A Western gray squirrel. (Courtesy of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.) Listen (Runtime 0:57) Read Washington’s Western gray squirrels are in trouble. So much so that state officials […]Read More
The golden paintbrush, a bright yellow flower found in Oregon and Washington, no longer needs federal protections. ( Courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) Listen (Runtime 0:57) Read […]Read More
Tree climber Phil Chi does one last safety check before he climbs to the top of a whitebark pine tree. Credit: Courtney Flatt Listen (Runtime 0:59) Read The West’s iconic […]Read More
If you’ve ever been hiking in the Cascades, high up in the alpine meadows, and were spooked by a streak of a bird, a plume of feathers that darted right in front of your face, you may have come across the Mount Rainier white-tailed ptarmigan.Read More
A new survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found there are more than 70,000 breeding pairs of the iconic raptor in the contiguous U.S. In the late 1960s, there were fewer than 500.Read More
The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service ruled against upgrading the iconic Northern spotted owl’s protection status Monday under the Endangered Species Act.Read More
The federal government says it will remove endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Lower 48. The move will reduce protections for the predators in the western two-thirds of Washington and Oregon. Read More
A 2017 analysis that looked at historic versus recent distributing areas of the species and found that the populations have declined by almost 50% of its historic range and it has been accelerating in recent years.Read More
Conservation groups say the animals need to be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Ten groups want to force the federal government to protect the elusive wolverines. The groups estimate there are around 300 wolverines left, sparsely scattered across the Mountain West, including Idaho, Washington and Oregon. Read More