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WZX1 NEWS
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Have you ever seen a salmon fighting the current of a creek as it swims upstream? Or two salmon swimming together crossing over one another as if dancing? These are common sites at our annual salmon sighting events and you are invited to join us! If you are wondering why salmon do that and many more interesting behaviors, that is exactly why these events exist.
The Northwest Clean Air Agency has canceled a Stage 1 air quality burn ban that started Nov. 2 in the Columbia Valley urban growth area (including the Peaceful Valley and Paradise Lakes developments) in Whatcom County.
The Northwest Clean Air Agency is calling a Stage 1 air quality burn ban effective immediately in the Columbia Valley urban growth area (including the Peaceful Valley and Paradise Lakes developments) in Whatcom County. Cold, stagnant air is preventing harmful wood smoke from clearing out.
The good news: our cleanup partner, Whatcom County Public Works, is making steady progress on its multi-year construction project to manage asbestos-laden sediment and control flooding in Swift Creek.
For more than 50 years, Washingtonians have relied on regulatory tools and the stewardship of local agencies and tribes to protect our environment. Most notably, the Washington State Department of Ecology was the first governmental agency in the U.S. to focus on clean water and the environment. Ecology pre-dates the federal Clean Water Act and goes above and beyond federal requirements for protection of water, land and wildlife.
If you live in Northwest Washington, or even if you just love to visit, you know it’s a place worth protecting. That’s why we’re launching our Give Like You Live Here campaign: a 48-hour fundraiser for local environmental advocacy and action, November 10th–11th.
A 6-foot beautiful but broken sea star ravaged by wasting disease. A contour map overlaid with poetic riffs on geologic time. Photographs of neon rectangles illuminating a dense forest to highlight the effects of forest fire. A jewel box installation of a kelp forest. An everyday business suit crafted from a silver emergency wildfire shelter.
Western Washington University’s Sustainability Pathways program, now in its seventh year, welcomed its largest cohort yet for summer 2026: 22 undergraduates working with 20 organizations, agencies and non-profits in the Methow and Okanogan valleys on projects focused on the environment, health and well-being, social equity and economic vitality.
The air you breathe when you step out your front door can sometimes be different than the air a few blocks away or across town. But how different? For the first time in Washington’s history, Ecology will be able to answer that in greater detail, thanks to a new study funded by the Climate Commitment Act (CCA). This winter, a fleet of specialized air monitoring vehicles will hit the streets in over 20 overburdened communities and participating Tribal Nations as part of a one-time, year-long High Resolution Mobile Monitoring study.
Tentative meetings run from September through December as the county reviews rules for environmentally sensitive and hazardous areas.