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Agriculture / Aquaculture

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This camp is your camp

Posted Thu, Oct 15, 6 a.m.

Using a state pilot project, the Cascade Land Conservancy has made it possible to preserve historic Hidden Valley Camp for future generations. It's more than a win for holding back sprawl, it also saves an incubator of the Northwest's conservation ethic.

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Shiga's Garden: fittingly, a story of sunshine and cooperation

Posted Tue, Oct 13, 6 a.m.

Volunteers, artists, and an absentee landowner are together creating a P-Patch honoring the father of the University District Street Fair.

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Bracing lessons for Northwest fisheries ... from the Northeast

Posted Fri, Oct 2, 6 a.m.

Newfoundland went centuries believing it could never exhaust its abundance of cod. Until it did. A reflection from the waters of Vashon Island and Mistaken Point.

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Bigger lessons in the Green River floodplain

Posted Wed, Sep 30, 6 a.m.

'Flood control is an oxymoron,' one expert says. Maybe, instead of spending so much money trying to control our rivers, we should buy out property owners and let the water run free.

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Obama science goes schizophrenic on salmon restoration

Posted Wed, Sep 23, 6 a.m.

A Biological Opinion factors in the effect of climate change on California salmon runs and the orcas that depend on them. So why is the recent BiOp by NOAA on the Columbia and Snake so oblivious?

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Obama sticks with the Bush approach on Columbia River salmon

Posted Tue, Sep 15, 3:34 p.m.

Salmon advocates had expected a move toward study of breaching dams as a remedy for declining runs on the Snake and Columbia. Instead, they got a "split-the-baby" decision that may please neither side of this hot political issue.

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How FDR enacted his 'public option'

Posted Tue, Sep 8, 9:28 p.m.

Remote farmers had no power, because the private utilities didn't want to bother. So Roosevelt created a government agency to electrify the folks and drive down the rates. He didn't unplug grandma; he plugged her in.

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A tough new effort to preserve Skagit Valley farmland

Posted Wed, Sep 2, 6 a.m.

To build a new house on agricultural land, you'll have to farm that land yourself, and prove it.

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The eggs and us

Posted Thu, Jul 30, 6 a.m.

A classic Northwest story (and fantasy) is re-enacted on a run-down farm on Lopez Island

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Showdown at Icicle Creek

Posted Wed, Jul 15, 6 a.m.

A long dispute over the way U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service operates its hatchery has moved to the courts. The case involves a prominent nearby landowner, Harriet Bullitt, and sheds light on the impact of hatcheries and water diversions.

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The many uses of manure

Posted Wed, Jul 8, 6 a.m.

Dairy farms are putting in digesters, creating methane to power electrical generators, fertilizer, and cattle bedding. One problem: hydropower in the Northwest is so cheap that farmers can't make money selling their kilowatts.

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Why Seattle's Viaduct solution is good for Wenatchee

Posted Thu, Jun 18, 6 a.m.

A 'trade mission' by the Port of Seattle makes the case for the deep bore tunnel, which avoids cutting off Eastern Washington trade from the port for years

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Throwing a hissy fish

Posted Mon, Jun 15, 6 a.m.

PETA objects to the Pike Place fish tossers, but they'd do better if they focused on a real menace: fish sticks.

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Tracking down the right tool

Posted Thu, Jun 4, 6 a.m.

A search for a well-made scythe leads to an appreciation of the great toolmakers who lived here 13,000 years ago.

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Mud fight on the Skagit

Posted Thu, Jun 4, 6 a.m.

Which is more threatened: wetlands or farmlands? And bear in mind that Skagit Valley farmland is perhaps the finest dirt in the world.

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Buy Local, Think National

Posted Tue, Mar 10, 6 a.m.

The folks who brought you Buy Local have a more ambitious future in mind for the Northwest. Think national model for sustainable communities.

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Trouble in Tatoosh

Posted Tue, Dec 2, 4:08 p.m.

The ocean's acidity around a tiny island off the Washington coast has been changing 10 times faster than expected. The surprising finding might reflect an oceanic hot spot, rather than a broader trend.

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Restoring Puget Sound: It's the land use, stupid!

Posted Fri, Nov 21, 5 a.m.

The Puget Sound Partnership has produced its draft action agenda, tempered by the fiscal realities of the coming Legislature. It locates the real challenge: how we treat the land around the Sound.

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Joe the Bigfoot Hunter

Posted Mon, Nov 10, 6:46 p.m.

The campaign symbol that got away. Plus: tales of ravenous locusts, obese bears, Bigfoot's B.C. invasion, and more animal news.

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Earthier wines from Europe vie for Yakima palates

Posted Wed, Oct 1, 4 a.m.

A wine shop owner in Yakima launches a tasting series for non-Washington wines, with so far mixed success.

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Other media

Inside B.C.'s illegal abalone poaching business The valuable delicacy, which Canada is trying to rebuild by protecting, is the center of a multinational poaching network.

Northwest hops growers stuck with a glut Two years ago, there was a shortage, prompting growers to plant heavily. Bad move. But don't expect beer prices to drop.

Soil expert says wine industry talk about "terroir" is mostly hokum Vintners obsess over minerals in their soil but its effect on taste in wine is below the threshold of human taste, says a geologist who consults to the industry.

David Lake, Washington wine pioneer, dead at 66 He fought established opinion and made syrah a high-volume grape for the state's wine industry.

Dwell magazine maps favorite small farms across U.S. Full Circle Farm in the Snoqualmie Valley and three farms in northwest Oregon make the first cut.

Blog posts

Time to buy liquid assets, like wine

Posted Thu, Feb 5, 6 a.m.

The economic crunch may deliver bargains to a wine list near you.

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Sobering lessons for Puget Sound clean-up

Posted Mon, Dec 29, noon 2008

A Washington Post story indicates that after a major multi-decade, multi-billion-dollar effort, there's little or no progress in saving Chesapeake Bay.

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Oregon State University: front and center for marine science

Posted Thu, Dec 25, 4:26 p.m. 2008

Jane Lubchenco's designation to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), signals Barack Obama's intent to get serious about climate change. It is also recognition of Pacific Northwest leadership in marine science.

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Christmas Treehuggers

Posted Fri, Dec 5, 9 a.m. 2008

Go ahead, cut that tree, and feel good about your environmental footprint.

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Obama is booting a chance for reform in agriculture

Posted Sat, Nov 29, noon 2008

The two leading candidates for Secretary of Agriculture would do little to change the way we grow our food and treat our farmland.

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Saving old Oregon

Posted Wed, Oct 15, 6 a.m. 2008

Restoring ancient habitat in the Willamette Valley.

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Sausage Links, ice cream man edition

Posted Fri, Aug 15, 12:22 p.m. 2008

Despite the near-record temperatures predicted for the weekend, officials from around the state are asking agencies to "freeze." Last week, Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire ordered a hiring freeze for state employees in an attempt to ease Washington's mounting budget deficit. Yesterday, the Snohomish County Council ordered a hiring freeze for all of their county's agencies. Not to be outdone, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels proposed a $5 million spending freeze for the City of Seattle yesterday. On a related note, Seattle's fleet of ice cream carts are expanding their service around the city, in a move experts say could result in widespread brain freezes. ...

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(Not) in the garden: bees

Posted Wed, Aug 6, 5:12 a.m. 2008

When I was growing up, a summer wasn't a summer until my first bee sting. Honeybees, in particular, were everywhere. During picnics we would often have to move from place to place until we found a shady bee-free zone at the local park. Playing kick-the-can in the afternoons, racing through the neighborhood yards was its own Olympics:

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Polimedia lunch links, flip-flop edition

Posted Fri, Jun 20, 12:05 p.m. 2008

Jim Camden at the Spokesman-Review mined his YouTube account for videos of Barack Obama's now infamous switch on campaign financing, while also noting John McCain's back flip on the off-shore oil drilling ban. ...

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Unearthing baby giant earthworms

Posted Tue, Jun 3, 5 a.m. 2008

Scientists have returned from Peshastin, WA, near Leavenworth, with what they believe may be two juvenile giant Palouse earthworms. Soil scientist Jodi Johnson-Maynard and another researcher from the University of Idaho found the specimens last week after following up on the possibility that the elusive worm species lives in the area.

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