This is breaking news, and we are still absorbing the just-received document, but today the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers answered the complaint we filed in federal court to protect the dike road trees. The Corps of Engineers’ Answer to Plaintiff’s Complaint (pdf) is a detailed and formalistic response which will be used primarily to frame the case as it moves to the next phase of more »
When we look at our National Forests, we conservationists necessarily take the long view. Our region has made a lot of mistakes in forest management over the years, and we continue to pay the price. Wildlife has been lost, habitat fragmented, and watersheds trashed. Moreover, as federal forest funding dwindles to a trickle, restoring wildlife habitat watershed health becomes impossibly challenging. So what becomes clear more »
The bizarre Bonner County Property Rights Council (PRC) has issued its first draft “decision” in which they conclude that a simple common sense watershed protection ordinance is “unreasonable, unnecessary, and arbitrary.” How do they come to this conclusion? They simply presume ALL proposed ordinances are “unreasonable, unnecessary, and arbitrary.” Furthermore, as made clear from the eight pages of rambling nonsense in their decision document, no more »
We had heard through the grapevine that reporter Becky Kramer had taken a trip with our colleagues at Selkirk Conservation Alliance in their aerial caribou monitoring flight earlier in February. The result is a comprehensive look at the caribou issue in this past Sunday’s Spokesman-Review. An excellent explainer, her story also broke the significant news that the flight found four woodland caribou, hunkering down in more »
Idaho’s obsessive war on wolves got insanely more heated today as Idaho’s Senate Resources Committee approved a bill that would open up new methods to kill the legislatively de-listed endangered species. According to Spokesman reporter Besty Russell, “The bill would let livestock owners whose animals are molested by wolves shoot the wolves from motorized vehicles, powered parachutes, helicopters or fixed-wing planes, by night or day, more »
With the regional leadership of the Boy Scouts officially bound and determined to sell one of the best camp locations in the country to a developer, rank and file scout Camp Easton enthusiasts are fighting back this weekend. We received this email announcement earlier today about a rally at the Boy Scout’s Spokane headquarters. On Saturday, February 25, 2012, 11:30 AM there will be a more »
We just received the lamest of lame responses from the U.S. Army in response to our petitions. Taking cover behind “pending litigation,” U.S. Army Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy barely acknowledges our community’s outpouring of support for the dike road trees with a hugely disappointing “I cannot comment further at this time” letter. In its entirety: This is in response to your letter more »
The paranoid silliness of the Bonner County Property Rights Council has evidently gone national. A far-right website (in their Homeland Security section, of course) has picked up on the establishment of the Property Rights Council and is promoting it as a heroic development in a battle against the forces of the United Nations and their monstrous “Agenda 21.” The headline calls the Bonner County Property more »
Taking a closer look at the impacts of the Corps of Engineers mandate to remove trees from the Rosenberry Drive dike, a local engineering firm was engaged by North Idaho College to review options for the City of Coeur d’Alene. In the review, the firm estimated that the costs of removing trees and roots, and then reconstructing the dike, would cost upwards of $1.6 million. more »
As the Bonner County Property Rights Council (PRC) continues its crusade against common sense, the Idaho Rural Water Association has weighed in with a thorough and devastating letter explaining to the PRC why clean drinking water is something actually worth protecting. The IRWA represents small water and wastewater systems in Idaho typically serving populations of 10,000 or less. In a 10-page letter, dated January 23, more »
