eastern Washington

USDA announced Tuesday that Patrick Bell will serve as State Executive Director for Washington’s Farm Service Agency.

The USDA has designated three Washington counties as primary natural disaster areas. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Asotin, Garfield, and Whitman Counties are now considered to be in a state of Extreme Drought, or D-3.

Family forest owners and managers across central and eastern Washington are encouraged to learn how to manage and protect their woodlands during a June 21st field day.  Washington State University Extension’s Forest and Range Owners Field Day will run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m....

On Friday, representatives from USDA’s Rural Development were in the Tri-Cities, attending a ribbon-cutting for a new biofuels facility.  The facility, owned by Vancouver-WA based Tidwater Terminal Company, received over $3 million via the Inflation Reduction Act, which looked to increase the availability of domestic biofuels.  Betsy Dirkson...

According to the latest numbers from Washington State University, stripe rust is forecasted to be in the moderate epidemic level in the eastern Pacific Northwest, which means 20-40% yield loss in the 2023 growing season.  Those estimates come from predication models using the weather data from November 2022 to February 2023.   ...

The Washington state Department of Natural Resources announced this week it is expanding its wildfire response team across the state.  DNR will add 60 positions, including hand crews, heavy equipment operators and more.  Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz says these new positions, made possible by House Bill 1168, won’t be limited to a wildfire fighting role, they’ll also be trained to do f

These are difficult days for the Washington farmer, but despite the many challenges, from Olympia, D.C. and of course Mother Nature, Rosella Mosby, president of the Washington Farm Bureau said it’s important that agriculture sticks together.  She...

The Department of Ecology says a cool and wet spring brought relief to much of Washington following the drought of 2021, but in a few parts of eastern Washington, the drought lingers. Because of that , the Washington Department of Ecology has issued an amended drought declaration for watersheds in eight eastern Washington counties that will go into effect June 1st ...

It’s already very dry across the Pacific Northwest, which has wildland firefighters nervous about what the season ahead may look like. Because of that, the Washington DNR is encouraging property owners to prepare their land now for the season ahead. Jen ...

The 2021-2022 Washington snowpack has been consistent, consistently disappointing. According to Scott Pattee with NRCS Washington, the statewide snowpack is hovering around 80% of average as we head into the final weeks of the snow season ...