The Plumtaw Fire burning north of Pagosa Springs remains at 735 acres and 0% as of Thursday morning, but red flag weather conditions could cause it to spread.
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This is the June 3, 2021, edition of Boiling Point, a weekly newsletter about climate change and the environment in California and the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
It feels like just yesterday that California was roiled by rolling blackouts during an epic summer heat wave.
But that was nearly a year ago, and now summer is dawning once again. Across the West, power grid managers and utilities are preparing for heat waves, and for the dry, windy conditions that have toppled electrical infrastructure and ignited wildfires.
Temperatures are already spiking, which is happening more frequently as the planet warms. It’s not too bad in Los Angeles, but the mercury was forecast to hit 107 degrees in California’s Central Valley on Wednesday, two days after a 109-degree record was set in the Northern California city of Redding, per the New York Times’ Derrick Bryson Taylor. States including Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington are also scorching, with
A plan to reduce water allocated to farmers, ranchers and flows for helping endangered fish in the Pacific Northwest has left both the agricultural industry and conservationists unsatisfied.
In this March 3, 2020, file photo, the Klamath River is seen flowing across northern California from atop Cade Mountain in the Klamath National Forest. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus)
(CN) The federal government will offer millions of dollars in aid to farmers, ranchers and Native American tribes to help offset the impact of a severe drought on water earmarked for irrigating cropland and helping endangered fish on the California-Oregon border.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced Wednesday that it will provide $15 million in aid to farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Basin, and $3 million to help Native American tribes with environmental work, including efforts to protect endangered sucker fish in Oregon’s Upper Klamath Lake.