Northwest (OR WA)

"The Vaux's Swift is a tiny bird – some people call it “a cigar with wings.” But every fall these little birds make a big trip, from summer breeding grounds in the Pacific Northwest down to their winter home in Central and South America. Along the way, many of them roost as a big flock in chimneys up and down the west coast. And their murmurations in the air – and simultaneously dive together into chimneys – are so spectacular that they draw crowds."

"Seven years ago, Oregon’s biggest natural gas company set out to convince lawmakers and residents that an abundant new source of green energy was out there, just waiting to be tapped."

"“As humans, our everyday lives are sustained by the behaviors and interactions of forest organisms,” photographer David Herasimtschuk writes of old growth forests. “Yet, because these processes and relationships occur in places and at scales rarely observed, our connection with forest biodiversity and the role it plays in nurturing our well-being often goes completely unnoticed.”

"The nation’s largest dam removal project is nearly complete after a lengthy campaign by Native tribes to restore the river at the California-Oregon border."

"Nearby residents have been sounding the alarm about Coffin Butte Landfill for years. Now Sen. Jeff Merkley and other members of Congress are demanding action."

"A company developing an industrial-scale solar panel array on Badger Mountain in Eastern Washington has paused permitting activities on the project amid concerns about impacts to Indigenous cultural sites." "The decision comes after an investigation by High Country News and ProPublica found that a land survey funded by the developer omitted more than a dozen sites of archaeological or cultural significance."

"In 2019, Washington adopted legislation requiring electric utilities to go carbon-neutral in a decade. Yet lawmakers continued to promote the growth of energy-guzzling data centers with generous tax incentives."

"Rising water temperatures in the Columbia River Basin are raising questions about whether fishery managers must take new steps to save the imperiled fish."

"Standing water lies beneath the home Sonny Curley shares with his parents and three children on the Quinault reservation a few steps from the Pacific Ocean in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The back deck is rotting, and black mold speckles the walls inside, leaving the 46-year-old fisherman feeling drained if he spends too much time in the house."