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Opinion

July 15, 2021

Family tree farms can help fight climate change

As climate change concerns grow, researchers are turning to small tree farmers for help. Actually, they have been helping for nearly a century, but their efforts have largely gone unrecognized.

July 8, 2021

What happens after the immortals die?

Giant sequoias come as close to immortality as living organisms can. Many live over 1,000 years, an almost unimaginable span of survival in the face of all of nature’s challenges.

July 1, 2021

Celebrate WA’s reopening, but know Delta still threatens more than half of our community

“Washington has come a long way since the first confirmed case of COVID in the country was found in our state in January 2020,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in May, just a few weeks before reopening the state and removing most COVID restrictions on Wednesday, June 30. “That is in no small part due to Washingtonians’ dedication and resilience in protecting themselves and their communities throughout the pandemic.”

June 24, 2021

U.S. leaders must talk about climate-driven migration

The Biden administration has made some admirable moves and gestures toward addressing the immense challenges posed by climate-related migration. But it hasn’t adequately educated the American people about the issue, hamstringing its own efforts to advance an ambitious immigration agenda, including the creation of a path to citizenship for the 10.5 million residents who are undocumented.

June 17, 2021

Vaccines can help youth get past ‘weathering the storm’

Once you’ve attended a few high school graduation ceremonies — shout out to the teachers, school administrators and other community newspaper folks out there — the speeches and cheers and caps flying in the air may start to blend together in your memory.

June 17, 2021
The Martin Canyon fire outside of Bellevue, Idaho, burns on the Twin Falls BLM District adjacent to the EE-DA-HO Ranch in 2017. (Photo by Jonathon Golden, courtesy of Writers on the Range)

What do we owe wildland firefighters?

“It’s like having gasoline out there,” said Brian Steinhardt, forest fire zone manager for Prescott and Coconino national forests in Arizona, in a recent Associated Press story about the increasingly fire-prone West.