northwest wildfires

Everyone watching fires around Washington this week held their breath as about 600 lightning strikes hit the landscape across the state. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources, who, alongside agency partners, prepared for those conditions this week by pulling in out-of-state resources and pre-positioning crews. The lightning strikes ignited at least two fires in the state, the Easy fire and Swawilla fire. According to a public information officer on the Swawilla fire, a series of fires started from lightning strikes on the Colville Reservation this week.

Dry, hot and windy conditions have communities on alert for wildfire danger across the Pacific Northwest. Those conditions propelled fire growth over the weekend, and more of the same weather is expected this week.

(Runtime :54)Researchers are developing special coatings to protect Northwest wines from any smoke flavors.Vineyard managers could spray the coatings onto…

Autumn has knocked on our doors and crossed our thresholds. With its arrival comes wetter, colder, darker days — perhaps some pumpkin-flavored treats as well — and hopefully, fewer wildfires. Heavy recent rainfall has dropped the wildfire potential outlook down to normal for the Northwest, according to the National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook.So, how did this summer fare compared to past fire seasons?

Wildfires, invasive species and climate change are seriously threatening the Hanford Reach National Monument, and with it, a rare plant that grows only in one place in the world.

Over the past year, wildfire smoke has made the air quality in the Yakima Valley, Eastern Washington and parts of Oregon some of the worst in the country, and even in the world. When the air quality is bad, experts recommend people stay indoors, but that isn’t an option for outdoor laborers, like farmworkers.

As the weather gets colder the thought of wildfire may be floating away like smoke in the wind. But while the season is wrapping up, the management of wildfire isn't over.

The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation says it lost more timber in 2015 than has ever burned on a U.S. reservation. The tribe is suing the federal government over the damage.

Last year, former President Trump refused to approve a routine disaster declaration for Malden because he was feuding with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat. So that federal aid didn't start arriving until after President Biden took office and he finally signed the order.

“In this year of, well, exceptions, we’ve been handed an unprecedented level of damage to our wildlife mitigation program,” a Washington state wildlife biologist recently told the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.