For the first time in recent history, a mother wolverine has been spotted in the southern part of Washington’s Cascade Mountains. The carnivores had been wiped out of the region after excessive hunting and trapping in the mid-1900s.Read More
Environment
“The perception for a long time has been that high-biomass forests will burn more severely,” said Harold Zald, forestry researcher at Humboldt State University in Northern California.Read More
Tribes across the West are trying to restore their forests and grasslands to the way they were before white settlers arrived. Their goal is to return traditional foods like roots, huckleberries and big game. But it’s a complex job.Read More
Mountain goats in the Olympic Mountains could soon be a thing of the past. The non-native goat population has rapidly grown over the past 14 years — to a point where it now could put hikers at risk and damage sensitive vegetation in the subalpine landscape.Read More
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville are celebrating an expansion of their sovereign rights. The federal government has granted them jurisdiction over water resources on tribal lands in northeastern Washington state.Read More
As tick season reaches its peak in the Northwest, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control says diseases spread by tiny creatures like mosquitoes and ticks have tripled in the U.S. over the last 14 years.Read More
Oregon and Washington are joining a coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia in suing the Environmental Protection Agency and its administrator Scott Pruitt over the decision to roll back greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles built between 2022 and 2025.Read More
A Northwest company is aiming to build the country’s first house-sized reactor that can put electricity onto the grid.Read More
The U.S. Forest Service plans soon to reopen some of the trails in the Columbia River Gorge that have been closed since the Eagle Creek Fire last year.Read More
The last caribou herd in the Lower 48 is dwindling. According to aerial survey data collected earlier this spring, it’s down from 11 animals last year to just three. In recent weeks, national headlines have deemed the animals of the herd ‘functionally extinct.’Read More
Honey bees are struggling with habitat loss, colony collapse disorder, and other challenges. One Northwest beekeeper is rethinking the kinds of bees we use to pollinate crops in the first place.Read More
Federal officials were in Spokane this week to talk about the future of the Columbia River Treaty, an agreement between the U.S. and Canada that dates back to 1964. A six-member panel will represent the U.S. in negotiations to update the treaty. Noticeably absent were members of any of the numerous Native American tribes along the Columbia, which have been pushing to Read More
The U.S. House passed has approved a bill that would circumvent a federal judge’s order for dams on the lower Snake River to spill more water and protect current dam operations through the next four years. It was sponsored and pushed by two Washington state Republicans.Read More
Washington Senator Maria Cantwell questioned the acting head of the U.S. Forest Service, Vicki Christiansen, this week. Among the senator's top concerns: There may not be enough air support for fires in the West this year.Read More
You could almost start a zoo with all of the exotic creatures seized by animal control officers in Olympia about three weeks ago. Now the owners of an Oregon-based private wildlife center are petitioning to get their animals back. Read More
Wildfire smoke can be annoying. It makes your eyes water and your nose run. But for some people with certain medical conditions, wildfire smoke can be especially unhealthy — and sometimes deadly. That’s why experts say people need to prepare before fires start. One big way to help: get an air filtration system.Read More
Researchers at Oregon State University have worked out a way to detect and identify whales long after they move on — just by sampling the water.Read More
While searching for seabirds in July of 2017, biologist Luke Halpin instead saw a sea bubbling with about 200 bottlenose dolphins and 70 false killer whales. It would be an unusual sight anywhere — bottlenose generally travel in much smaller groups — but Halpin’s sighting was made more remarkable by where it happened. These usually tropical animals were off the west coast Read More
Students from Oregon State University, Granite Falls High School in Washington and the University of British Columbia are among 99 teams pushing the boundaries of automotive fuel efficiency. The Northwest students are driving in an international competition in California through this weekend.Read More
One of the eco-labels Wilcox Farms acquired in recent years is “salmon-safe,” a label more often seen on craft beer and Northwest wine bottles than egg cartons. The salmon and steelhead in the Nisqually River have been declining for decades, and that’s a huge concern for the Nisqually Tribe.Read More
East of the Cascades, wheat farmers say there has been plenty of moisture over the winter and all things point to a good harvest. But the price and demand for that crop is very much in question.Read More
Growing up, Gary Kempler remembers watching flocks of bighorn sheep near his hometown of Clarkston, Washington.
Now, as someone who is incarcerated at Washington State Penitentiary, Kempler is in the Sustainability in Prisons Project. He’s working to help bighorns — through domestic sheep production.Read More
The owner of a seafood processing company in Pierce County, Wash., has pleaded guilty in a case involving the illegal sale of sea cucumbers, leathery creatures that are considered a delicacy to eat in some cultures.Read More
More than 30 popular hiking trails on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge remain closed because of hazards left in the wake of last year's Eagle Creek wildfire. That has park rangers wrangling crowds on the unburned Washington side of the Gorge.Read More
In the Northwest, we’re gearing up for a season of fresh berries, cherries, apples, and much more. Farmers of course want to avoid anything that could hurt crops: cold temperatures, tough tariffs, or even … pesky birds. Forget the clowns. Send in the falcons.Read More
The National Park Service will increase entrance fees at 117 national parks by at least $5. The increases are far smaller than had previously been proposed by the Trump administration.Read More
There’s only one place you can find one of North America’s rarest butterflies: on a small patch of an island in Washington’s Puget Sound. And it’s in trouble. That’s why the federal government wants to add the island marble butterfly to the endangered species list.Read More
Workers plan to tackle some of the nastiest waste on the massive Hanford cleanup site next month. The so-called K-Basin holds sandy, explosive, potentially flammable and highly-radioactive sludge stored in six large containers.Read More
A Yakama Nation leader, Russell Jim, has died. The 82-year-old was well-known by tribes and environmentalists across the nation for his fight to clean up Hanford.Read More
Yakima County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday, April 10 to support mining operations that the Yakama Nation believes will disturb a Native burial ground. The battle is three years in the making.Read More
Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia River in southeast Washington state has multiple leaks and structural problems.Read More
Washington regulators have tentatively denied a controversial request by shellfish growers to poison burrowing shrimp that damage commercial oyster beds. Growers say controlling the shrimp is vital to the shellfish industry in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor.Read More
Sage grouse are found in 11 Western states. But they’re in trouble. In Oregon, their fragmented habitat is threatened by human development, invasive species, wildfires and overgrazing. Researchers are just starting to look into raven depredation, a more controversial problem for the birds. In a policy shift, the federal government wants sage grouse work to focus on the Read More
After a six-year delay, Timberline Lodge says it is moving forward with construction of a mountain bike park on Mount Hood.Read More
The Trump administration wants to slash the federal government’s biggest source of funds for conservation on private land. Here’s what you need to know.Read More
Emergency managers from Washington coastal counties and tribes practiced tsunami alert communication and coordination with state and federal partners Thursday. They're trying to smooth out glitches revealed after an undersea earthquake in Alaska in January.Read More
Washington and Oregon have joined a lawsuit alleging U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt is violating the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit says the government needs to limit methane emissions from existing oil and gas facilities.Read More
Lower Snake River dams could be replaced by a variety of renewable energy resources, according to a new study by the NW Energy Coalition. The advocacy group says this means dam removal doesn’t have to be a choice between salmon and renewable energy.Read More
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is gearing up for its biggest-ever planned spill of water over dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. It’s a move ordered by a federal court to help endangered fish. To make sure it’s done right, dam managers tested options first using miniature models of Northwest dams way down in Vicksburg, Mississippi.Read More
Forests and grasslands in eastern Washington are at high risk for large, intense wildfire. This spring Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to using controlled burning on more than 1,000 acres in Okanogan, Ferry and Pend Oreille counties.Read More
The federal government will have to spill more water over Columbia and Snake river dams starting Tuesday in an effort to help young salmon migrating to the ocean. This will make up the biggest planned water spill over dams for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.Read More
A report out last month says visitors spent nearly $740 million in communities near U.S. Forest Service lands in Washington and Oregon. The number of visitors and dollars coming into the region hasn’t changed much in nearly two decades.Read More
Seventeen years ago, 21 tribes sued Washington state to fix road culverts. On April 18, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to take on the case. The question is whether state taxpayers should have to dish out billions to dig up roads so salmon can get through. The court’s decision will have repercussions for tribes all over the West.Read More
The U.S. Department of Energy is launching a federal investigation into a demolition site at the Hanford nuclear reservation where radioactive waste from the site has been spreading in unexplained ways.Read More
In Central Washington, Grant Public Utility District officials have declared what they’re calling a “non-failure emergency” at the 1950’s-era Priest Rapids Dam northwest of Richland on the Columbia River.Read More
The worst case scenario for flooding from a tsunami along the Pacific Northwest coast just got even worse. Washington's Department of Natural Resources with federal help remapped the maximum tsunami threat from Grays Harbor down to the Columbia River mouth. Chief Hazard Geologist Corina Forson says updated science about the offshore Cascadia fault zone produces a bigger Read More
When The Big One happens, emergency planners and geologists expect the vast majority of us will survive. But a magnitude 9 rupture on the Cascadia earthquake fault will likely cut electricity, running water and sewer for weeks—or even months afterwards.Read More
The program practices tough love — Hawaiians call it kuleana, or a sense of personal responsibility. Kids commit to more than two years of work, and get free college tuition for their "sweat equity."Read More
Now that electric cars are a common sight on the nation's highways, and prototypes exist for electric trucks and airplanes, could electric ferries be next?Read More
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke came to Washington’s North Cascades Friday to make one thing clear: He wants his agency to get back to work deciding by year’s end whether to reintroduce grizzlies to the North Cascades.Read More
