How would you define these regions of Oregon? (Portland, Bend: live, oil)

[Mini-apple-less]

I'd divide Oregon like this:

Southern Oregon: Anything from Douglas County southward, from the Cascade crest to the coast
Western Oregon: Anything from Lane County northward west of the Cascade crest
Central Oregon: Anything immediately east of the Cascade crest ie Klamath Falls, Bend, Prineville, Crater Lake, the Dalles etc.
Eastern Oregon: the sparsely populated eastern half of the state

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Why do you want to rename the areas of Oregon that already have well established and long used names?

[Fiddlehead]

I think everything in the OP is fine, except, I would call the area from Lane Co. north, west of the crest, NW Oregon. I would reserve W. Oregon to include both the SW and NW portions. Given the population patterns, geography of the state I think the four way split seems informative, but folks on the coast might not want to be split north and south, as the coastal environment seems to set them apart. I will say that NE Oregon and SE Oregon are quite different in terms of physical geography, though culturally they may be more or less similar.

[Larry Caldwell]

Forgot the north coast, central coast and south coast. NE is the Wallowas, entirely different from the SE desert. Anybody who can slice the state up into four areas doesn't live here.

[Fiddlehead]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

Forgot the north coast, central coast and south coast. NE is the Wallowas, entirely different from the SE desert. Anybody who can slice the state up into four areas doesn't live here.

Well, in fairness, it depends upon the criteria you use. If physical geography is the yardstick, sure, I agree, but not everyone thinks that way. Classifications seem to be great things to argue about ad infinitum!

Returning for a second to the subforum debate, it seems a lot of folks think primarily in terms of big towns or cities, and all the other stuff in between does not register. Other folks stick to a few stereotypes and generalize obscenely. Oregon is all soggy Douglas-fir woods. California is a liberal police state full of movie stars. Texas is a right wing police state full of oil barons. Utah is all Mormons. Colorado is all mountains and snow, etc. It seems to me that people seem to see what they want to see when they look at most states. One of the wonderful things about Oregon is the geographic diversity, no matter how you choose to slice it.

[Larry Caldwell]

Yeah, geography is important to me. The Columbia Gorge is entirely different from the Ochocos, though they are right next to each other. Then there's the lake district and the Cascades. The SE corner is just an extension of Nevada's Black Rock Desert. The Central Coast with it's Oregon Dunes National Monument is nothing like either the south coast or north coast. The Snake River Gorge and Wallowas are a marvel all of their own.

Most people think of Oregon and they think Willamette Valley and Portland. There's more.

[jjpop]

EPA splits the state up into 9 high level Ecoregions:

Coast Range
Willamette Valley
Cascades
Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills
Columbia Plateau
Blue Mountains
Snake River Plain
Klamath Mountains
Northern Basin and Range

Then there are several sub-regions within each of these.

ftp://ftp.epa.gov/wed/ecoregions/or/or_eco_pg.pdf

[Larry Caldwell]

Not too bad, though they have the Coast Range running way to far south. The Klamath Formation (Siskiyou) starts just south of Reedsport.