The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Our federal forests are withering away from neglect, insects and disease, and no- where is this more true than in Eastern Washington.

A staggering one-third of our country's national forest land managed by the U.S. Forest Service is diseased or dying. In the Colville National Forest alone, 300,000 of the forest's 1.1 million acres are bug-infested.

After infestations in Okanogan, Klickitat, Yakima and Ferry counties, the Washington Department of Natural Resources has declared forest healthhazard warnings. Our state estimates that devastating tree die-offs will impact one-third of Eastern Wa...