For years, the Yakama Nation has fought to protect a sacred area in southcentral Washington from development. They say a proposed energy storage project will destroy this area, known as “mother of all roots.”

Down between the train tracks along Ruston Way and the shoreline of Commencement Bay in Tacoma stand small, cedar-clad boxes. These tiny dwellings, hoisted about 16 feet above the ground, aren’t suitable for humans. These are new nesting boxes for birds, specifically purple martins.

An old aluminum smelter has sat abandoned on the Columbia River’s banks for two decades. Now, energy developers could help fast-track part of the cleanup.

Bobbing their heads in the blustery spring breeze, balsamroot looks a bit like a posy of shrunken sunflowers. Wildflowers across the Northwest are blooming right now, and the display won’t last long.

It’s been a couple of months since construction crews in the Tri-Cities removed an earthen land bridge. It blocked water at the mouth of the Yakima River. Now, people are celebrating the free flow of the river through its delta.

A new project is trying to tag Northwest butterflies with high-tech electronic tags to learn more about their migration.

At Hanford, several 7-foot tall containers of radioactive tank waste that have been bound up into glass by a new factory were disposed of in an engineered landfill this week.

On Wednesday morning, Washington state declared a statewide drought.

Business leaders in the Tri-Cities said it’s getting harder to bring new, large developments to town because there isn’t enough power to go around.

Researchers have linked several types of bacteria to lesions on elk hooves.