PYRAMID LAKE, Nev. – Hour after hour, Brian Dunn lofted his fly line into the turquoise-blue water of this shimmering desert lake north of Reno.

Deep in a mountain on a remote island above the Arctic Circle in Norway, scientists conserve thousands of varieties of seeds so they can be studied and used for future food needs. The seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault are the backup for other gene banks around the world, including one in Syria that’s been threatened by civil unrest.

China overtook the United States last year as the global leader in clean energy investment while American spending on renewables dropped nearly 40 percent, according to a report to be released Wednesday by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

A naturally occurring soil bacteria could give native bunch grasses at the Hanford Reach National Monument the competitive advantage they need to edge out cheatgrass.

U.S. consumers who purchase hardwood floors and furniture products made with illegally cut Russian timber unwittingly may be damaging the last remaining habitat of the endangered and noble Amur tiger.

The two-year-old male panther peeked cautiously out of the open crate placed on a dirt track between a canal and thick brush. It looked both ways, then dashed down the road like a thoroughbred in the final lap of the Triple Crown, disappearing from sight within seconds.

The Army Corps of Engineer under law is supposed to maintain the lower Snake River navigation channel at 14 feet deep and 250 feet wide. In the draft EIS, the Corps is proposing a long-term plan to manage, and prevent if possible, river sediment deposition behind all four dams, Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite Locks and Dams.

The Coast Guard has asked the Justice Department to investigate possible pollution violations by both the drilling rigs Shell used in its botched efforts to explore for oil last year in the Arctic Ocean waters off the northern coast of Alaska.

The Olympia Planning Commission has finished its recommendations on the draft update of the city’s comprehensive plan, an effort that has been years in the making.