WACD Reading List

The National Marine Fisheries Service has blocked a drainage district from replacing a failing tidegate that keeps saltwater from flooding about 400 acres of farmland in Skagit County, Wash. NMFS West Coast administrator Jennifer Quan said in a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers repairing the gate would jeopardize the existence of Puget Sound chinook salmon and killer whales, which eat the salmon.

A new report from the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board shows some endangered fish populations in Southwest Washington are recovering while others continue to struggle.

Significant rain on Sunday caused a mudslide inside the current 11 mile stretch of the roadway that's shut down because of the Easy Fire.

An increased number of states in the U.S. have detected "very high" levels of COVID-19 in their wastewater, according to CDC data.

State and federal leaders have put millions into improving crops and soils so they absorb more carbon dioxide, but across the U.S. that would only cut 3% of agricultural emissions, researchers found.

The state of Washington is asking residents to keep an eye out for invasive insects on trees this summer.

More than a million acres have burned so far in Oregon’s wildfire season. As August gets underway, here’s an overview of some active blazes.

A month before the Upper Cemetery fire burned 50 acres west of downtown Spokane, fire crews had treated the area by pruning and cutting down trees to reduce a potential wildfire spread.

Black and other minority farmers are set to receive more than $2 billion in federal aid in response to decades of discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A scientific mystery is unfolding after researchers pulled two species of sharks from the Sound, where they were not found before.

In today’s relentless workplace, tackling burnout among leaders is a pressing reality. Here are some practical strategies to help build a supportive and resilient work environment.

The blazes have “scorched” an area greater than five times the size of the city of Sacramento, California, reports said.

Positive News readers share profound moments you’ve experienced in forests and how being around trees impacts your wellbeing

U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was in Cle Elum, Wash. to highlight federally funded salmon restoration projects.

Several large wildfires burning in Washington are growing, at least one wildfire is nearing structures and highway closures are also in effect.

A brief update on the Mullen Hill, Upper Cemetery, Gwen, Swawilla, and South Columbia Basin fires.

State officials warned travelers in Oregon to be aware of the wildfires and prepare for sudden road closures and potential power outages.

The Level 3 Level 3 applies to the area from just north of Moore Point through the Stehekin Valley, including the Stehekin Landing and west to High Bridge.

When driving down Columbia Basin Highway after a 220-acre wildfire, some homes appear to still be standing among the charred, still-smoldering ground. Others were lost.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently issued a revision to the Clean Water Act that requires states to consider tribal treaty rights when crafting water quality regulations.

A gush of public spending is opening streams to salmon. Four years after lawmakers ordered a strategy, agencies have an algorithm to pick the best projects.

A wildfire quickly spreading across the Colville Indian Reservation led to new evacuation orders Wednesday around Buffalo Lake north of Coulee Dam.

Idaho Wildfires: The Alarming Impact on Air Quality and Public Health

A popular analogy compares our goals to rocks in a jar: put the big rocks (your most valued goals) in the jar first, or else the smaller (less important) rocks will take up all the space. But goals aren’t rocks; in fact, they’re more like balls of soft clay that require molding as much as prioritizing. To better mold your goals to your stage in life and what’s important to you, work through a four-step process that breaks your goals into values and definitions of success. The flexibility this molding facilitates will not only help you understand what’s really important to you, but will allow you to change and adjust your goals over time.

Passion has long been championed as a key to workplace success. However, scientific studies have found mixed results: On the one hand, some studies find evidence that passionate employees tend to perform better, while other research has documented null or even negative effects on performance. What’s the root of these inconsistent findings surrounding passion? And how can we reap the benefits of passion without falling prey to its downsides? Through a series of studies with more than 1,000 employees from the U.S. and China, researchers shed light on these questions by showing that passion is associated with overconfidence in our own performance. Although this passion-driven overconfidence is not necessarily harmful — and in certain contexts, it may even be helpful — their findings suggest that managers should take steps to mitigate the potential negative consequences of the overconfidence that may go hand in hand with passion.

This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics

Highway 12 remains closed from the top of White Pass to Oak Creek.