Crews battling the Rowena Fire in the eastern Columbia River Gorge made major strides over the weekend, but strong, gusty wind on Monday threatened progress.

The Alder Springs Fire grew to 2,500 acres by the morning of June 17 and brought evacuation orders in areas northwest of Redmond.

Lawmakers figure they’ll need around $300 million per biennium to fund fighting wildfires. How they fund that is the big ...