Here’s a random assortment of recent eco-stories I’ve found interesting:

A short but sweet note from siskiyoucrest.org (the website KS Wild set up to promote the proposed Siskiyou Crest National Monument): “KS Wild motion detector cameras at Bigelow Lake capture great image of Northern Flying Squirrel!” And here’s the photo!

An Oregonian article talks about a new registry tracking conservation projects in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. There seems to be a lot of activity near Ashland, but I bet there are more projects that aren’t on this map (yet).

If you’re at all concerned about the chemicals in your food, check out this fascinating Newsweek article about obesity, specifically, fat babies. As the article points out, the epidemic of overweight infants can’t be explained by poor eating habits and lack of exercise, since babies then and now tend to skimp on working out and keep their diet to a simple staple of formula or milk. The suspected culprit? Ubiquitous hormone-mimicking chemicals (like bisphenol A) that seem to turn more cells into fat cells and change young humans’ metabolic rate to hoard calories. Kind of a scary outlook overall (and you might want to read to the end if you’re considering feeding your baby soy formula).

If you haven’t seen the October issue of National Geographic, the magazine features a giant redwood on its cover.  As a former redwood region dweller, I prefer the print edition with its foldout photo page (to accommodate a composite image of a redwood tree from top to bottom), but you can read the article online here. Once upon a time, redwoods reigned from Big Sur to Brookings, and the article includes a transect of the trees’ habitat and their history, as well as a look at their future, with a special focus on Humboldt County, center of the Redwood Wars and the remaining bits of old growth.

Finally, for the image-minded, the Oregonian’s outdoor guru Terry Richard has a slideshow of a recent trip to Central Oregon.