Uncontainable Wildfires Are Inevitable. Community Destruction Is Not.
Five policy shifts could help communities harden their homes against fire danger.
Collection: Climate Smart Farming
Explore Sightline’s articles on climate-smart farming, where we delve into sustainable agricultural practices that support Cascadia’s resilience to climate change.
Northwest Carbon Markets Can’t Support Longer Timber Harvest Rotations
That would take a New Zealand-style, all-forests cap-and-trade system.
Why Do We Choose Short Rotation Forestry Over Carbon Storage, Timber Supply, and Forest Health?
The discount rate, vanishing large-log mills, and fear of the spotted owl.
Yes, Long Rotations Can Yield Real Climate Gains for Cascadia
Harvesting trees at 80 years, instead of 40, stores more carbon and yields more timber.
Herbicide Use on Washington Wheat Fields Has Quadrupled. Tech Could Slash That.
When Bryan Jones drives a spade into his soil, he unearths signs of life: earthworm-sized pinholes lace the soil profile, aerating his fields and making pathways for spring rains to soak in. Bryan is a fourth-generation wheat farmer in Whitman County, Washington, near the heart of the Pacific Northwest’s wheat country. He credits his two … Read more
The Tilling Catch-22: Erosion vs. Superweeds
Every winter of his childhood, Ron Juris remembers watching rivulets run down his family’s fields. They’d grow bigger with every storm throughout the winter and spring, each time carrying larger streams of soil down the slopes, as brown as chocolate milk. In the fall and spring, area windstorms would blow the soil away, at times … Read more
Agroforestry Could Help Cascadia’s Farmers and Dwindling Salmon Populations
Nick Pate can look across the street from his farm into Washington’s Snohomish River, where five salmon species swim to their spawning beds. The salmon are fighting a losing battle with habitat loss, declining water quality, and rising water temperatures. Chinook are among the hardest hit—less than 10 percent of their historic numbers now swim … Read more
Adapting to Climate Change Means Farmers Need Each Other More Than Ever
Farmers in the Pacific Northwest are already experiencing climate change: warmer temperatures, drier summers, and more severe storms are just a few of the effects so far—and more erratic weather is on the way. Producers will have to adapt to these new weather patterns. How they do so will have big consequences for farmers’ livelihoods, … Read more
