19-04-2025
Explore Oregon Podcast: Last call at Crater Lake, record visits to parks, Detroit drawdown
In this episode of the Explore Oregon Podcast, host Zach Urness covers a range of outdoors news, including why this is the last summer to swim, fish or take a boat tour at Crater Lake National Park until 2029.
Urness also talks about:
Why this was a very good but also tragic ski season in Oregon.
Oregon set a record for visits to its state parks system.
The state is completely drought-free for the first time since 2019.
The Central Cascades Wilderness permit system is returning this year, despite major cuts to the rangers and recreation departments that enforce it.
The number of wolves and western snowy plovers — both protected under the federal Endangered Species Act — saw growth in their numbers last year.
The Trump administration declared a forest health emergency to ramp up logging in Oregon and the West.
The deep drawdown of Detroit Lake has been delayed until 2026, easing the water supply scare for Salem and Stayton.
A long-awaited report from the Oregon Department of Forestry says Pacific Power was not at fault for the 2020 wildfires in the Santiam Canyon.
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Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 18 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. He can be reached at zurness@ or (503) 399-6801. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors and BlueSky at
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Podcast: Last summer to swim at Crater Lake National Park until 2029
