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If you could monitor only 7 species in the entire Pacific Northwest, which would you choose, in order to learn the most about the region’s ecological health? Here’s why I ask… Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you probably already know that the ivory-billed woodpecker was re-discovered, not extinct after all, in the swamps of Arkansas. But unless you happen to be a mollusk biologist you’re probably not aware...

Endangered species may be endangered by the very agencies that are supposed to protect them. Or as Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporters Robert McClure and Lisa Stiffler phrase it: "the federal government is handing out licenses to kill endangered species." And it’s all perfectly legal. In an excellent three-part series this week, the P-I puts a spotlight on the practices of government agencies—and their often cozy relationship with developers and industry—that jeopardize...

The success of sea otters and wolves returning to the Northwest signifies not only a return to wild-ness, but the beginning of a return to healthy and thriving natural systems.

In all the Northwest’s varied bestiary, probably no creature is such a crowd-pleaser, has the plain old cuteness, of sea otters. Their faces are expressive and eager, their rollicking behavior is adorable. They are what biologists call "charismatic megafauna"–large and often cute animals that attract public attention–par excellence. But sea otters are a lot more than just another pretty face. Like wolves, their recent story is heartening. But much more...

When Lewis and Clark reached Cascadia 200 years ago, wolves ranged across most of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest. But within a little more than a century, ill-advised “predator control” schemes extirpated wolves from nearly their entire historic range. So the West went wolf-less until the mid-1990s when small populations were re-introduced into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. What a difference a decade makes. Wolf populations boomed, and...