Oregon Public Broadcasting
December 13, 2023
Amount Requested$10,000.00
7140 S Macadam Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97219
Michelle McCoy
Senior Philanthropy Advisor
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- Species Conservation
Program Support
We're pleased to share OPB's new mission statement:
Connecting people across Oregon and the Pacific Northwest through the power of a shared story.
$10,000.00
$351,633.00
$41,898,900.00
Yes
Thanks to the Olseth Family Foundation, OPB’s science and environment journalists work across our newsroom to highlight the most pressing issues, key scientific advances, and important innovations happening in our region.
Our coverage is driven by two collaborative teams. Beat reporters deliver daily coverage on climate change, wildfires, environmental justice, energy, natural resources, and more, while a team of multimedia producers creates in-depth, feature productions, such as Oregon Field Guide, All Science. No Fiction., and the award-winning Timber Wars podcast series.
Our science and environment reporters tell stories focused on ranching, farming, and forestry, as a well as the challenges facing residents of our region’s metropolitan centers. With transmitters in places like Enterprise, Burns, La Grande, and Lakeview, we reach a loyal rural audience and help generate conversations about everything from public lands policies to our energy future.
In the year ahead, Field Guide is excited to bring new episodes to audiences across the Northwest, including three 30-minute specials. “The Horsewomen of the Hen Party” follows the legacy of Jean Birnie, who began leading all-female packing trips into the rugged Wallowa Mountains in the 1930s. Nearly a century later, Field Guide producers join her descendants on a trip into the heart of the Eagle Cap Wilderness to celebrate her pioneering spirit. “Klamath River After the Dams” explores the world’s largest dam removal project that will soon be complete along the Klamath River. The removal will reopen more than 400 miles of potential habitat for salmon that have been blocked from swimming upstream for a century. Finally, “Mount St. Helens Artifact Hunters” introduces viewers to the group of volunteers searching Mount St. Helens National Monument for traces of history buried beneath the ash of the 1980 eruption.
The Science and Environment team will also share a new round of All Science. No Fiction. Hosted by OPB’s first-ever Science reporter, Jes Burns, All Science. No Fiction. uses whimsy, curiosity, and fun to highlight the amazing work of Pacific Northwest scientists. The stories are about new marvels of technology, cutting edge solutions, inventions, and grand ideas that pass the “that’s cool!” test. Upcoming episodes will ask whether tiny fossils can reveal major impacts of the Cascadia Earthquake, if we can use our bodies to power our e-lifestyle, how robots can clear destructive insects from vineyards, and more.
No specific population
Primarily OR and WA, in addition to a growing digital audience from across the nation
1. Deliver expansive, deep, and diverse regional reporting on science, and the environment.
2. Equip journalists to report stories about science and the environment that connect with audiences on multiple platforms: online, social media, radio, and television.
3. Produce comprehensive enterprise reporting projects that explore one or more specific and timely science and environment issues from multiple angles.
OPB has been successful at accomplishing these objectives by developing a high-performing reporting team of journalists. Our journalists spend considerable time on the ground throughout the region, embedding themselves in communities to better understand the issues at hand. OPB’s team members have diverse backgrounds in audio production, videography, beat reporting, investigative and data journalism. By leveraging team members’ strengths and talents, we are able to deliver the very best in radio, television, and digital reporting. OPB’s Science and Environment reporters are able to contribute stories and provide analysis for audiences of Morning Edition, Think Out Loud, All Things Considered, Oregon Field Guide, and OPB.org.
OPB employs a number of tools to measure reach, engagement and impact. These include digital metrics tools such as Google Analytics, which measures page views and time spent on page for each of article. In addition, radio and television ratings services capture audience size for times of day when our stories air as well as for specific programs. OPB also tracks social media engagement such as likes, follows, shares, and views for our output on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The diverse array of national and regional journalism prizes awarded to our journalists for their work is another, more qualitative measure of our impact. Science and Environment journalists and their content have been honored as among the best nationally and regionally when competing for radio/audio awards (the regional RTNDA/Edward R. Murrow awards), television/video (regional Emmy awards), print/text (the regional Society of Professional Journalists), topical reporting (the Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism and AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards), and digital (the Online News Association Online Journalism Awards).
07/01/2023
06/30/2024
In 2019, Science and Environment investigative reporter Tony Schick began a successful partnership with ProPublica that resulted in a series of high-impact, award winning reports on the timber industry. The collaboration with both ProPublica and the Oregonian leveraged Tony’s expertise and expanded the reach of his insightful reporting.
This year, Tony completed the final year of his partnership with ProPublica, with recent stories on salmon, tribal rights, and river health and contamination. Tony’s reporting revealed that, despite more than $2 billion in federal funds, plans to save salmon populations are falling behind. His work culminated in the documentary film, “Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum (Salmon People): A Native Fishing Family’s Fight to Preserve a Way of Life.” The film explores the plight of the salmon of the Columbia River and the Native people whose lives revolve around them.
In 2024, we’ll share stories from the documentary in the new podcast, “Salmon Wars.” “Salmon Wars” follows Randy Settler, whose family has spent generations fighting for their right to harvest salmon. The podcast will follow the arc of Settler’s family, from the treaties to Settler’s 10-year-old niece, who could see salmon decline another 90% in her lifetime.
OPB's Science and Environment reporting is an ongoing effort.
Independent-Auditors-Report-and-Financial-Statements-FY22_1671557611785.pdf
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