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EVERGREEN STATE AREA: 176,477 sq km (68,138 sq mi). POPULATION: 5,343,000. CAPITAL: Olympia, pop. 36,800. ECONOMY: Industry: aerospace, food processing, paper products, lumber and wood products, chemical products, tourism. Agriculture: seafood, dairy products, apples, cattle, wheat, potatoes, nursery stock. PCI: $22,610. ADMISSION: 1889 as 42nd state.
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Western hemlock and Douglas fir support the oldest industry—timber. Clear-cutting of old-growth forests, which imperils the rare northern spotted owl, has slowed as environmentalists and loggers argue in court. Snowfall from the Cascade Range helps water the Yakima Valley, which grows bumper crops of apples. The highly controlled Columbia River irrigates the Columbia Basin, an oasis of wheat, fruits, and vegetables. Deep harbors in Puget Sound, where pollution threatens salmon stocks and oyster beds, favor maritime commerce with Asia. During the past decade the population of the Seattle-Tacoma area grew by nearly 25 percent.
Text source: National Geographic Atlas of the World Revised Sixth Edition, 1995
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