Think Out Loud

Cheetah researcher and conservationist Laurie Marker shares how her career began in Oregon

Laurie Marker has spent nearly half a century with cheetahs. Her career began when she moved to Oregon in the early 1970s to open the third winery in the state. She began working at Wildlife Safari in Winston, OR to help support her business. This move would start a decades long career working with cheetahs. She eventually found the Cheetah Conservation Fund and moved to Namibia to create a dedicated wildlife reserve and research center for these large felines. Today, cheetahs are considered to have a vulnerable status, with less than 7,000 in the wild. Marker joins us to share more on her life and work with the fastest mammal on the planet that is racing to extinction.

Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation acquires massive private collection of tribal art and artifacts

On Tuesday, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation signed an agreement [https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/31/agreement-historical-items-umatilla-indian-reservation-tamastslikt/]with Fred Mitchell to acquire his vast collection of Columbia River Plateau tribal artwork and artifacts. The collection includes 15,000 stone points and tools, 1,250 historic photographs, 800 beaded bags and pouches, baskets and other items. Mitchell is a retired former mayor and firefighter from Walla Walla, Washington who started collecting arrowheads when he was 5 years old [https://whitmanwire.com/magazine-2/2024/05/02/in-preservation-of-history-a-look-inside-the-home-and-collection-of-fred-l-mitchell/] and amassed other tribal items over the past seven decades.  The Fred L. Mitchell & Family Collection also includes objects collected by Mitchell’s parents and other relatives, according to Bobbie Conner, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and director of the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute [https://www.tamastslikt.org/]. The museum has featured several temporary exhibits in recent years with items loaned by Mitchell, including one that showcased beaded depictions of horses [https://www.tamastslikt.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/100-Horses-September-2023-Release.pdf] made by Columbia Plateau tribes. Conner joins us to discuss the cultural and historical significance of the items within Mitchell’s collection, including Native American cradleboards, or infant carriers, that will be featured in an exhibit at TCI in June.

What happened to the people evicted from a large homeless camp in the woods outside Bend?

Last spring the U.S. Forest Service cleared out [https://www.opb.org/article/2025/05/01/bend-homeless-evictions-central-oregon-federal-forest-homelessness-camping-clear-sweep-encampment/] a large number of people living in the forest [https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/25/bend-oregon-homelessness-camp-china-hat-road-encampment-deschutes-national-forest-tents/] south of Bend in an area known as China Hat. More than 100 vehicles and numerous personal effects were left behind. According to a new story from Investigate West and FORJournalism Lab, the Forest Service may have fallen short of constitutional obligations to give China Hat residents a “reasonable” opportunity to retrieve their belongings. David Dudley, a special project reporter with the Homelessness: Real Stories, Real Solutions FORJournalism, joins us to discuss the story [https://www.investigatewest.org/oregon-homeless-forest-service-property/].

Northern California condors suspected to be tending region’s first egg in more than a century

California condors, the largest land bird in North America, almost went extinct in the late 1980s. But successful breeding programs such as the one at the Oregon Zoo [https://www.oregonzoo.org/condors] have helped raise their worldwide population from a low of 22 birds to roughly 600.    Since 2022, the Yurok Tribe has partnered with Redwood National and State Park to release condors [https://www.yuroktribe.org/yurok-condor-restoration-program] bred in captivity into the wild. A pair of those birds are believed to be tending the region’s first egg [https://www.underscore.news/land/nesting-condors-spark-hope-of-an-egg-in-northern-california/] in more than a century. The nest is too remote for wildlife managers to see the egg itself, but they say the birds’ behavior is consistent with nesting and incubation.   Marti Jenkins is the lead keeper at the Oregon Zoo’s Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation, which hosts its condor breeding program. Chris West is the manager of the Northern California Condor Restoration Program and a senior wildlife biologist with the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department. They both join us to talk about the significance of returning California condors to the Pacific Northwest.

As the West faces an unprecedented snow drought, ski resorts are left scrambling

Low snowpack and high temperatures [https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/27/oregon-farmers-water-irrigation-summer-droughts/] have jeopardized ski resorts across the region this year. While some resorts have held on, most have been facing closures or abnormally short seasons. Skiers are cancelling trips, and seasonal workers have had to shift their plans for work during this abnormal winter. Mountain towns are facing major economic uncertainty [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/travel/snow-drought-ski-rocky-mountains.html] – some offering major sales on gear, or pivoting to warm-weather recreation. Mt. Hood Meadows is the latest ski resort to announce its closure - it will officially wrap up this year’s operations on April 12, as it announced in a recent blog post.  [https://www.skihood.com/blog/meadows-closing-for-the-season-april-12-2026-due-to-low-snowpack]   Greg Pack is the president and general manager at Mt. Hood Meadows. He’ll join us to discuss the weather’s impact on this year’s ski season.