BI101 Anderson: Researching local issues

These tips can help you find a local issue to focus on for your project.

• Start with the Oregon Conservation Strategy webpage for your ecoregion, which lists "conservation issues and priorities" and "limiting factors" for each ecoregion.
• Or you could start with a general web search for your regions and browse through results, perhaps browsing through several pages. For rural areas, you could also search search for the names of towns. You will probably need to experiment with different search terms. 
• Power search suggestion!  You could look up the state senators and representatives from your ecoregion. (See Find Your Legislator) Go to the webpage of those Oregon House Representative or Oregon Senators and see what legislation they have passed or are proposing. 
• Not finding anything useful? Chat with a librarian for immediate assistance, or make a Research Help appointment for a longer consultation.

Once you have selected the local issue to focus on, try these strategies to find relevant information.

• For Oregon specific information on your topic, try searching to Oregon.gov website:   Oregon.gov
• For laws or bills related to your topic, try searching the Oregon State Legislature page: Oregon State Legislature 
• When searching the web and databases for information on your issue, you may find general information on your topic that will still be relevant even if it doesn't focus exclusively on your ecoregion. For example, if you are researching declining bee populations in the Willamette Valley, research about banning a particular pesticide might be relevant even if that research is not specific to Willamette Valley bees. 
• Not finding anything useful? Chat with a librarian for immediate assistance, or make a Research Help appointment for a longer consultation.