The Columbian

Northwest

Washington State Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz talks with wildland firefighters battling the Tunnel Five Fire in the Columbia River Gorge on Thursday.

How climate change is remaking this top WA job

July 26, 2024, 7:55am Election

The state’s top job overseeing public lands has become more complicated in recent years, as drought and warm weather stoke wildfires and debate intensifies over the benefit of Washington’s forest in the fight against climate change. Read story

Hanford was used to produce plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program during World War II and the Cold War. Environmental cleanup is underway now.

What could be nation’s largest solar project planned by feds at Eastern WA nuclear site

July 26, 2024, 7:48am Business

The Department of Energy is entering negotiations for one of the largest in the nation, if not the largest, solar and battery storage energy projects to be built at the Hanford site in Eastern Washington. Read story

Austin Richard, stewardship ecologist for the Tulalip Tribes, measures the BNSF culvert on the Edgecomb Creek in Arlington, Washington, on Jan. 5, 2024.

Washington nears a plan to remove key culverts for salmon — after spending $4 billion

July 26, 2024, 6:02am Northwest

As the Washington State Department of Transportation spends billions of dollars removing concrete and metal pipes that block spawning salmon, another state agency is finally finishing a strategy to fix all the state’s fish migration barriers. Read story

Mount St. Helens Institute welcomes its first poet in residence

July 26, 2024, 5:58am Northwest

Poet Ian Ramsey is staying at the Coldwater Lake visitor center for nearly a week as part of the Mount St. Helens Institute’s first poet in residence. Read story

Sales tax increase to fund Longview police heads to ballot

July 26, 2024, 5:57am Northwest

Longview voters will decide in November whether to approve a sales tax to hire additional patrol officers for the Longview Police Department. Read story

FILE - Juvenile coho salmon swim in a holding pond at the Cascade Fish Hatchery, March 8, 2017, in Cascade Locks, Ore. On Thursday, July 25, 2024, the U.S. government announced that it will invest $240 million in salmon and steelhead fish hatcheries in the Pacific Northwest in an effort to boost declining fish populations and support the treaty-protected fishing rights of Native American tribes in the region.

U.S. promises $240 million to improve fish hatcheries, protect tribal rights in Pacific Northwest

July 25, 2024, 5:49pm Newsletter

The U.S. government will invest $240 million in salmon and steelhead hatcheries in the Pacific Northwest to boost declining fish populations and support the treaty-protected fishing rights of Native American tribes, officials announced Thursday. Read story

Shipping containers line one side of the Duwamish River and barges with gravel line another, Sept. 28, 2011, in Seattle. Ending an eight-year legal battle, chemical giant Monsanto has agreed to a $160-million settlement with Seattle for its part in polluting the Lower Duwamish River with toxins that posed a threat to humans and wildlife, the city attorney’s office said in a press release Thursday, July 25, 2024.

Monsanto agrees to $160 million settlement with Seattle over pollution in the Duwamish River

July 25, 2024, 5:32pm Northwest

Ending an eight-year legal battle, chemical giant Monsanto has agreed to a $160-million settlement with Seattle for its part in polluting a river that runs through the heart of the city with toxins that posed a threat to humans, fish and wildlife, the city attorney’s office said Thursday. Read story