Yacolt is a town in Clark County, Washington, United States. The 2019 population is estimated to be 1,796. It is located about 31 miles northeast of Vancouver which is part of the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area.
The Portland metropolitan area is a metro area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered on the principal city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identifies it as the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan statistical area used by the United States Census Bureau (USCB) and other entities. The OMB defines the area as comprising Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill Counties in Oregon, and Clark and Skamania Counties in Washington. The area had a population of 2,512,859 at the 2020 census, an increase of over 12% since 2010.
The Capitol State Forest is a 110,000-acre (450 km2) state forest in Thurston and Grays Harbor counties of the U.S. state of Washington. It includes part of the unusual Mima Mounds geologic feature.
Silver Star Mountain is a recently uplifted ridge of older Western Cascades volcanic rock, underlain by a granitic pluton of similar Western Cascades age, located in the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Washington. Consisting of late Eocene to Oligocene epoch rock, it lies within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Silver Star is composed of three lithologic units, including the large Silver Star Granodiorite unit.
The Yacolt Burn is the collective name for dozens of fires in Washington state and Oregon occurring between September 8 and September 12, 1902, causing 38 deaths in the Lewis River area, at least nine deaths by fire in Wind River and 18 deaths in the Columbia River Gorge.
Nine Mile Falls is an unincorporated community in Spokane County, Washington and Stevens County, Washington, United States. The community straddles the Spokane River 9 miles (14 km) away from downtown Spokane, at the location of a former falls that has been the site of Nine Mile Dam since 1908. Following the river, the community is located 16 miles (26 km) downstream from downtown.
Larch Mountain, elevation 3,480 feet (1,060 m), is the highest free-standing peak in Clark County, Washington. It is laced by a network of gravel roads as part of the Yacolt Burn State Forest. The eastern flank of the mountain was scorched by a gigantic forest fire in September 1902 and subsequently experienced a massive rockslide that rendered that side mostly unvegetated. The southern section of the mountain is part of the Jones Creek Off-Road Vehicle recreation area. From the picnic area at the top, the view is west toward the Vancouver, Washington area and east to Silver Star. A minimum security prison/work camp is situated nearby, whose inmates construct fire roads, fire trails, maintain campgrounds and help fight fires in the area.
National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a large facility program operated by Battelle Memorial Institute and funded by the National Science Foundation. In full operation since 2019, NEON gathers and provides long-term, standardized data on ecological responses of the biosphere to changes in land use and climate, and on feedback with the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. NEON is a continental-scale research platform for understanding how and why our ecosystems are changing.
Dishman Hills Natural Resources Conservation Area is a 530-acre (210 ha) area protected by a combination of public and non-profit groups, located in Spokane County, Washington. The granite outcroppings, forming the bulk of the area, were originally formed 70 million years ago, by volcanic magma pushing up through the Earth's crust and then cooling. The protected Dishman Hills Natural Resources Conservation Area with its rugged, potholed appearance and deep gullies is a result of the Missoula Floods and represents one of the most ecologically diverse regions in Washington state, where forests, grasslands and shrublands converge and is within two ecoregions, the Okanagan and Northern Rockies ecoregions. The hills consist of small ravines, ponds, and large chunks of granite, that support an eco-system consisting mainly of ponderosa pine, as well as about 300 different flowering plants, and 73 different species of mushrooms. The area also supports wildlife, such as coyotes, marmots, white-tailed deer, pheasants, and dozens of species of butterflies. The Dishman Hills rise immediately south of the Dishman section of The City of Spokane Valley. Continuing south, out of the park, the elevation continues to rise to the Rocks of Sharon and the Iller Creek Conservation Area near the peak of Krell Hill.
Patapsco Valley State Park is a Maryland state park extending along 32 miles (51 km) of the Patapsco River south and west of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. The park encompasses multiple developed areas on over 14,000 acres (5,700 ha) acres of land, making it Maryland's largest state park. In 2006, it was officially celebrated as Maryland's first state park, its first formation being in 1906. Patapsco Valley State Park is managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Wisconsin, a state in the Midwestern United States, has a vast and diverse geography famous for its landforms created by glaciers during the Wisconsin glaciation 17,000 years ago. The state can be generally divided into five geographic regions—Lake Superior Lowland, Northern Highland, Central Plain, Eastern Ridges & Lowlands, and Western Upland. The southwestern part of the state, which was not covered by glaciers during the most recent ice age, is known as the Driftless Area. The Wisconsin glaciation formed the Wisconsin Dells, Devil's Lake, and the Baraboo Range. A number of areas are protected in the state, including Devil's Lake State Park, the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, and the Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest.
The Rattlesnake Hills, also known as Rattlesnake Ridge, is a 16-mile (26 km) long anticline mountain ridge in Yakima County and Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. It should not be confused with the much smaller Rattlesnake Ridge located near the west end of Ahtanum Ridge just south of Yakima, Washington and west of Union Gap, Washington. The highest point in the hills is the 3,629 feet (1,106 m) Lookout Summit, which surpasses the more well-known Rattlesnake Mountain by approximately 100 ft (30 m). The Rattlesnake Hills are part of the Yakima Fold Belt of east-tending long ridges formed by the folding of Miocene Columbia River basalt flows.
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) manages over 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km2) of forest, range, agricultural, and commercial lands in the U.S. state of Washington. The DNR also manages 2,600,000 acres (11,000 km2) of aquatic areas which include shorelines, tidelands, lands under Puget Sound and the coast, and navigable lakes and rivers. Part of the DNR's management responsibility includes monitoring of mining cleanup, environmental restoration, providing scientific information about earthquakes, landslides, and ecologically sensitive areas. DNR also works towards conservation, in the form of Aquatic Reserves such as Maury Island and in the form of Natural Area Preserves like Mima Mounds or Natural Resource Conservation Areas like Woodard Bay Natural Resource Conservation Area.
The Puget Sound region is a coastal area of the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. state of Washington, including Puget Sound, the Puget Sound lowlands, and the surrounding region roughly west of the Cascade Range and east of the Olympic Mountains. It is characterized by a complex array of saltwater bays, islands, and peninsulas carved out by prehistoric glaciers.
The 2014 Washington wildfires were a series of 1,480 wildfires that burned 386,972 acres (1,566 km2) over the course of 2014. The first occurred primarily on the east side of the Cascade Range in Chelan and Okanogan counties. The fires burned private land, state land, and within the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests, ultimately covering over 350,000 acres. The first fire began on July 8 near the Entiat River. On July 14 a lightning storm started dozens more fires across the eastern Cascade Range. Governor Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency, activating the Washington National Guard. More lightning strikes later in the summer started additional fires.
The Carlton Complex Fire was a massive wildfire in north central Washington which burned 256,108 acres (1,036.4 km2) during the 2014 Washington wildfire season. It began on July 14, 2014 as four separate lightning-caused fires in the Methow Valley which merged into one by July 18. The complex destroyed 353 homes in and around the towns of Pateros and Brewster, as well as rural Okanogan County. The fire caused an estimated $98 million in damages. The Carlton Complex remains the largest single wildfire in Washington state history, surpassing the 1902 Yacolt Burn.
The 2018 Washington wildfire season officially began June 1, 2018. A statewide state of emergency was declared by Governor Jay Inslee on July 31.
Hilary S. Franz is an American politician and conservation attorney serving as the 16th Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands since 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party who was previously a member of the Bainbridge Island city council and was elected as commissioner in 2016.
The 2021 Washington wildfire season officially began in March 2021. By late April, all of Eastern Washington had been classified by the United States Drought Monitor as "abnormally dry" with moderate to severe drought conditions. The state had more than 630 wildfires by the first week of July, on par with the state's record 2015 wildfire season.
Teanaway Community Forest is a state owned 50,272-acre (20,344 ha) dual-use community forest and recreation area in the central Washington Cascades near Cle Elum. It was created through a public-private partnership involving Forterra and both Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Washington Department of Natural Resources acting towards the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan. When the land purchase from a private timber company was made in September 2013, it was described as the single largest transaction in Washington state in the past 45 years. The forest is about the size of the city of Seattle, 65 miles (105 km) to the west.
