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Snohomish County PUD's innovative solar battery powered microgrid batteries sit in their enclosed units during a visit by Governor Jay Inslee on Tuesday, April 20, 2021 in Arlington, Wash. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Local News

PUD’s experimental solar power microgrid is ready to go live

The site in Arlington will be a test lab of ideas, as the PUD figures out the future…

PUD Generation Senior Manager Brad Spangler points out a megawatt meter for one of two generators that provide power to the City of Everett at the Henry M. Jackson Hydroelectric Project on Friday, July 23, 2021 in Sultan, Wash. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Local News

How the PUD kept things humming during the record heat wave

The public utility has been bracing for the impacts of climate change for more than a decade.

Two boats abandoned bob in the waters Howarth Park in in Everett on July 14, 2021. They have been inspected by Department of Ecology teams to check for oil spills and await removal. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

Local News

Abandoned boats washed up at Howarth Park slated for removal

The Everett Police Department is taking steps to haul off two vessels stuck in the sand.

Community leaders and officials break ground at the Port of Everett's Norton Terminal at the former Kimberly-Clark mill site along the waterfront Thursday morning in Everett on July 15, 2021. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

Local News

Legacy of pollution makes Everett port project ‘challenging’

The former Kimberly-Clark mill site is nearing the end of a complex cleanup, part of a $36 million…

Areas of the declared drought emergency are in orange. (Washington Department of Ecology) 20210714

Local News

Snohomish County is an oasis of sorts in Washington’s drought

An emergency was declared for much of the state. Snohomish County was spared, thanks to its reservoirs.

Karen Sample with her daughter Erin take in the view on the Erinswood Trail. The 0.6-mile loop is an ADA-accessible companion trail to the Leovy Trail in Index on July 6, 2021. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

Local News

In Index, Erinswood Trail will be a place for everyone

Named after Erin Sample, who has cerebral palsy, it will become fully ADA-compliant.

Tom Teigen, Snohomish County Parks, Recreation and Tourism director and Sentor Maria Cantwell tour the estuary restoration project Friday afternoon at Meadowdale Beach Park on July 9, 2021. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

Local News

At Meadowdale Beach, the salmon will return to a new estuary

Construction is underway on a new railroad bridge that will open a connection between gulch and sea.

A worker, who declined to be named, looks at a photo of Sebastian Francisco Perez who died last weekend while working in an extreme heat wave, Thursday, July 1, 2021, near St. Paul, Ore. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Local News

8 deaths in county now suspected due to recent heat wave

The state tally of heat-related fatalities is now 78, officials said.

Kais Bothe relaxes in the cool in the city hall pool, as temperatures hit 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) in Edmonton, Alberta, on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Northwest

Study: Northwest heat wave impossible without climate change

In Oregon alone, the state medical examiner reported 116 deaths related to the extreme hot weather.

A Caspian tern is cared for at PAWS in Lynnwood. (Submitted photo) 20210704

Local News

Young birds jumped out of their nests to escape the heat

PAWS Wildlife Center is caring for dozens of fledgling birds that jumped off a building in Seattle.

President Joe Biden, right, listens during an event in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington, Wednesday, June 30, 2021, with cabinet officials and governors from Western states to discuss drought and wildfires. Others a the table are, from left, White House chief of staff Ron Klain, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Northwest

As wildfires rage, Biden is raising federal firefighter pay

The president is holding a virtual meeting Wednesday with governors from Western states.

Local News

3 in county died from heat stroke, and danger still looms

The hottest day is over, but forecasters say temperatures are expected to remain above normal.

David Parada, 7, left, and Abel Parada, 8, run through a heavy spray of water creating a rainbow at Walter E. Hall Park on Saturday, June 26, 2021 in Everett, Wa. The Everett Fire Department set up a fire hose sprinkler station to help people cool down and escape the heat Saturday afternoon. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Local News

Monday will be worse: Some locations could see 110 degrees

The heat wave sweltered past 100 degrees Sunday in much of Snohomish County and Western Washington.

The Monte Cristo trail connects to an access road on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020 in Monte Cristo, Wa. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Local News

At Monte Cristo ghost town, a big fight over a short road

Historic preservationists want to keep a new road to access the townsite. Environmentalists want it gone.

Bri Gabel joins volunteers and Imagine Children's Museum staff as they clean the bones of a gray whale at a Mukilteo area industrial site early this month. The whale died in 2019. The bones will be part of an exhibit Gabel is designing for the museum's addition, which is due to open in 2022. (Julianne Diddle photo)

Local News

Whale skeleton will be a star attraction at children’s museum

Exhibit’s designer pitched in and shared expertise as volunteers spent a day cleaning massive bones.

In this photo provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, grasshoppers are seen eating a plant in this undated handout photo from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Federal agriculture officials are launching what could be the largest grasshopper-killing campaign since the 1980s amid an outbreak of the drought-loving insects that cattle ranchers fear will strip bare public and private rangelands. (U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service via AP)

Northwest

Western drought brings another woe: voracious grasshoppers

Cattle ranchers fear the drought-loving insects will strip bare public and private rangelands.

Cars make their way across US 2 between Lake Stevens and Everett as wildfire smoke makes downtown Everett barely visible on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Local News

Wildfire smoke: A burning health issue is getting worse

As the hazardous haze increases during fire seasons, it’s time to get serious and prepare, experts say.

FILE - In this Jan. 18, 2014, file photo, endangered orcas from the J pod swim in Puget Sound west of Seattle, as seen from a federal research vessel that has been tracking the whales. A new study from federal researchers provides the most detailed look yet at what the Pacific Northwest's endangered orcas eat. Scientists with the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center spent years collecting fecal samples from the whales as well as scales from the fish they devoured. They say their data reaffirm the central importance of Chinook salmon to the whales. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

Northwest

Feds could restrict West Coast salmon fishing to help orcas

NOAA Fisheries is taking public comment on the plan, which wouldn’t affect tribes.

Northwest

Puget Sound Energy inks deal to buy Montana wind power

The utility can use transmission lines from the Colstrip plant to bring electricity to western Washington.

This undated aerial photo provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a herd of caribou on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. The Biden administration is suspending oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as it reviews the environmental impacts of drilling in the remote region.(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)

Northwest

Biden suspends oil leases in Alaska’s Arctic refuge

The region is home to polar bears and other wildlife — and a rich reserve of oil.