An Asian giant hornet nest was found Thursday in Whatcom County, Wash., about one-quarter mile from where a hornet was sighted earlier this month, according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture. Department entomologists will develop a plan to eradicate the nest, which is in a rural area east of Blaine near the Canadian border. The eradication likely will be next week, the department said.

CONCONULLY – The Muckamuck Fire flirted with Conconully and cleared out the town on Sunday, Aug. 15, but flames were kept at bay and, as of Monday morning, were headed toward West Fork Salmon Creek. The blaze is one of more than a dozen burning in Okanogan and Ferry counties.

A large, new portion of the Twenty-Five Mile Fire at Lake Chelan is now under the most intense evacuation status. The length of 1st Creek Road, which is west of Lake Chelan State Park, is under a Level 3 (Go Now) condition, as is most fire’s footprint along and east of Lakeshore Road to the north

The Biden administration is recommending booster doses for most Americans who received a coronavirus vaccine in order to combat waning immunity and the prevalence of the delta variant. In a joint statement Wednesday, top administration health officials said people would need boosters beginning eight months after their second dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine.

Strong winds on Monday led to fire growth in central and eastern Washington that prompted new mandatory evacuations and burned homes, fire officials said. A fire northwest of Spokane that started Sunday near the town of Ford caused residents to scramble to leave their homes on Monday, The Spokesman-Review reported.

FORD, Wash. — The Corkscrew Fire in Ford, Washington destroyed 20 buildings, including eight homes, as it grew to more than 13,000 acres. The fire is located 16.5 miles west-southwest of Deer Park. It's being called the Corkscrew Fire and is burning in timber, grass and brush. This has caused several evacuations in the area.

Even if you can’t smell it, that doesn’t mean it’s not impacting you. “Your nose is not a good tool,” said Emily Fischer, an atmospheric scientist and associate professor at Colorado State University.

A wildfire raced through more than 6,000 acres Monday east of Ford and filled the horizon north of Spokane with a wall of smoke. Fire officials called for the immediate evacuations of Ford and several communities as fire threatened hundreds of buildings.

Nonprofit organizations are more vulnerable than ever to fraud or errors in the organization’s financial statements. With employees, management, and board members focused on helping people in the communities the nonprofit serves, time and attention to key financial internal controls has more than likely been refocused to the organization’s mission and purpose.

For over four hundred million years, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi have been forming symbiotic relationships with plants around the globe. Found on almost every continent and in approximately 80% of vascular plants, these important fungi play a pivotal role in plant nutrient uptake in diverse ecosystems.

USDA Meteorologist, Brad Rippey, said much like the small grains, pasture and rangeland across the region have been hit hard by the drought and hot temperatures.

The region's hot, dry conditions are hampering efforts to put out wildfires. One of those is burning in Stevens County. It started in a building near Ford yesterday afternoon.

How to be a caring and thoughtful leader while holding your team to high standards.

“I’m the most tenured person on my team,” my friend Joyce, a senior marketing manager, told me. “But I feel like a new hire.”

Last September, we shared an article about the benefits of controlled burns and other Indigenous practices for wildfire management and mitigation. Now, the Bootleg fire in Oregon is offering up some more evidence to support that Indigenous practices could be lifesaving in a climate change-fueled fire future.

Portions of the Pacific Ocean cooled considerably in July, affirming that a La Nina weather system likely will form this fall, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center pegged the odds of a La Nina prevailing in November, December and January at 69%. Most likely, the La Nina will be weak, according to NOAA, though the agency estimated the chances of a moderate La Nina at 1-in-3 and a strong La Nina at 1-in-10.

The first live Asian giant hornet sighted in 2021 in Washington state was found attacking a paper wasp nest in a rural area of northern Whatcom County earlier this week. According to a Washington State Department of Agriculture news release Thursday, Aug. 12, the report was confirmed as being an Asian giant hornet, which are popularly known as “murder hornets.”

Smoke visible in the Leavenworth area reported by KPQ listeners is being linked to the Nasom Fire at Lake Wenatchee. Lake Wenatchee Fire and Rescue says ash has been falling on homes along the south shore as the fire is growing on the west end of Nason Ridge, above Rainy Pass. It’s still seven miles from homes along the lake and is being managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

LAME DEER, Mont. (AP) — A wildfire bore down on rural southeastern Montana towns Thursday as continuing hot, dry weather throughout the West drove flames through more than a dozen states. Several thousand people in Montana remained under evacuation orders as the Richard Spring Fire advanced across the sparsely-populated Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.

Northern leopard frogs are rapidly disappearing in the Northwest. Biologists hope this effort will help the population in Washington. The release last week was an effort to help boost this genetically important population. The frogs are bellwethers for ecosystem health. Now that they’ve grown to roughly six centimeters long, the frogs are ready to join the state’s only known population at Central Washington’s Columbia National Wildlife Refuge.

Pacific Northwest salmon could get some help from the proposed federal infrastructure package. Some of the funding in the U.S. Senate’s version of the bill could help remove barriers to salmon habitat – just not the same barriers on the Snake River that Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, had hoped to eventually include.