OLYMPIA, Wash. – An orca conservation team convened by Gov. Jay Inslee is holding its first meeting on Tuesday. The Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Task Force will focus on ways to help the Northwest's iconic species. Southern Resident Orca numbers in the Salish Sea have been in seri

SEATTLE – Pet owners in the Evergreen State have been given two scares in the past few weeks over contaminated pet food. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to pet owners about food brands, including Gravy Train and Kibbles 'n Bits, after the agency found low levels of pen

SEATTLE – A federal judge has ordered more water be released from dams on the lower Columbia and Snake rivers to improve survival chances for endangered salmon in the region. The order came from U.S. District Judge Michael Simon on a motion filed by conservation groups that had support from t

SPOKANE, Wash. – As the public weighs in today in Spokane on the future of the Lower Snake River dams, researchers are calling for their removal in order to save Puget Sound orcas. In October, two members of the J pod of Southern Resident killer whales died, and scientists at the Center for

SEATTLE - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has confirmed 1.6 million acres of mostly federal land in Washington are critical habitat for the marbled murrelet. The small, diving seabird, known as a "fog lark" to loggers, has been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1992. Cri

SEATTLE – Native American tribes in Washington state received a victory Monday from a federal appeals court that ruled the state must pay to fix fish blocking culverts. Culverts allow rivers and streams to flow underneath roadways, but can be trouble for salmon swimming upstream if the culve

SEATTLE – June is Orca Awareness Month, the time of year when killer whales return to the inland waters of western Washington. The endangered residents of Northwest orca pods face a number of threats, the most severe being a shortage of food, which is mainly Chinook salmon. "Our efforts ar

SEATTLE - Researchers from the University of Washington are studying a drug that could extend the lives of dogs and one day, maybe even humans. The drug rapamycin, typically used to treat organ-transplant patients, could be used at low doses to slow the aging process, attacking cancer and other ag