Cover Story
Mount St. Helens--the perfect laboratory

by Tim Steury
photography by Robert Hubner

It is impossible to accept the immensity of Mount St. Helens and the effect of its catastrophic 1980 eruption unless you are able to stand beneath the enormous crater on the pumice plain and listen to John Bishop talk about lupines.

Features

Lonely, beautiful, and threatened
Willapa Bay's advocates fend off invasions

by Eric Apalategui
photography by Bill Wagner

Willapa Bay is the largest estuary between San Francisco and Puget Sound. It boasts one of the least-spoiled environments and the healthiest salmon runs south of Canada. It produces one in every four oysters farmed in the United States and is a favorite stop for tens of thousands of migratory birds. And it's in trouble.

Extreme diversity

by Tina Hilding

Soap Lake is surrounded by dark shores, sheer rock walls, a primeval landscape. Its waters have long been thought by some to cure certain maladies. It is also home to strange, hardy organisms that live nowhere else.

Keith Lincoln, barn builder

by Pat Caraher

Over 25 years at Washington State University, alumni director Keith Lincoln built many things, including friendships and a place where alums can go to sit in the shade.

A more effective nag

by Megan Guido

How the mere asking of a question can become a force for positive change.

Tackling megacity crud

by Tina Hilding

A whole new take on the Mexico City blues.

High-stakes tests: What do they tell us?

by Donald C. Orlich and Glenn Gifford

Is educational reform in the guise of high-stakes testing harming our children?

Building a better bee-trap

by Tina Hilding

Panoramas

Tracking the Cougars