New research says climate change is decreasing the amount of snow in the Pacific Northwest. And that has implications for water resources in the region.Read More
Environment
The Trump administration says it is expanding hunting and fishing in 77 national wildlife refuges, including those in Washington, Idaho and Oregon, in a move that critics contend is deferring management to states and could harm wildlife.Read More
A port on the Lower Columbia River has approved a controversial lease for a biofuels project. The county says it will bring jobs to the area. Some environmental groups are concerned about previous deals gone bad involving the project’s backers.Read More
Scientists have detected a marine heat wave off the West Coast that they say is reminiscent of the massive stretch of warm water nicknamed “the Blob” in 2014-15.Read More
Hundreds of coal miners in Wyoming are still out of work two months after their employer declared bankruptcy. It's a moment of reckoning for a town some think relies too much on the energy industry.Read More
Joe Balash, a top U.S. Interior Department appointee who pushed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil leasing, is taking a job with an oil company seeking to develop a major project in Alaska.Read More
Moving imperiled sage grouse from one spot to another can be hard on the birds. But research from Washington State University suggests that after a restless adjustment period, the birds eventually get used to their new homes.Read More
Three Northwest states’ request to lethally remove sea lions from the Columbia River is now open for public comment. Read More
Threats of violence have caused Washington officials to cancel a series of in-person informational wolf management meetings. In a news release, state Fish and Wildlife director Kelly Susewind said the tensions this summer were “on both sides of the issue.”Read More
An underwater volcano is thought to have produced a sheet of pumice that stretches 58 square miles.Read More
A coal company has been dealt another legal blow in its attempt to build an export terminal on the lower Columbia River. The Washington Court of Appeals
upheld a lower court ruling Tuesday that was being challenged by Millennium Bulk Terminals and Northwest Alloys Inc.Read More
What is the cost to the economy when an animal is listed as an endangered species? The Trump administration could soon start to publicize that calculation, along with the cost and benefits of categorizing an animal that way, under new rules it finalized earlier this month.Read More
The U.S. Forest Service is proposing to reduce the public’s role in shaping the way it applies federal environmental laws to projects on public lands. The agency says the changes would help land managers “make timelier decisions based on high quality, science-based analysis.”Read More
Researchers say there's been a huge rise in the number of fires compared to last year. That's likely linked with a similar leap in deforestation since President Jair Bolsonaro took office.Read More
The U.S. used to send a lot of its plastic waste to China to get recycled. But last year, China put the kibosh on imports of the world's waste. The policy, called National Sword, freaked out people in the U.S. — a huge market for plastic waste had just dried up. Where was it all going to go now?Read More
Whale watch tour companies have knocked a proposed orca protection initiative off the November ballot in San Juan County, Washington. The ballot measure would have asked voters to greatly increase the stand-off distance between boats and endangered killer whales.Read More
An astonishing array of animals and habitats flourished on six obsolete weapons complexes — mostly for nuclear or chemical arms — because the sites banned the public and other intrusions for decades.Read More
King County Superior Court judge ordered state officials on Friday morning to temporarily stop killing members of a wolf pack in the Colville National Forest, in northeastern Washington — but their fate had already been decided.Read More
Washington's Snake River dams are important to wheat farmers.The state's wheat crop brings $700 million into the state's economy, more than any crop except apples. The vast majority of that wheat gets exported, most of it to Asia.Read More
The Trump administration’s announced changes Monday to how the Endangered Species Act will be enforced by federal agencies set off waves of criticism, including vows by several states to challenge the move. Environmental groups also say they may sue to stop the new rules.Read More
Humpback whales are resurfacing in big numbers in the Salish Sea, the Columbia River mouth and the Northwest coast. Along with excitement over the humpbacks' return comes concern about ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.Read More
Residents of Washougal, Washington, say a controversial rock-mining operation is disrupting their neighborhood’s peace and quiet and violating the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act.Read More
A whale expert is reporting a rare sighting of blue whales off the Washington state coast. The largest animals on the planet have also been sighted in unusual numbers offshore of Oregon this summer.Read More
In a move that critics say will hurt plants, animals and other species as they face mounting threats, the Trump administration is making major changes to how the Endangered Species Act is implemented. Read More
Prescribed fires are credited with making forests healthier and stopping or slowing the advance of some blazes. Despite those successes, there are plenty of reasons they are not set as often as officials would like, ranging from poor conditions to safely burn to bureaucratic snags and public opposition.Read More
Salmon are now swimming in the upper Columbia River for the first time in decades. For regional Native tribes, Friday’s ceremonial fish release is a big step toward catching fish in traditional waters. Cheers erupted from the crowd as the first salmon was released since 1955 into the Columbia River above Chief Joseph Dam.Read More
The longest-running public service campaign is tied to a reduction in wildfires, but in some ways Smokey's message may have worked too well. Here's how he's changed. Read More
The Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central Oregon has been without safe drinking water all summer. Some people don’t have running water at all. In May, a burst pipe led to a cascade of infrastructure failures. That leaves around 4,000 people improvising for an essential human need.Read More
A new study is just the latest evidence that a family of pesticides called neonicotinoids, sometimes just called "neonics," can pose risks to the insect world that are not fully understood.Read More
The 2011 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Fukushima, Japan, also triggered tsunami warnings for our coastlines here in the Pacific Northwest. And while the resulting waves did not turn out to be catastrophic when they reached our local shores, those same forces delivered a wake-up call.Read More
After the 2018 Camp Fire, scientists detected dangerous levels of cancer-causing benzenes from burned plastics in some water lines. Recent tests show the problem has not gone away. Chronic exposure to benzenes can heighten the risk of blood cancers such as leukemia.Read More
A lawsuit filed Thursday seeks to prevent the state of Washington from killing more wolves from a pack that is preying on cattle. The Maryland-based Center for a Humane Economy filed the suit in King County Superior Court, contending too many wolves have been killed as a way to protect livestock at a single ranch in the Kettle River Range in Ferry County.Read More
As consumers rebel against plastic waste, there's a growing question: Do we invent something people can toss without harming the environment or do we change people by giving them a chance to reuse?Read More
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, who included the $12 million in funding for the projects in her proposed budget last year, has told reporters the decision not to expand the early detection systems was one of the "biggest disappointments" of this year's legislative session.Read More
A fire district around Wenatchee has come up with a new way to make wildland fires less severe. Chelan County Fire District 1 is ditching the hand tools and machinery that firefighters traditionally use to thin overgrown brush. Instead, they’re turning to a more natural approach to thin out fuels around the Broadview neighborhood that burned in the 2015 Sleepy Hollow fire.Read More
Five years later, the Carlton Complex is still the single largest fire in Washington state’s history. By the end of summer, the Okanogan Long Term Recovery Group will have rebuilt 39 homes. The group’s contractors are putting the finishing touches on the final two homes now. They’ve held a ribbon cutting at nearly each spot.Read More
Radioactive waste shipped to Idaho during the Cold War has been compacted and sent out of state for permanent disposal, officials said Wednesday.Read More
The Titan arum plant, also known as the corpse flower, began its bloom Monday night just before 8 p.m. The window to smell its signature odor is brief, lasting just 24 to 48 hours.Read More
The federal Bureau of Land Management will not pursue lethal measures such as euthanasia or selling horses for slaughter to deal with what officials say is an ecological and fiscal crisis caused by too many wild horses on rangelands in the U.S. West, an official said Thursday.Read More
As sea levels rise, coastal flooding that used to happen only during storms is increasingly occurring on sunny days. That has local officials reconsidering everything from zoning to police budgets.Read More
Temperatures climbed to 90 degrees in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday, breaking the all-time heat record for the northerly city. Anchorage's previous record high (at least since 1952) was 85 degrees Fahrenheit, set on June 14, 1969.Read More
For the better part of a month, Joseph, in Oregon’s northeastern corner, has been associated with the toxic herbicide Agent Orange, which the military used liberally during the Vietnam War. National headlines suggested barrels of Agent Orange were found in nearby Wallowa Lake. That's not the case.Read More
The tussock moth caterpillar is quite the sight, if you’ve ever seen one hanging around a Douglas fir tree. These hungry caterpillars can eat Douglas fir and grand fir needles, first starting with the new needles that grow as the caterpillars hatch. Later, munching on older needles high in the treetops.Read More
After almost 10 months of waiting, residents of Joseph, Oregon, can feel more confident drinking their water and swimming in nearby Wallowa Lake, according to lab test results released Thursday.Read More
Night 1 of the first Democratic debate is over. The conversation was dominated by , and . As the candidates tussled, at least three of them showed off their Spanish-language ability. President Trump even weighed in — to mock NBC for and to "BORING."Read More
It’s hard not to notice that cougars are making it into the news these days. It’s also hard to miss how they’re getting there: by entering neighborhoods and putting residents on edge.Read More
Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, says Oregon’s sweeping plan for addressing climate change this legislative session does not have the votes to pass. But it’s not clear whether that will be enough to bring Senate Republicans back to work. Read More
For the second time this legislative session, Oregon Senate Republicans prepared Thursday to stage a walkout, denying Democrats the ability to pass legislation. It’s the latest step in a standoff over sweeping climate change legislation.Read More
Bee colony death continues to rise. According to the Bee Informed Partnership's latest survey, released this week, U.S. beekeepers lost nearly 40% of their honey bee colonies last winter — the greatest reported winter hive loss since the partnership started its surveys 13 years ago.Read More
The question of whether boat-based watching tours are really harmless has become more urgent in Washington state, where Southern Resident killer whales have been declining since the 1990s.Read More
