documentaries & specials

Full-length documentaries, programs and multi-platform projects.

unprepared

OPB and Oregon Field Guide spent a year and a half probing into the state of Oregon's preparedness for earthquakes, and found that when it comes to bridges, schools, hospitals, building codes and energy infrastructure, Oregon lags far behind many quake-prone regions of the country. This project utilized radio, documentary, social media, interactive online applications and traditional broadcast in a successful call to action that led to legislative initiatives and policy changes, and greatly increased public involvement in civic preparedness organizations.

crossing the urban-rural divide

In 2009, Oregon Field Guide followed along as 12 middle school students from Sunnyside Environmental School in Portland traveled 300 miles from their home to live on ranches across rural Grant County. It was a bold experiment: could Oregon’s bitter urban-rural divide be bridged by giving city kids a chance to work and live with ranchers whose lives were completely different from their own? 

The Silent Invasion

Something troubling is taking hold in Oregon. Strange, exotic plants and animals are showing up in places where they don't belong. They are invasive species, and they're taking over landscapes, driving native wildlife away, and making everyone from ranchers to fishermen to wildlife managers nervous.

Exploring mount Hood's Glacier Caves

This groundbreaking special documents mountaineers Brent McGregor and Eddy Cartaya’s expedition to film and photograph the largest known glacier cave system in the lower 48 states — located on the Northwest face of Mount Hood.

Time Team America II: Lost Civil War Prison

In the fall of 1864 the Confederate Army marched Union prisoners into a hastily built compound called Camp Lawton in Jenkins County, Georgia. The population mushroomed to more than 10,000 in just six weeks. Then, as Sherman's army approached, guards and prisoners alike were forced to flee. Abandoned, the camp disappeared into the forest and remained undisturbed for over a century, until a team from Georgia Southern University surveyed the site. They found what appeared to be a section of the camp stockade wall, Civil War era coins, a daguerreotype, and more. The rest of the story was waiting to be uncovered. Time Team America joined the effort to map the entire stockade and learn more about this important moment in the nation's history.