Current Stories
Editor's Top Picks
Winter snowpack melts into waterfalls
Seattle Times
07/02/2009
A record hot June and a winter snowpack more than 2,000 percent of normal in places have combined to detonate an explosion of waterfalls this summer in the Central Cascades.
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New Oregon law will improve storage, water planning
Oregonian
07/01/2009
A bill passed by Oregon lawmakers improves planning for water use and provides $2.5 million for the next phase of a project to create underground water storage in the Umatilla Basin.
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Farmers fear water loss, sue to stop feedlot plan
Wenatchee World
07/01/2009
A group of farmers has joined two environmental groups in filing a lawsuit to block a feedlot proposed to be built near Pasco, Wash., from using a well that is exempt from state permits to water up to 30,000 cattle.
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Draining every drop
Seattle Times
06/30/2009
Groups are starting to meet again on water supply in WA's arid Yakima River Basin, the heavily irrigated region that's home to thousands of acres of tree fruit, wine grapes, hops and other crops. In drought years, fish suffer in low rivers and farmers and towns with newer water rights have their water supply rationed.
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Abandoned fishing nets no more
Seattle Times
07/01/2009
Nearly all of the abandoned fishing nets in Puget Sound that kill marine animals and damage habitat will be removed with the help of $4.6 million in federal stimulus money.
The net-removal efforts are among six projects in the state that will receive $16.5 million for marine and coastal habitat restoration.
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Coastal restoration projects for habitat and jobs
Oregon Public Broadcasting
06/30/2009
In the Pacific Northwest, the federal agency that oversees ocean life will spend stimulus funding to reconnect tidal wetlands, remove obsolete dams and clean up marine debris by hiring dozens of out of work crab fishermen.
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Water intakes at risk from toxic algae blooms
BC Local News
07/01/2009
Fish may not live in the depths of Okanagan Lake, but there’s still lots happening down there, and some of it could be toxic to human health. In the case of a toxic algae bloom near a water intake, few utilities could continue to deliver normal drinking water service.
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Views: The spill, 20 years later
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
07/01/2009
It has been just more than 20 years since oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez and soiled the biology and economy of Prince William Sound, ruined lives, and forever tainted the image of what is now the world’s largest company. Now, the end of the legal chapter of this story is near.
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WA, feds to discuss Yakima water
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
06/30/2009
State and federal officials plan to meet with other stakeholders in the Yakima River basin to talk about how to improve water supplies there.
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Tiny beetle hell on forests
New York Times
06/28/2009
Summer fire seasons in the West have always hinged on elements of chance: a heat wave in August, a random lightning strike, a passing storm. Now, tiny bark beetles have now left seven million acres of pine forest all but dead, throwing a swath of land bigger than Massachusetts into a kind of fire-cycle purgatory.
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First foods inform tribe's conservation
Indian Country Today
06/28/2009
Resource management on the lands of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon took a unique turn a couple years ago when the board of trustees approved a plan built around consideration for their first foods: water, salmon, fish, big game, roots and berries.
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Trucking salmon to upper McKenzie River in OR
Oregonian
06/29/2009
At the base of Oregon's Cougar Dam, construction crews are building a sophisticated trap-and-haul facility to truck salmon to the upper reaches of the South Fork of the McKenzie River. With all the concrete being poured its hard to picture the goal: completing the life cycle for a fish that once had the run of the rivers.
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Index homes threatened by river erosion
Everett Herald
06/29/2009
The river's roar is getting louder. The North Fork Skykomish River is endangering houses in Index, leaving homeowners and officials wondering who will pay for a fix.
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NW water could be tapped for Middle East
Aberdeen Daily World
06/26/2009
If there's one thing Aberdeen, Wash, has, it's water. And a company with ties to the Middle East has approached the city about buying huge quantities of water, Public Works Director Larry Bledsoe told the Aberdeen City Council Wednesday night.
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Puget Sound orcas accounted for
Kitsap Sun
06/25/2009
When the Southern Resident killer whales came south out of Canada over the weekend, all three pods were together for a time. That gave scientists a chance to tally the local orcas -- none were missing, but there were no babies, either.
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Taking out OR dam no easy task
Oregon Public Broadcasting
06/24/2009
After two decades of conflict, crews are finally jackhammering the Savage Rapids Dam on Oregon's Rogue River into oblivion. Efforts to return other rivers to free-flowing channels are getting more attention across the Northwest and in Congress. But what happened here gives some indication of how difficult it can be to rip out these engineering feats of the last century.
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Balancing salmon habitat and farmland
Everett Herald
06/24/2009
In Snohomish County, WA, a $13 million effort to restore chinook salmon habitat by flooding low-lying areas of Smith Island would come at the expense of farmland and a horse boarding facility. "The big question on the table is, 'What's the appropriate mix of agriculture versus habitat restoration?' " county public works director said.
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Views: Time for a new policy on fuels reduction in Ashland
Ashland Daily Tidings
06/22/2009
Once again, fire and the means of reducing fuels within Ashland's Municipal Watershed are coming to the forefront of public debate. All involved agree that continued management of fuels is needed; however, deep divisions persist as to the means of addressing this need within this restricted and sensitive Municipal Watershed and Late Successional Reserve.
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Views: Protecting Central Oregon's Metolius River
Eugene Register Guard
06/23/2009
The end justified the means in the Oregon Legislature's approval of a measure that bans large-scale destination resort development in Central Oregon's Metolius River Basin.
But the means used to protect the fragile and beloved basin ran roughshod over local officials.
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House flips, OKs protection for Metolius River basin
Oregonian
06/23/2009
In a stunning reversal from last week, the Oregon House passed a bill Monday extending unprecedented state protection to the Metolius River basin.
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Court allows Juneau gold mine to dump waste in lake
Anchorage Daily News
06/23/2009
The U.S. Supreme Court's Monday decision allowing a gold mine near Juneau to discharge its waste into a fish-bearing lake could be the final word in the long-running dispute.
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Olympia developer penalized about stormwater permit
Olympian
06/23/2009
The state Department of Ecology has fined Olympia area developer Walt Cox $36,000 for failing to obtain a construction stormwater permit for a controversial South Bay housing project.
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WA officials issue final report on Yakima River Basin water needs
Yakima Herald
06/23/2009
The state Department of Ecology this morning issued a final environmental report on proposals to meet future Yakima River Basin water needs.
According to the document, the plan includes adding fish passage at basin dams, some new water storage, operational changes to improve fish passage, habitat improvements, water conservation and water marketing.
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Fight is on for Oregon water supplies
Eugene Register Guard
06/22/2009
The Oregon Water Resources Department recently turned back a request for underground water for 18 homes north of Hillsboro. There wasn’t enough. But as water challenges mount, the tiny department has lost employees and suspended research. An agency that lives off how much, how deep, how fast is starved for information. It doesn’t know how much water is available underground.
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Future up in air for bat colony
Olympian
06/22/2009
At a conservation preserve near Olympia, WA, plans are being made to remove some of the man-made structures that clutter the shoreline. While salmon and oysters would benefit from a more natural habitat, some of those log booms and piers have become havens for other wildlife, such as bats.
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