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 »
This morning, Kootenai County Department of Parks and Waterways Director Nick Snyder forwarded a couple of photos of the 13 brand new “No Wake Zone” buoys just installed across the mouth of Cougar Bay last week. Snyder added: “In the next two weeks, we will have LED navigational lights affixed to the buoys. The buoys will help recreational boaters and marine law enforcement identify the more »
We got an email a couple of weeks ago from a resident in Post Falls concerned about a pair of suddenly homeless and increasingly desperate osprey. As the all-purpose conservation organization in North Idaho, and friend to animals big and small, could we help? We set out on twitter (and the telephone), and according to an Avista representative, it seems this particular migrating osprey pair more »
From KEA’s conservation advocate Adrienne Cronebaugh: Last summer, Idaho Department of Lands granted Kootenai County an encroachment permit to install mooring buoys inside Cougar Bay and no-wake zone buoys at the mouth of the bay. The installation of those mooring buoys had been of great concern to the residents of Cougar Bay as well as the many individuals in the community that visit the bay more »
We’ve invited Nick Snyder, Director of Kootenai County Parks & Waterways to join us at our regular meeting at the Iron Horse Restaurant (Noon on Thursday, January 6th) to talk about the Spokane River / Cougar Bay piling removal project. Cougar Bay and Spokane River watchers will have noticed that the pilings along the Spokane River and outside the mouth of Cougar Bay have vanished. more »
Although things have been quiet recently on the Save Cougar Bay battlefront, new shots were fired yesterday by the Cougar Bay Osprey Protective Association, which filed a lawsuit challenging the Idaho Department of Lands’ rejection of their application to protect the pilings and booms in Cougar Bay. Having been rejected twice by the Department, without so much as a hearing, the Osprey Association filed a more »
We were a little taken aback this week, with the done-deal announcement that the Idaho Department of Lands and Kootenai County have entered an agreement that the County will now be responsible for the removal of hazardous pilings and booms in the Spokane River and Coeur d’Alene Lake. The agreement, signed without public input, and at an August 31 meeting of the County Commissioners without more »
Yesterday, the Cougar Bay Osprey Association received yet another rejection letter from its least favorite correspondent, the Idaho Department of Lands. This time the letter came through their attorney in the Idaho Attorney General’s office. The letter affirmed the Department’s outright rejection of the application to protect the pilings and booms in Cougar Bay for osprey habitat and quiet recreation. The letter rationalizes the Department’s more »
Intern Trevor Frank reviews the non-water quiet recreation at Cougar Bay: Just minutes from downtown Coeur d’Alene, The Nature Conservancy’s Cougar Bay Preserve is a great place to view wildlife. The 88 protected acres contain more than 5 miles of trail networks for enjoyment by the public, while the bay and creek accommodate kayaks, canoes, and fishermen. The Bay’s upland has been protected as a more »
Last week, area attorney Scott Reed responded in writing to the Idaho Department of Lands rejection of a proposal to protect the pilings in Cougar Bay. In a tough letter, Reed describes that the Department, which has now rejected the application twice without a hearing, must accept the application by the Osprey Protective Association one way or another. On the first attempt, IDL refused to more »
