Top Ten Reasons to Donate to KEA

A generous member has offered to match end-of-year contributions to KEA, dollar for dollar, up to $5000. For the next week, your donation goes twice as far. So here are the top ten reasons why you should click our nice new donate button. 1. Tubbs Hill and Cougar Bay.  KEA is the leading defender of our local jewels. This past year we defended Tubbs Hill from unnecessary more »

Christmas Week in Bonner County Brings Challenges to Drinking Water Protection and Caribou Habitat

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through Bonner County, a lot of creatures were stirring… because, well, both the Bonner County Commissioners and the Property Rights Council were both still holding meetings. Indeed, this week, the Bonner County Commissioners have an attack on caribou habitat scheduled, and the Property Rights Council will be discussing how to eliminate drinking water protections for county water supplies. more »

BLM and Nature Conservancy Working on Cougar Bay Trail

BLM is sponsoring a public meeting tonight on a proposed trail for Cougar Bay. The trail will be located in a portion of the public preserve known as the John C. Pointner Memorial Wildlife Sanctuary. The Nature Conservancy and BLM are co-managing Cougar Bay lands for hiking, recreation and wildlife habitat. There are a number of improvements in the works, but for this meeting, the BLM more »

Popular and Unpopular Lawsuits

The lawsuit we filed against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the Rosenberry Drive trees has been almost universally well-received. Other than a few crazed online comments from the anonymously insane, we’ve received nothing but well-wishing for our effort. Even the Coeur d’Alene Press — no fan of environmental litigation — came out in favor of our lawsuit. Despite what some people might think, more »

KEA Files Lawsuit To Protect Dike Road Trees

Today, Kootenai Environmental Alliance filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mandate to remove the trees along the Rosenberry Drive (“The Dike Road”) in Coeur d’Alene.  The lawsuit alleges that the Corps failed to perform an adequate environmental analysis, and that the Corps is attempting to enforce a memorandum that isn’t actually a law. The Gonzaga University School of more »

Critical Habitat for Selkirk Caribou

In response to a successful petition and lawsuit by some of our regional colleagues, last week the U.S.  Fish and Wildlife Service released a mapping of critical habitat for the woodland caribou in the Selkirk Mountains. Some 375,500 acres are designated, most of which is in remote roadless areas in Boundary County, Idaho, with some lands designated in Bonner County, Idaho and Pend Oreille County, more »

KEA 2.1

It’s not all boring meetings and troublemaking. Part of being a non-profit organization in the 21st century is being sure that online communications are effective and up-to-date. In that regard, we’ve just launched a brand new website that will give us more flexibility, at a lower cost, and we think, with a much better appearance. There’s still a lot of work to do — much of more »

Constitutional Analysis of Wetland Cases .. for Dummies

Here’s the thing to remember. We live in the United States of America. We are a nation of laws. We have a Constitution that gives Congress the authority to pass laws under enumerated powers. One of those powers is provided by the Constitution’s commerce clause. Congress passed the Clean Water Act. The Supreme Court has affirmed that, within commerce clause limits, the Clean Water Act is more »

Rep. Labrador’s Office to Deliver Dike Road Trees Petition

With the generous assistance of our local Congressman, the dike road tree petitions are on their way to Washington DC. This morning, Adrienne and I delivered the stack of signatures to Rep. Raul Labrador’s Coeur d’Alene office. The Congerssman’s staff says they will take it from here. Our petition is directed at Hon. Jo-Ellen Darcy, the U.S. Army Assistant Secretary for Civil Works, whose office more »

Property Rights Council to Sponsor Seminar

Holidays are not slowing the rightward march of the Bonner County Property Rights Council.