Today's headlines:
- Forest thinning to reduce wildfire risk could also help protect water supplies.
- Rural Washington homeowners may get some relief from rising insurance rates, thanks to changes in how insurance companies consider wildfire risks.
- Spokane has changed several tax incentives for housing development. How is it playing out in different neighborhoods?
- Gonzaga and UI men's and women's basketball teams prepare for first-round games in the NCAA tournament brackets.
Plus, symptoms of long COVID have hit Latino agricultural workers in Washington particularly hard. Six years after the start of the pandemic, many are still searching for answers as to why their health hasn’t returned to normal. SPR's Murrow News Fellow and rural reporter Monica Carrillo-Casas shares three of their stories.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Kaleb Roedel, Steve Jackson, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick and Monica Carrillo-Casas.
Owen Henderson hosts and produces the show.
TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Monday, March 16, 2026.
On today’s show, how could wildfire prevention have downstream effects on reservoir water levels? A new study shows forest thinning could increase snowpack.
And rural homeowners in Washington could see relief from increasing fire insurance premiums as a state rating agency begins considering the firefighting capabilities of local departments.
Plus, symptoms of long COVID have hit Latino agricultural workers in Washington particularly hard. Six years after the start of the pandemic, many are still searching for answers as to why their health hasn’t returned to normal.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
New research suggests the way forests are managed could affect how much snowpack actually becomes useful water.
From our partner, the Mountain West News Bureau, Kaleb Roedel has more.
KALEB ROEDEL: In dense forests, not all of the snowfall reaches the forest floor.
Emily Howe is an aquatic ecologist with The Nature Conservancy and a co-author of the report.
EMILY HOWE: “When snow is falling, trees can act as an umbrella, and they can prevent the snow from actually reaching the ground, so it never becomes part of the water supply.”
KR: Snowpack feeds rivers and reservoirs each spring, supporting farms, cities and habitats downstream.
Researchers in Washington State found thinning dense forests—a common strategy used to reduce wildfire risk—can allow more snow to reach the ground, keeping it in the mountains longer.
Howe says in the West, managing forests carefully can protect the snowpack and the water many communities rely on, while also lowering wildfire danger.
OH: That was Kaleb Roedel reporting.
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Some relief could be coming for rural Washington homeowners, who have seen higher insurance premiums because of increased wildfires.
As SPR’s Steve Jackson reports, the organization that helps insurance companies assess fire risk has modified the criteria for determining threat levels.
STEVE JACKSON: The Washington State Fire Chiefs Association petitioned the Washington State Ratings Bureau to allow more consideration of firefighting capability into determining insurance rates for homes.
The Ratings Bureau has mostly relied on distance to fire stations, without taking into account the actual firefighting ability of local departments.
Now, homes up to seven miles away from a manned, full-time fire station with a mobile water supply will be eligible for reduced premiums.
The Chiefs Association says those stations are more effective than the Bureau previously believed.
Stevens County District 1 Fire Chief Mike Bucy says previously, homes had to be within five miles of a station.
MIKE BUCY: “I think it was estimated statewide that it’s now 98 percent of the homes that are covered by this, as opposed to before it was 88 percent or something like that.”
SJ: Bucy cautions that the new designation is for *manned* stations only, not all-volunteer departments, which often take longer to respond to fires.
I’m Steve Jackson, reporting.
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OH: To encourage the creation of new housing, Spokane has created certain tax incentives over the past few years.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports on the effects those policies are currently having in two neighborhoods.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Twelve new units are going in on Falls Avenue, the steep road leading to the Lower Crossings neighborhood between Kendall Yards and the Spokane River.
They’re benefitting from the city’s multi-family tax exemption, which waives property taxes for a few years for qualifying multi-unit properties.
The exemption is meant to encourage new housing for people who make a little under or a little over an area’s median income.
But the Falls Avenue units won’t have an income or rent restriction.
They also probably won’t have any parking.
Some neighbors tell SPR they expect the units will actually be marketed towards pretty wealthy people.
And they’re worried about parking congestion on their narrow street.
Delivery and emergency vehicles already have to back down that road, which is the only access point to a neighborhood with an elevated fire risk.
In Hillyard, the Northeast Public Development Authority is benefitting from Spokane’s “Parking 2 People” tax deferral.
The agency is building 35 units of housing atop a commercial first floor.
In order to be eligible for the tax deferral, half of those units will be reserved for very low, low- and moderate-income households for ten years.
City Council is set to review conditional agreements for both of these properties tonight.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: The Gonzaga and University of Idaho men will be first of four local basketball teams to take the court this week in the N-C-double-A tournament.
The region’s participants learned yesterday when and where they’ll play. SPR’s Doug Nadvornick has this rundown.
DOUG NADVORNICK: The Gonzaga men are seeded third in the West Regional. The Bulldogs will play Kennesaw State Thursday in Portland. It’s the 27th consecutive year for the Zags in the national tournament, the second longest streak in the nation. If they win, they could face former West Coast Conference rival, Brigham Young, in the second round.
The Idaho men are seeded 15th in the South Regional. The Big Sky Conference champs have a difficult first round game Thursday in Oklahoma City against the second seed University of Houston. Houston is led by former Washington State coach Kelvin Sampson.
The Gonzaga women will go to Minneapolis to play the University of Mississippi on Friday. The Zags are the 12 seed in the Sacramento 2 Regional against the fifth-seeded Rebels. It’s Gonzaga’s ninth trip to the national tournament in the last 12 years.
The Idaho women go to the NCAA tourney for the first time in 10 years. The Big Sky Conference regular season and tournament champions are seeded 13th in the Sacramento 4 Regional. They will play the University of Oklahoma on Friday on the Sooners’ home floor in Norman.
I’m Doug Nadvornick reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: Years after contracting COVID-19, Latino farmworkers in Washington State are searching for answers as to why their health has not returned to normal.
SPR’s rural affairs reporter and Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas has more.
MONICA CARILLO-CASAS: During the blueberry harvest in Oregon in 2021, Baldomero Muñoz was working another long day in the fields when he started feeling dizzy. Muñoz kept working, thinking it would pass. But the next day, he felt worse.
A few days later, Muñoz tested positive for COVID-19.
The 75-year-old says even though it's been five years since his initial diagnosis, he continues to deal with symptoms on a daily basis.
BALDOMERO MUÑOZ: “Hasta la fecha ya me quedaron los pies tiesos. Ya No puedo correr y se me olvida de repente unos 3 segundos dónde estoy.” (To this date my legs feel weak. I can’t run anymore, and for about three seconds I forget where I am).
MCC: Munoz believes he has long COVID.
Researchers and physicians describe long COVID as a condition where the patient continues to feel lasting symptoms despite testing negative.
In a study conducted by the University of Washington Latino Center for Health, about 41-percent of agricultural workers reported experiencing symptoms of long COVID.
Leo Morales, one of the lead researchers, says it could be that many were late to access the vaccine.
LEO MORALES: "There is also a certain strain of skepticism, and I would say misinformation, that flows through the Latino community that, yeah, people are hesitant to do it. There's, ‘the vaccine will give you the disease.’ You know, that's one concern.”
MCC: Muñoz began picking strawberries in the Oregon fields in 1994 and then went back and forth between Oregon and Washington to pick grapes and blueberries.
While the work is hard, he says his love for the fields has only grown. He says he often sings the day away during busy seasons.
His commitment to the fields didn’t change when he first got COVID. At the time, Muñoz says, he didn’t realize how serious his symptoms were.
He remembers thinking it was a cold creeping up on him. Or maybe he was working too quickly and it was causing him to feel dizzy.
But after testing positive, Muñoz realized he wasn’t well enough to be on his own. So he drove to his daughter’s house in Vancouver.
A few days later, Muñoz says he called her at work, feeling like he was on the verge of death.
BM: “Llegó y me llevó al médico rápido, pero lo que más sentía más duro fue en el cerebro en el cerebro, me dolía, el cerebro casi me explotaba y los pulmones comenzó poco a poco a fallarme.” (She arrived and took me to the hospital, but I remember what hurt the most was my head. I felt like my head was about to explode and little by little my lungs felt like they were failing me).
MCC: He says he didn’t work for several months, due to pulmonary issues. Even now, he deals with lingering symptoms of weak muscles and respiratory problems.
Farmworkers Lorena Avalos and her husband Jose Leon tell of a similar experience.
Leon says he was a healthy man who rarely got sick. Even during the first year of the pandemic, he says he didn’t get COVID. He even got vaccinated. But two years ago, he contracted it and wound up in the hospital.
JOSE LEON: “Cuando fui al hospital me pusieron ventilador para ayudarme respirar. Lo tengo que estar usando como cada tres veces por semana. Al mes, recai otra vez al hospital.” (When I went to the hospital they put a ventilator on me to help me breathe. I was given an inhaler afterward and use it three times a week. But I ended up in the hospital again a month later).
MCC: Leon says doctors diagnosed him with asthma. And later, he developed pneumonia. The lasting effects, he says, have been brutal on his health.
JL: “Yo ya de hecho tengo miedo que me mande otra vez al hospital.” (I’m scared I’ll end up in the hospital again.”
MCC: At their dining room table, his wife, Lorena Avalos, fidgets with an inhaler as she talks about testing positive for the virus five times. She has struggled with breathing problems since her first infection four years ago.
LORENA AVALOS: “La primera vez que tuve COVID fue tres meses despues de agarrar la primera vacuna. Y luego sali positive otra vez cinco meses despues. Y asi, casi cada dos meses me estaba contagiando.” (The first time I got COVID was three months after getting the first vaccine. And then I tested positive again five months after. I was getting COVID every few months.)
MCC: Avalos and Leon now rely on inhalers to manage their lasting symptoms, at a significant cost.
Because the couple doesn’t have health insurance, they pay out of pocket for every inhaler they buy, each about 120 dollars.
JL: “ Cuando se me acaba, lo luego corro agarrar otro. (The minute I run out, I go and get another one.)
MCC: Leon is also still paying his hospitalization bills.
The Washington State Institute for Public Policy’s estimates at least 39-percent of farmworkers don’t have medical insurance.
Last year, a bill was introduced in the Legislature to address health coverage equity, recognizing that immigrants – including many farmworkers – are disproportionately uninsured. The bill would have expanded access for people excluded from federal programs.
It did not pass before the session ended and wasn’t heard this year.
LA: “llegará una pandemia como el COVID, tiene que ver un plan B.” (If another pandemic comes around, there has to be a plan B).
MCC: For now, workers like Muñoz, Avalos and Leon are left managing their symptoms on their own.
I’m Monica Carrillo-Casas reporting.
OH: This story is part of a reporting fellowship sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists and supported by the Commonwealth Fund.
You can read English- and Spanish-language versions of this story right now on our website, Spokane Public Radio dot org.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Kaleb Roedel, Steve Jackson, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick and Monica Carrillo-Casas.
I’m Owen Henderson, your host and producer.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
