NOAA

NOAA biologist Brian Burke says mixed ocean conditions may lead to average salmon runs, but climate change is disrupting ecosystems—making continued research critical.

Lawmakers are allocating over $6 billion this fiscal year to support the Department of the Interior and the United States Forest Service in wildfire response.It’s an increase of 14% from the last year’s funding, and will support wildfire suppression, operations and a new research hub to aid fire management. This fiscal year, the forest service will see an increase of $576 million in available funding for wildfire response.

Breaching the Snake River dams is one major way to protect salmon, according to a final federal report announced Friday on salmon and steelhead recovery in the Columbia River Basin.

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The Bell M. Shimada is designed to gather scientific information. But the collaborative effort of the crew and officers makes scientific endeavors at sea possible.

At least twice a year, a team of scientists on NOAA's research vessel Bell M. Shimada survey waters along the Washington and Oregon coast.

The place where salmon spend most of their lives also is the place scientists know the least about: the ocean.

Research photos taken with a drone show multiple killer whales are close to giving birth in one of the Pacific Northwest's critically endangered pods. The late-stage pregnancies stirred excitement among whale watchers -- and also renewed worries about the availability of adequate food supply for the mothers and babies.

The Texas blackout is another reminder that more frequent, climate-driven extreme weather puts stress on the country's electricity grid. It came just months after outages in California aimed at preventing wildfires. Compounding this, electricity likely will be even more important in coming years amid a push to electrify cars and homes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That has many grid experts saying it's time to upgrade the country's electricity infrastructure.

The Northwest could see a cooler and wetter winter this season, according to climate outlook models. Forecasters say it’s likely that a recently developed La Niña weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean will continue. That should lead to above average precipitation in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.