"U.S. crews battling a flurry of wildfires raging unchecked across the Pacific Northwest contended with high winds on Thursday, a day after three firefighters were killed and four others were injured in Washington state."

"Three firefighters in Washington state were killed and four injured while battling a wildfire threatening the town of Twisp, officials said on Wednesday, as more than a dozen major blazes burned in parched Western U.S. states."

"A toxic algae bloom that began off the West Coast this spring now stretches from California to Alaska. It’s poisoning marine life from shellfish to sardines to sea lions, and scientists say it’s one of the worst they’ve seen."

"Conservation groups are accusing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of withholding research showing a federal plan to kill seabirds on the Columbia River would not actually benefit salmon and steelhead."

"U.S. authorities banned fishing from Monday in most rivers and streams within the Olympic National Park in western Washington state, citing ongoing severe drought conditions that have harmed fish along the U.S. West Coast."

"The city of Spokane has filed a lawsuit against the international agrochemical giant Monsanto, alleging that the company sold chemicals for decades that it knew were a danger to human and environmental health."

"Protesters began gathering in a riverside park in Portland Tuesday evening, planning to drop kayaks in the water to protest Wednesday's scheduled launch of a ship to be used by Royal Dutch Shell for Arctic oil exploration."

"Unseasonably hot water has killed nearly half of the sockeye salmon migrating up the Columbia River through Oregon and Washington state, a wildlife official said on Monday."

"The state is grappling with the growing phenomenon of the 'urban wildfire.' That's when blazes that ignite in forests spread rapidly into recently built subdivisions and whole towns."

"Oregon wildlife officials are restricting fishing on most of the state's rivers in a first-of-its-kind effort to help fish populations that are dying off from high water temperatures as the state suffers ongoing drought conditions."