Environment

Removal of the two dams on the Elwha River has been temporarily halted because massive amounts of sediment released from above the dams have clogged a nearby city’s water treatment facilities.

Want to see a volcano explode hundreds of meters below the surface of the Pacific Ocean? How about in real-time streaming video, online, from the comfort of your own iPad? Well, there’s a massive scientific project underway that could help you with that and more.

Right now it’s legal to hunt octopi in Puget Sound – unless you’re in a marine preserve or conservation area. In fact, if you have a state fishing license you can harvest one every day.

But the killing of a giant Pacific octopus off Alki Beach in Seattle last October prompted a public outcry. Hundreds of scuba divers and members of the public submitted petitions to the state of Washington asking for better protection for the giant Pacific octopus in Puget Sound.

The Port of Grays Harbor has announced an agreement to lease property for a crude oil unloading and storage facility. The oil would arrive by train and then be loaded on to barges bound for refineries on the West Coast.

Two Seattle-based adventurers — one a scientist, the other an artist — are on an expedition to study and document narwhals in Arctic waters off the west coast of Greenland. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed Sally Jewell, CEO of outdoor retailer Recreational Equipment Inc., as interior secretary.  

Environmental groups have collected samples of black rock collected in water bodies along train tracks in the Northwest and found that some of that rock is coal. The Sierra Club, Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, Columbia Riverkeeper and other environmental groups have sent a notice of intent to sue BNSF Railway and several coal companies for violations of the Clean Water Act.

Macaque monkeys are the distant relatives of an ancient species that roamed the lush rainforests of the Northwest during the early Paleocene – about 60 million years ago. Climate change models project a possible return to Paleocene conditions in the near future. One local scientist says it’s time to bring back the macaque – and the Cascade Mountains are the perfect place to do it.

On day one of our spring pledge drive, we bring you some of our conversation with Al Gore. In his new book, “The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change,” the former vice president and media mogul takes an in-depth look at major shifts in the world, from globalization to automation, digital connections, population growth and the biological breakthroughs that are bringing humans into greater control of their evolution.