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What’s a Forest to Do?: As McDonald’s Timber Revenues Fall, Recreation Rises
The McDonald-Dunn Forest overlooking Corvallis is a part of the fabric of the community, so quiet and benign that it’s easy to overlook its “real job” as a site for research, education, and development. The college has always accommodated the public in a casual partnership, offering access to most of its 11,000 acres thanks to ...
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Corvallis’ Landfill Produces Local Electricity: Updates on the Horizon?
The Coffin Butte Resource Project has been utilizing gas from the Coffin Butte Landfill to generate local electricity since 1995—that is, it produces renewable power from a natural by-product of the anaerobic breakdown of organic matter. The landfill gas—a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide—is directed via pipes into gas wells. Over 300 of these ...
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Veganizing Your Holiday: Delicious Meals, No Animal Products Necessary
Let me preface with this: I am kind of vegan. When I’m at home, unless I am busting out some traditional Swiss cheese dishes for some rare occasion, no animal products pass my lips. And let me also preface with this: the food I eat is YUMMY. Not to mention, my breath has been delightful ...
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Peace Seedlings: Andean Roots Take Hold in Corvallis
While the warm winter season has seemed odd to many of us, it’s been a great boon for some of Corvallis’ root vegetables—including some more unusual species trans-located here from South America’s Andes Mountain regions. Armed with a prolific harvest of these new-to-us Andean tubers, Dylana Kapuler and Mario DiBenedetto, founders of local organic seed suppliers, growers ...
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Buying Used in Corvallis: Local Shops Have You Covered for Bikes, Clothes, Books, and More
One great quality of Corvallis is the abundance of used merchandise available. From books to bikes to beds, we’ve carefully arranged a list of must-visits for your next used treasure hunt! Furniture – As residents of a college town, Corvallis residents often enjoy informal sidewalk sales every summer when OSU students leave town or shift ...
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Culture Fail: Let’s Plant Giant Invasive Flammable Reeds in Oregon!
Picture this: A plant that can grow four inches in a single day and reach 30 feet in height. It can grow in floodplains, riverbanks, or drainage ditches in pretty much any soil condition. Its rapid growth rate, and the fact that it can spread from a single piece of root that floats downstream for ...
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Picks of the Week!
The End of the World Apocalyptageddon Party of Doomsday! And Zombies!, December 21st, 10 p.m. Come celebrate the resetting of the Mayan calendar End of Days with The Turntable Enabler and C4 Logic! Bomb’s Away Café hosts Apocalyptageddon! Cost: $3. Family Movie Night at Osborn Aquatic Center, December 21st, 7 – 9 p.m. ...
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New Issue: December 13th, 2012
In this week’s Corvallis Advocate… Drain Blockage Leads to Major Flooding Issues for Corvallis OSU: Trial and Error Goes Digital – Testing Without Breaking Stuff Sick Town’s Sk8 Crazy Nights Proves a Raucous Season Closer Earthquakes in Corvallis? The Willamette Valley is Due for a Big One Corvallis’ Little-known BMX Park Sees Major Improvements Mountain ...
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Drain Blockage Leads to Major Flooding Issues for Corvallis
On Monday, November 19th, as rain beat down, the east entrance of Huckleberry Drive in north Corvallis slowly filled up with water. The city was called, but the deluge had resulted in over 40 phone calls for assistance across Corvallis, and Huckleberry was deemed a low priority. Meanwhile, the flow of water rose over the ...
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OSU: Trial and Error Goes Digital – Testing Without Breaking Stuff
Here’s the scenario: You have a great idea for a new flying contraption. Everything looks good on paper. The machine is lightweight and boasts the necessary surface area to achieve lift. Now all you need is some intrepid individual willing to ride your invention over the edge of Mary’s Peak and take to the sky. ...
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Sick Town’s Sk8 Crazy Nights Proves a Raucous Season Closer
On Saturday, December 8th, Corvallis’ roller derby league, the Sick Town Derby Dames, closed out their season with a grudge match against the Dropkick Donnas (the B team of one of the country’s top ranking leagues, the Oly Rollers of Olympia, WA). Sick Town’s S*M*A*S*H Unit went against the Dropkick Donnas in January of this ...
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Earthquakes in Corvallis? The Willamette Valley is Due for a Big One
In 2011, Corvallis ranked as one of the safest cities in the US, so far as the effects of Mother Nature are concerned. All we really need to worry about is flooding and earthquakes…! Being Beavers, we deal with flooding of various intensities nearly every year. Earthquakes however, are another story, and the Pacific Northwest ...
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Corvallis’ Little-known BMX Park Sees Major Improvements
Chad DeMers is a man on a mission. An avid mountain biker, he wants to make biking accessible to as many Corvallisites as possible, especially kids. Corvallis’ little-known BMX park at the end of SE Chapman Place in Southtown has been around since the early 80s, but when DeMers found it, it desperately needed updating. ...
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Mountain Biking in Corvallis’ Rainy Winter: Easier—and More Fun—Than You Think!
Interested in mountain biking but wary of Corvallis’ wet, dreary winters? Considering the really good weather doesn’t kick in until late June, you’ll be waiting half a year if you want sunshine—so start now! You still have time to ask Santa for those neoprene shoe covers all the serious riders are wearing. For Corvallis’ mountain ...
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5 Bicycle-Based Business Ideas for Corvallis: Green Ideas for a Bike-Friendly City
As we approach the year’s end, many of us full of ideas—yet even more of us fed up with our current work situation—I want to plant this seed: Corvallis is ready for an explosion of bicycle-based industries. There are numerous opportunities to create viable, useful services and jobs here, centered on the use of a ...
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Artist Profile: Helvi Smith
In my paintings, the red is green. The purple is green and the white is also green. How can that be? Practically all the paint I use is leftover house paint from garage sales, thrift stores, and my local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store store. I grew up going to garage sales and thrift stores, and second-hand is second nature to me. I use many different tools when I ...
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Chinuk Wawa: A Local Oregon Tribe’s Efforts to Save a Dying Language
Spend enough time in the Pacific Northwest and you’ll come across unusual place-names: Cultus Creek, Moolack Lake, Tyee Cellars, Tillicum Beach. Spend enough time in British Columbia, you’ll still hear folk say “muckamuck” or “skookum.” What you’re seeing and hearing are some of the last vestiges of Chinook Jargon, a once-common trade language that hybridized ...
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Culture Fail: Apocalypse XCVIIX…
Despite the fact that we have harnessed the atom, forged beautiful works of art, and wrought wonders from the power of lightning, the human race remains insistent on flopping itself down upon the genetic whoopie cushion and injecting into our Universe folks who will believe damn near anything. And as we’re approaching another hotbed in ...
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Picks of the Week!
2 Towns Ciderhouse Presents: FLOATER with 30 Pound Test, December 14th, 8 – 11:30 p.m. Grammy-nominated Floater returns to grace the stage of Corvallis’ Whiteside Theatre. They will be joined by special guest, 30 Pound Test, recent winners of the Warped Tour Battle of the Bands—rock out with some of 2 Towns Ciderhouse’s ‘Damn Fine Cider!’ 21 and older ...
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New Issue: December 6th, 2012
In this week’s Corvallis Advocate… Corvallis’ Whiteside Theatre and Two Towns Ciderhouse Welcome Back Floater and 30 Pound Test HOURS Exchange Winter Celebration on December 9th Corvallis’ Own Temporary Artists’ Guild Hosts Fundraiser for LBCC’s Art Department, December 12th Dangers of the Holiday Season: Fires and Falls and Poison, Oh My! Oh Christmas Tree: Land ...