With China threatening to slap the United States with $3 billion in retaliatory tariffs, one group that is worried is Washington apple farmers.Read More
Environment
An earthquake early warning system under development for the West Coast gets a major boost in the new federal budget that President Donald Trump signed into law Friday.Read More
The new person in charge of regional firefighters at the U.S. Forest Service has called for an increase in prescribed fire and a change in attitude about wildfires.Read More
Members of Oregon’s congressional delegation say they’ve revived funding for an expired federal aid program that provided money to rural counties whose economies relied heavily on federal timber harvesting.Read More
State wildlife agencies and the country's wildlife conservation system are heavily dependent on sportsmen for funding. Money generated from license fees and excise taxes on guns, ammunition and angling equipment provide about 60 percent of the funding for state wildlife agencies, which manage most of the wildlife in the U.S. Nearly a third of all hunters in the U.S. are Read More
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is heading to the North Cascades Friday to speak on reintroducing grizzly bears in that part of Washington. His agency had previously suspended controversial efforts to bolster the bears in the area.Read More
Gray whale sightings are up on the Oregon and Washington coast in recent weeks.Read More
Orcas survive largely on a single food source: Chinook salmon migrating from Northwest rivers. As Chinook populations have declined, orcas have struggled to find enough to eat.Read More
One of the most ideal places in the world to bring back gray wolves is right here in the Northwest, according to a new study. Researchers have found bringing the large carnivores back to the Olympic National Park could greatly help the ecosystem — and the predators.Read More
Ocean conditions off the Pacific Northwest seem to be returning to normal after a three-year spike in water temperature. It’s promising long-term news for fishermen who are looking ahead in the short term to yet another year of low salmon returns.Read More
Canadian oil has found a new route to Asia: It’s moving by rail through Washington to a shipping terminal in Portland. In the long run, Canada wants to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline to move oil from the Alberta tar sands west to British Columbia — and from there onto ships that would travel through the Salish Sea and then to Asia.Read More
If all goes according to plan, there could soon be salmon above the Grand Coulee Dam again. That’s according to Cody Desautel, director of Natural Resources for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville.Read More
The Northwest’s beloved orcas will not survive unless humans do more to ensure adequate food and cleaner, quieter waters. That was one of the messages at a crowded signing ceremony in Seattle convened by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. The population of genetically-distinct resident orcas has dwindled to a critically low level. Only 76 remain as of the last count.Read More
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell that his proposal for offshore oil and gas drilling will reflect the “interests of Washington.” “You should know off the coast of Oregon, Washington, most of California, there are no known resources of any weight,” Zinke said. Read More
Late-winter snowstorms did a lot to keep Idaho mountains blanketed, helping to make up the difference for low snow levels earlier this year. According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Idaho farmers are in good shape for the coming summer.Read More
Most of Washington has had above average snow this winter, but the situation gets more dicey the farther south you travel. About half of Oregon is experiencing moderate drought already, and it looks like the Klamath Basin is once again going to be a focal point of water conflict in the West.Read More
Five types of apples, once thought to be extinct, have been rediscovered in northern Idaho and eastern Washington. The Lewiston Tribune newspaper reported that “apple detective” David Benscoter located the trees growing near Steptoe Butte on the rolling hills of the Palouse.Read More
Prompt communication between workers and management at the Plutonium Finishing Plant did not occur, so radioactive waste continued to spread at Hanford. That’s according to a new report.Read More
Yakima County Commissioners voted this week to officially close a road at the base of the slow-moving Rattlesnake Ridge landslide in Union Gap.Read More
Oysters are a cornerstone of Pacific Northwest cuisine. But there was a time when our region’s oysters were in trouble, all but obliterated by over-harvesting and pollution. Then a Japanese immigrant helped turn things around.Read More
If you're thinking about buying an electric car in Washington, you might want to act fast. That's because the state Legislature is on the verge of letting a hefty sales tax break expire. In Oregon, an electric car rebate faces a challenge in court next week.Read More
A federal judge in Oregon ruled Friday against several Northwest tribal members in a case over the destruction of a spiritual site near Mount Hood. A road expansion project a decade ago destroyed burial grounds and a stone altar, along with old-growth trees.Read More
Washington has jut signed-off on its first-ever oil-spill response plan for a railroad.Read More
The Washington Legislature has approved a phase out of Atlantic salmon farming in state waters and sent the measure to the desk of Gov. Jay Inslee, who is expected to sign it.Read More
While the orcas of Puget Sound are sliding toward extinction, orcas farther north have been expanding their numbers. Their burgeoning hunger for big fish may be causing the killer whales’ main prey, chinook salmon, to shrink up and down the West Coast.Read More
There’s a lot less snow in the western U.S. than there was a century ago. That’s according to new research that found dramatic declines in snowpack as the seasons have gotten warmer.Read More
The National Weather Service, already understaffed, would lose at least 200 positions in the White House's proposed budget for fiscal year 2019.Read More
The National Academy of Sciences is conducting days of meetings in Richland, Washington, this week. On the agenda is what to do with a lot of liquid radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Site.Read More
Every year, wildlife officials keep track of how many salmon return to their spawning grounds. This year, they expect low returns of salmon in Washington state—and that could change the fishing outlook.
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Washington lawmakers have agreed to ban firefighting foam that contains harmful chemicals. Perfluorinated chemicals are used in firefighting foam to help contain petroleum fires. Firefighters have sprayed the foam around Washington’s military airstrips and fire-training facilities.Read More
The long-proposed Vancouver Energy oil terminal project officially died Tuesday. Vancouver, Washington, port commissioners made it official by unanimously voting to cancel the lease.Read More
A glitch this week was the second technological setback for Mount St. Helens permit buyers in recent weeks. On February 1, heavy use crashed the website after just 20 minutes. Monday’s reopening was supposed to showcase a successful new platform built to accommodate higher traffic.Read More
An industrial mining explosives manufacturing company pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Friday for failing to notify authorities of the release of 13,000 pounds (6.6 tons) of ammonia into the air at its St. Helens, Oregon plant.Read More
The recent bite of arctic air is causing real worry for Northwest fruit farmers. They’re fretting over their trees’ tender buds. And it all might get worse as things warm up.Read More
Over the next century, sea level rise is expected to wreak havoc on the U.S. coastlines – and a new analysis shows that the Northwest is not immune. Nearly all coastal wetlands in Oregon, Washington and California will be swamped at the highest predicted sea level change.Read More
About 100 activists gathered Wednesday, Feb. 21 to protest Puget Sound Energy’s plan to keep producing electricity from coal until 2035. PSE is the company that likely keeps your lights and Wifi on if you live in the Puget Sound area but not in Seattle. Their main concern was climate change.Read More
While you may be able to easily change your coat when the snow melts, it’s not so simple for animals whose fur turns white in winter for camouflage. A new study finds they'll need to rapidly evolve to match a climate with less snow.Read More
Salmon researchers in the Northwest are turning to sound to learn more about the fish they’re trying to understand.Read More
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek is proposing an amendment to a controversial cap and trade bill that would allow the Legislature to delay voting on key details until next year.Read More
The Canadian owner of an Atlantic salmon farm that collapsed last summer near Anacortes vows to use the North American Free Trade Agreement to save its fish farms in Puget Sound. New Brunswick, Canada-based Cooke Aquaculture says it will pursue mandatory arbitration under NAFTA if the Washington legislature tries to phase out Atlantic salmon farming.Read More
Oral arguments in a federal lawsuit filed against 30 private companies and government entities for cleanup costs associated with pollution at the Portland Harbor Superfund site are expected to start in April.Read More
Early this year, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said no to a massive oil-by-rail terminal proposed in Vancouver, Wash. The $210 million Vancouver Energy project, a joint venture from Tesoro and Savage, would have brought up to 360,000 gallons of crude oil a day on trains traveling along the Columbia River.Read More
The Washington House of Representatives has voted to phase out farming of non-native fish in state waters, drawing the end of Atlantic salmon farming in Puget Sound one step closer.Read More
The Trump administration wants to sell off publicly-owned utility transmission lines. The most recent budget proposal also suggests a move that could raise rates for Bonneville Power Administration customers.Read More
Michael Honeycutt, the top toxicologist for Texas, is the latest chair of the EPA's science advisory board. But some scientists warn his views align more with industry than with scientific consensus.Read More
Each time it rained during an eight-week period in the winter of 2015, someone from Jenifer McIntyre’s team drove up to Seattle and collected stormwater near the Highway 520 bridge across Lake Washington.Read More
Exasperated members of Congress say they came close last week to ending the longtime stalemate over legislation aimed at reducing the threat of catastrophic wildfires.Read More
Reaction in the Northwest was swift to President Trump’s proposed cuts to the cleanup budget at the Hanford Site. The budget request cuts $61 million from the budget for Hanford's Office of River Protection, and $169 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office.Read More
The U.S. Interior Department plans to expand energy development on public lands and offshore to pay for the National Parks’ maintenance backlog. Read More
As the climate gets warmer, sugar maple trees will have a harder time producing enough sap to meet demand. Luckily, scientists and maple syrup-makers are on the case.Read More
