Nature

83 Stories

Environment

Mapping the spaghetti highways of the West

Matthew Kauffman, who works for the U.S. Geological Survey, has been working along with many tribal and state officials over the last several years to create new maps that chart wildlife. They want to see where the deer, elk, and pronghorn highways are that run throughout America’s Western states.
Anna King
Environment

Murder kittens: Outdoor cats take heavy toll on wildlife

Despite the wildlife hospital’s best efforts, 80% of cat-attack victims brought there do not survive.
John Ryan
Environment

Could grizzly bears officially return to the North Cascades?

The last confirmed grizzly bear sighting in the North Cascades was in 1996. But that could change.
Libby Denkmann

Noel Gasca
Environment

The case of the dying newts: an Olympic Peninsula mystery

I can’t tell you where I interviewed Max Lambert, but I can tell you what we saw. It wasn’t pretty.
John Ryan
Environment

This Ivy League wages hand-to-leaf combat against an English strangler

No hallowed halls in this ivy league: just hard, dirty labor against an ‘evil’ foe.
John Ryan
Health

Breathing the world’s worst air

Western Washington currently has some of the world’s dirtiest air due to smoke from wildfires in the Cascade Mountains. Fires have been burning for weeks, but people living close to the fire line say these past few days have been the worst conditions so far this year.
Casey Martin
Environment

See the buzzworthy winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition

This year's top prizes went to a teen from Thailand and an American who is just the fifth woman to win in 58 years. Karine Aigner spoke with NPR about the significance of the photo and the award.
Rachel Treisman

Estefania Mitre
Environment

Hear it again: How dramatic pandemic shifts affected Northwest birds

While we were cooped up in Covid lockdowns, birds in the cities and suburbs of the Pacific Northwest were spreading their wings! And in a new University of Washington paper, ornithologists suggest that birds like crows, hummingbirds, finches, and chickadees were using a wider variety of public spaces during the early days of the pandemic. Olivia Sanderfoot was the lead researcher on the study.
Libby Denkmann

Jason Burrows
Environment

Female hummingbirds are mimicking males to avoid aggression

Male Humming birds are not as sweet as they seem. Female hummingbirds are disguising themselves to look like males to avoid aggression. But, male hummingbirds are "willing to mate with pretty much anything", so the undercover females are still finding a mate!
Natalie Akane Newcomb
Environment

Sharing 'a life-sustaining energy,' exploring Seward Park with naturalist Ed Dominguez

Since 2011, Ed Dominguez has been working at Seward Park's Audubon Environmental Learning Center in one capacity or another, and has been the Lead Naturalist since 2018. After a pandemic induced year long hiatus, the center is back open, and Ed is leading groups of budding birders and long time nature lovers through the park.
Jason Burrows

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