policies based on wildfire risk. www.opb.org/article/2025...

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

The BLM has been reviewing this proposed lithium project in Oregon since 2022. It released its environmental assessment today — and gave the public less than 5 days to comment. www.opb.org/article/2025...

submitted 34 days ago • 4 comments

California is one of the few states with building codes for wildfire protection, because using fire-resistant materials helps homes survive. Now, more than 500 additional homeowners rebuilding after Los Angeles' Eaton Fire are being required to use them.

submitted 34 days ago • 9 comments

I learned recently that it’s not uncommon for a local court to have a “knife bush.” That is, a bush outside where people temporarily stash their pocket knives so they could get through security.

submitted 36 days ago • 3 comments

Someone is buying stuff using my info (but not my accounts?) & now I’m searching through property records, plat maps, social media accounts, pinpointing exactly who it may be & trying to know everything about them. I have one practical skill in this life, and it’s being a creep.

submitted 38 days ago • 1 comment

Oregon’s fire officials didn’t cite any evidence presented in a jury trial that found PacifiCorp was not only liable, but reckless for starting the deadly 2020 wildfire. www.opb.org/article/2025...

submitted 40 days ago • 2 comments

As April points out, this chill conversation on what to do about a massive natural disaster waiting to happen in Portland has been going on for at least 12 years:

submitted 42 days ago • 0 comments

Much of Oregon's fuel supply flows through a six-mile hub of fuel storage and shipping terminals along the Willamette River in Portland. It's also an area that is expected to easily crumble and sink if a powerful earthquake hits, and that has city officials taking a hard look at that risk.

submitted 42 days ago • 1 comment

“It could be a spill that matches the volume of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, but rather than occurring out in the Gulf of Mexico, it would be occurring in the heart of a major American city.”

submitted 42 days ago • 2 comments

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will stop paywalling articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

submitted 43 days ago • 1689 comments

Thread of ship's cats enjoying their tiny hammocks. This is the "Kitten mascot of the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle at the time of the Suez Expedition, 1956" 🧵 www.facebook.com/iwm.north/ph...

submitted 46 days ago • 83 comments

A landmark agreement between environmental and timber groups in 2021 brought fish and stream protections to Oregon’s privately owned forests. But the Private Forest Accord faces steep budget cuts under current legislative proposals. www.opb.org/article/2025...

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

Oregon is now poised to pay Frank Gable roughly $2 million for his wrongful conviction. The law has not changed, which suggests to me that former Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum likely played no small part in setting the agenda that has kept money away from people harmed by the justice system.

submitted 48 days ago • 1 comment

Today Oregon lawmakers introduced a bill that would create a fund for wildfire survivors. But if they pull from it, they can't sue utilities for sparking wildfires. It's part of legislation that Berkshire Hathaway (PacifiCorp) is pursuing across the West. www.opb.org/article/2025...

submitted 49 days ago • 2 comments

DOCUMENT DESTRUCTION: My reporter Brett Murphy obtained a remarkable directive to folks at USAID: Empty the safes with the classified and personnel records and then, "Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break."

submitted 50 days ago • 702 comments

Huge development. Fired USDA workers reinstated tomorrow WITH back pay www.usda.gov/about-usda/n...

submitted 49 days ago • 0 comments

PGE can cut about 400 trees within 5 acres of Portland's locally beloved Forest Park to make way for power poles and transmission lines, following a decision issued by a hearings officer on Friday. www.opb.org/article/2025...

submitted 50 days ago • 1 comment

Tribal leaders, environmental advocates, timber representatives and local government officials were among the 21 members of the Northwest Forest Plan federal advisory committee. On Thursday, officials told committee members the agency was likely to dissolve the group in the coming weeks.

submitted 53 days ago • 1 comment

The Forest Service is planning to fire 7,000 workers, according to E&E News. www.eenews.net/articles/for...

submitted 54 days ago • 2 comments

"First comes the firing of the staff, then comes dysfunction that comes from that, then comes the argument that the land should be given to the states, then comes the loss of our public lands as they’re sold off," @jeff-merkley.bsky.social warned. #orpol

submitted 54 days ago • 3 comments