Northwest (OR WA)

"An unprecedented attempt to protect sage grouse habitat across parts of more than 900 square miles of privately owned land in Nevada began under a deal Thursday involving the federal government, an environmental group and the world's largest gold mining company."

"OLYMPIA – There’s a big downside to the relatively mild winter with more rain than snow that most of Washington experienced, and it’s not for skiers and snowboarders. Parts of the state have a snowpack drought."

"Conservation groups sued a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday, accusing its agents of violating a federal environmental law when they killed a protected female breeding wolf in Washington state."

"A federal appeals court has rejected a lawsuit by the timber industry seeking to strip Endangered Species Act protection from a threatened seabird that nests in old-growth forests."

"About a third of all schools, hospitals and fire stations along the Oregon coast are in the tsunami zone. That is, they'd likely be washed away in the event of a massive earthquake and tsunami. There are similar fears in Northern California and Washington State."

"Oregon's once decimated gray wolf population has rebounded to at least 77 animals, and the wolves are now pairing off and breeding across a wide region, state officials with the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife said on Wednesday."

"SEATTLE — A Skagit County hearing examiner handed conservation groups a victory Monday, ruling that an oil-by-rail project at the Shell Puget Sound Refinery near Anacortes should undergo a full environmental review."

"Four decades after the passage of the Clean Water Act, regulators haven’t kept up with the pollution pressure that growing populations put on America’s shorelines."

"Washington state senators held a hearing on Thursday to consider banning the increasingly controversial capture or holding of killer whales for entertainment."