Today's headlines:
- The Washington Department of Natural Resources is deciding which of its 200 sites will be shuttered after losing half its budget.
- Hydropower operators and utilities are appealing a decision requiring them to spill more water over dams to protect salmon.
- More sheriffs sue over new WA eligibility requirements as hearing approaches in northeastern Washington case.
- Spokane City Council is rushing to stop new drive thrus and quick vehicle service shops near public transit stops. It's unclear what the urgency is.
Plus, it seemed like getting a whaling permit would be little more than a formality after the Makah Tribe got a waiver to revive its traditional hunt under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. For more than a year now, the tribe’s permit application has gone unanswered. But the Makahs say they are doing what they can to get ready to hunt as soon as this summer. KNKX environment reporter Bellamy Pailthorp reports from the edge of the Olympic Peninsula.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Steve Jackson, Bellamy Pailthorp, Owen Henderson and Eliza Billingham.
Owen Henderson hosts and produces the show. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Monday, April 13, 2026.
On today’s show, Washington’s Natural Resources Department is deciding which of its recreation areas to close this summer after losing about half of its budget to cuts by state lawmakers.
Plus, Spokane is moving quickly to pause development of new car-centric businesses near major public transit stops.
And Bellamy Pailthorp takes us to the very edge of the Olympic Peninsula, where the Makah Tribe is trying to navigate a slow-moving permit process to resume its tradition of subsistence whale hunting.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
The Washington Department of Natural Resources is deciding which of its 200 sites will see reduced service and maintenance—or be closed entirely.
Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove says the state legislature cut his department’s budget in half.
DAVE UPTHEGROVE: “We’re trying to prioritize sites that are operationally expensive to manage, meaning the drive and travel times for staff are lengthy, or there are requirements for restroom cleaning services and outhouse pumping or things like that that drive costs.”
OH: The funding loss also means the loss of certain partnerships and workers.
DU: “There’s no way moving forward that we can safely and appropriately maintain 100 percent of this when we lost all of our Conservation Corps funding, and our recreation maintenance funding is cut in half, and on top of that, the legislature eliminated five of our law enforcement officers.”
OH: The Dragoon Creek Campground in Pend Oreille County is one of the 18 sites on the possible shutdown list.
Upthegrove says the final decision on which recreation areas will be shuttered will come in a couple of weeks.
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Hydropower operators in the Columbia River Basin are pushing back against a ruling that requires them to spill more water over dams to protect endangered salmon.
Federal dam operators along the Snake and Columbia Rivers filed an appeal last month.
Joining them is the Public Power Council, which represents about 100 utilities across the Pacific Northwest.
Scott Simms is its executive director. He says the spill requirements hamper the capabilities of the hydropower system.
SCOTT SIMMS: “Especially in the August timeframe, when we really need it the most (...) and what we worry about is a terrible collision of high heat. Let's say we've got forest fires that may be impacting the system, and then we have a hobbled hydro system that can't perform and can't really cover that peak need. We could ultimately see some blackouts occurring.”
OH: Another concern is that a strained hydropower system will result in higher utility bills for customers.
The Public Power Council is also joining the federal defendants in a request to put a pause on the lower court order to keep more water flowing through the turbines this summer.
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Washington’s new law that raises standards for sheriffs and creates a path to remove them from office is facing another lawsuit.
The state Sheriffs’ Association and a Kitsap County sheriff candidate argue the measure improperly takes power from voters and gives it to an unelected state board.
It’s a very similar argument to the legal challenge filed two weeks ago by the sheriffs of Spokane, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille Counties.
A hearing in the northeastern Washington sheriffs’ case is set for Thursday in Newport.
Lawyers for the state are asking to move that case out of Pend Oreille County and push back the court date.
— — —
Spokane is rushing to stop new drive-thrus or quick service auto shops from going in near popular public transit hubs in the city.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham has more.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: The more cars that interact with pedestrians, bikes, or wheelchairs, the more risk of collision there is.
That’s at least the thinking of Spokane’s planning department, and the reason they say they’re proposing a yearlong moratorium on car-centric businesses near major or soon-to-be major public transit stops.
Spokane City Council will hear the proposal about moratorium areas in committee today.
Those areas include most of Division Street, roughly 20 blocks of Monroe Street, most of Hamilton Street, the business district of Sprague Avenue, and a few spots in Hillyard and on the South Hill.
No current businesses or pending permits would be affected by the moratorium.
Typically, council takes weeks to move things from committee to final vote. It’s unclear what the rush is, but council is slated to vote tonight [MON] on imposing the moratorium. They would set a public hearing for June 1.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: It seemed like getting a whaling permit would be little more than a formality after the Makah Tribe got a waiver to revive its traditional hunt under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
For more than a year now, the tribe’s permit application has gone unanswered.
But the Makahs say they are doing what they can to get ready to hunt as soon as this summer.
KNKX environment reporter Bellamy Pailthorp has the story from Neah Bay.
[COAST AMBI FADE IN]
BELLAMY PAILTHORP: Southwest of town in Neah Bay, Daniel Greene stands in a grassy clearing on the edge of the Pacific ocean.
There’s a re-constructed long house here, with a painting of a gray whale on its side.
Greene is from a Makah whaling family.
He wanted me to know that we’re in what was once one of the oldest of five original Makah villages—carbon dated at nearly 4,000 years old. It’s called Wyatch [WaɁač́] Village.
DANIEL GREENE: “This is where my great grandfather was born, in one of our long houses, [Qʷa·ɫqʷi·bit]. And there was four long houses that were right in this area that we're standing on. There's a lot more back then, but this is where my family was from.”
BP: He says this is where the most important Makah stories take place, of how whaling first began.
Greene says from the bluffs here you can see them migrating past ‘by the hundreds.’
He says whale bones are built into the foundations of the houses.
He remembers clearing the land near a drainage area when he was a young man in his 20s.
DG: “Yeah, just pulling sticker bushes out. You know, whale bones rolling out of the sticker bushes. Pretty darn cool. And they're heavy, dense bones. So they're really old, bigger whales.”
BP: About ten miles to the south is where the last whale was taken by the tribe, in an officially permitted hunt in 1999.
Greene trained with that last whaling crew.
But he was just a teenager—too young to actually hunt—and the tribe was ordered to stop in 2002.
Now 44, with 7 children, he says he might be too old.
But he’s been preparing physically and spiritually, along with others in the tribe who come from whaling families.
DG: “To actually fill in that missing piece, to actually go out and do the hunt that you're—you get taught about is, like, the culmination of everything.”
BP: Greene is vice chair of the Makah Whaling Commission.
He says they’re now hoping to resume the hunt in July.
I spoke with a handful of others. Every one of them wanted the world to know: It’s time. They’re ready.
Christopher Martinez is the secretary of the whaling commission and chief of staff for the Makah Tribal Council.
CHRISTOPHER MARTINEZ: “Our folks are training. They're in the water, they're doing their trainings. They’re pulling in the canoe, and practicing and preparing for everything that they need to do... I don't see any real challenge for the tribe and for the whalers, other than not being able to actually go hunt.”
BP: They submitted a permit application last March, for two hunting seasons, from July to October in 2025 and 2027.
Federal regulators put it out for public comment but then never responded and allowed the first hunting season the tribe had applied for to pass.
CM: “It's been very frustrating. The tribes worked very hard over the last couple decades to make sure that every piece of paper and every, Environmental Impact Statement and every regulation has been has been met, and as soon as the tribe meets that criteria, and to still have a hold up after doing everything on our part is really like infuriating to the tribe.”
BP: Now, Martinez says, they’ve submitted a new request, to amend their permit application so they could start the hunt this summer instead of waiting until 2027.
[CARVING AMBI]
In the woodshop at Neah Bay high school, students chip away at pieces of yellow cedar that they’re carving into hollowed out trays.
Traditionally, these would be used for dipping whale and seal oil.
Instructor Paul Greene says this advanced class also makes clubs for fishing and sealing.
And there’s a small group of kids that love to carve paddles
PAUL GREENE: “The paddles are a big hit, functional paddles, hard to come by these days, but here we have kids creating them every week to use them in the canoe.”
Canoes are stowed all around us—even hanging from the ceiling—both for racing and whaling.
We’re standing next to a red and black one that’s 32-feet long.
PG: “My students are gonna patch it, repair it, and someday it will probably go whaling.”
BP: He says working on the canoes fits in well with the cultural teachings that are integrated into most of the classes at the school—especially the annual treaty day teachings in January, when they learn about the Treaty of Neah Bay and the last whale hunt in ‘99.
But reminders of Makah traditions happen all year long.
[WHALE TOWING SONG AMBI]
Across the way, in language class, students practice their Indigenous language by singing.
Seated in a semi-circle at desks or on carpeted steps, they hunker down in their hoodies and take turns drumming along.
This is “the whale towing song…”
HAZEL GREEN: “That is a song that is used when towing a whale in and a lot of the time, you know, after, you know, whalers would get a whale, it would be a time where songs would come to them, a time for prayer and a time for, yeah, giving thanks.”
BP: Hazel Greene is the language teacher. She says this song is often shared at big celebrations and public presentations, like Makah Days.
And it’s a reminder for her students of the importance of whaling, at the very heart of Makah culture and the reason why Makah leaders made sure to reserve these rights in the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay.
HG: “These are rights that we're born with. You are born Makah. We have these rights… We're currently fighting for those rights, and when we finally can, we'll just be restoring what is rightfully ours.”
BP: Her son, Paul Greene Jr., is a paraeducator for language and helps sing the songs here.
He also traveled with a delegation in January to perform at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian where the agreement signed in Neah Bay was installed in a rotating exhibit of treaties.
Theirs is the only one that explicitly promises the right to hunt whales.
Greene says he hopes the display might tip the scales in their favor as they wait for a whaling permit. He says it’s not about a trophy hunt.
PAUL GREENE JR: “It's a way of life for us, and a lot of people don't like what they don't understand, and just understand that it is—it's our way of life. And everything that we do about it, it's in a good way, and it's not with any intention of just killing for fun. It's taking a life and honoring it in the best way that we know how.”
BP: The tribe invited representatives of the Department of Commerce to their treaty ceremony at the museum in DC—because right now, they say the decision about their whale hunt is in the hands of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Commerce did not respond to requests for comment, but media reports describe a backlog of contracts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration piled up on Lutnick’s desk.
NOAA agreements for weather forecasting, marine fisheries and coastal management—and the Makahs’ whaling permit—all remain in limbo.
I'm Bellamy Pailthorp, reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Steve Jackson, Bellamy Pailthorp, Eliza Billingham and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
