There are already provisions that allow livestock owners the ability to protect their animals, and there are provisions that provide for compensation for animals lost in depredation. Ironically, the sweeping action could backfire on legislators, as the legislation’s allowance of relatively unrestricted taking of wolves could result in triggering federal Endangered Species Act protections.

The “powered parachute” provision notwithstanding, the craziest new provision is probably the one would allow “live bait” to lure wolves to a kill. The bill has no restrictions on what such “live bait” could be, nor does it require that the “live bait” be actually protected. The sponsor, Sen. Jeff Siddoway, a rancher, has said that sheep, or even sheep dogs could be used as bait.

It’s one thing to manage a species through hunting. It’s another thing entirely to tie up a dog as a lure to do so. Animal rights groups are justifiably outraged, and Idaho is, yet again, a laughing stock for its ridiculous – and now obscene – obsession with killing wolves.

On Saturday, February 25, 2012,  11:30 AM there will be a rally to march around Scout Headquarters (411 W. Boy Scout Way – gathering at the Diamond Parking lot on SE side of Boone & Howard, marching to Scout headquarters) in Spokane to show the Inland Northwest Council how the BOYS  and the community really feel about this whole camp swap/sale idea. 

The Council has said that the majority of the Scouting community (61%) are in favor of this swap/sale, based on results of a biased survey with no back up.  The voices of the majority speaking to this issue state the opposite.  If you are in opposition of this business deal, please join in letting the council and the public know that you are OPPOSED to moving Camp Easton from its present site at Gotham Bay.  Please bring as many Scouts (Cub, Boy, and Crew) and neighbors and join others in full Class A uniform if scouts, with Unit Flags, American Flags, and appropriate signs showing your opposition.  The Scouts will be singing Scout songs to entertain everyone.  Everyone is encouraged to be respectful at all times and not block the sidewalks and streets.

Share this with people who don’t want to see Camp Easton moved.   The more participants, the better the message will be heard.  The Council has yet to really listen to the opposition and facts against selling/swapping Camp Easton.

 Please show your support of keeping this premier camp in its present location, and not allowing decades of heritage and donations to be destroyed by a developer with his plans to build more luxury homes that sit empty the majority of the time.

**For more information you can call Liz Farrell at 509-921-9021, Mark Whitt at 208-755-3701, or Sandra Williams at 208 659 8123.

In its entirety:

This is in response to your letter dated Nov 28, which expressed concerns about the planned removal of trees located on the Federally-authorized levee in the city of Coeur d’Alene. I apologize for the delay in responding.

I appreciate the importance of this issue to the city and to the members of your organization. In fact, it is a matter of intense interest to many communities and groups across the nation.

Because of pending litigation on this issue, I cannot comment further at this time. However, thank you for your letter and for your interest in the Army Civil Works Program.

Very truly yours,

Jo-Ellen Darcy

Yes, litigation is pending. But really, with more than 4400 signatures from our relatively small community, delivered via a U.S. Congressman’s office, we were expecting more.  Secretary Darcy will be hearing more from us soon.

 “Obviously, if Agenda 21 and its mindset of government control is to be reigned in, clearly, something needs to be done to provide a strong voice for protection and defense of the property owners. Such a plan of action has now been developed by County Commissioner Cornel Rasor of Bonner County, Idaho. He calls it a Property Rights Council.”

The over-wrought column, quoting County Commissioner Rasor and Assistant County Prosecutor Scott Bauer, describes the Property Rights Council and its functioning within the County’s government. The PRC, says the article, will indoctrinate county employees to “impact the permit process; the way inspectors treat property owners; elimination of invasive or unnecessary regulations; and over-zealous ticket writers.” (Over-zealous ticket writers?)

The PRC will lead the fight against the U.N. as well as “the Sustainablists,” a term which is new to us, but we assume includes us at KEA.

“Perhaps of most importance, the PRC provides the framework for countering the Sustainablist’s legal assault. Specifically, the PRC will interface with a network of free market think tanks which can and will provide legal opinions, reports, and even lawyers to substantiate the property rights legal position. They provide expertise, credibility and a legal force to counter the massive force of the Sustainablists that now overwhelm county officials when a property rights question is at issue.”

Really? “Sustainablists” are overwhelming Bonner County officials?

The article describes efforts by Commissioner Rasor and Assistant Prosecutor Bauer to take the PRC national. According to the article, “Their goal now is to help others establish such councils in every community, in every state.” Indeed, “Rasor and Bauer are making themselves available to anyone seeking to create a council. They have created tools and an action plan to help local activists start the process to create their own local PRC. They will teach those interested how to lay the ground work; how to select and approach the proper commissioner to get the ball rolling in their community; and finally to get the whole concept on the docket for consideration.”

To learn more about this massive new national campaign, KEA sent a public records request to Bonner County requesting communications from Rasor and Bauer relating to this new effort. But our request was denied within a matter of minutes this morning. According to Scott Bauer, “Cornel and I have had personal contacts … only in our personal capacity on our own time and not purporting in anyway to represent the County.  This is our prerogative as private citizens and Idaho’s Public Records Act does not entitle the public to the private communications of public officials especially given that these communications were channeled through our private email accounts.”  We don’t think his tortured view of public records will survive legal scrutiny, but we are reviewing our legal options.

Meanwhile, United Nations, watch out! Bonner County is coming for you.

The engineering firm also provided a feasibility study for a modification to the dike system that could preserve the trees. By installing “sheet pilings” – essentially a metal floodwall driven through the center of the dike system – the vast majority of the vegetation on the dike could be preserved. The project appeared to be entirely feasible, but could cost up to $3 million and would require permit approvals that could take some time to assemble.

Neither option is particularly attractive, however, given the enormous costs and construction hassles that would be involved. The options are especially unattractive since there is no demonstrated historic, scientific or technical need to remove trees to keep floodwaters at bay.

For the immediate future, the Committee agreed to continue to explore other options to removing the trees. Working directly with FEMA regarding floodplain mapping, for example, rather than the Corps of Engineers regarding dike certification, could be an important key to solving the problem.

Meanwhile, slowly shifting regulatory frameworks and different approaches by federal agencies could result in new options. FEMA is currently working to provide better flexibility in its flood-mapping procedures, and new flexibility for FEMA could give new flexibility to local jurisdictions on how to approach levee vegetation problems. And, for what it’s worth, the Corps of Engineers is also reviewing national policies on levee vegetation.

So far, there is no obvious path forward for the city to preserve both the trees and the officially sanctioned floodplain protection at a reasonable cost. But the City and the ad hoc committee are committed to finding just such a solution. Stay tuned.

In a 10-page letter, dated January 23, to Bonner County Assistant Prosecutor Scott Bauer, who has been staffing the PRC, Melinda Harper of the Idaho Rural Water Association (IRWA) responds to PRC questioning of the proposed Watershed Overlay Ordinance for Bonner County. Although the IRWA declines to take sides on the specific ordinance, they say quite clearly, “Drinking water obtained from a reliable source is essential for communities to survive and prosper. If one looks at source water protection from a public health, environmental quality, quality of life, economic vitality, and public finance perspective, there are few things more important.”

The IRWA explains,

“Community water systems using surface water as its source must be located in areas where surface water quality is high, threats from contamination are low and the supply is reliable. Of approximately 1,960 community water systems in Idaho, only 53 (7 percent) use surface water for its source of drinking water. In Bonner County where there are 48 community water systems, 11 water systems use surface water for it source. When compared to other Idaho counties, Bonner County has the highest percentage of community surface water systems at almost 23 percent. These surface water systems provide drinking water to more than 14,000 residents, almost 35 percent of the County’s population.

Explaining the threats, IRWA notes:

Surface water systems are inherently susceptible to pollution simply because streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs are subject to both terrestrial and atmospheric pollution sources. Generally, surface water contamination stems from the following:

• Accidental spilling of chemicals from trucks, railways, aircraft, handling facilities and storage tanks;
• Misuse and/or improper disposal of liquid and solid wastes;
• Illegal dumping or abandonment of household, commercial, or industrial chemicals, or
• Improper siting, design, construction, operation or maintenance of agricultural, residential, municipal, commercial and industrial operations, industrial drinking water wells, and liquid and solid waste disposal facilities.

Indeed, the IRWA points out that of the 11 community water systems in Bonner County which obtain drinking water from surface water sources, six of them, including the Sandpoint Department of Public Works, “have been affected by surface water contamination beyond their jurisdiction and control to prevent.” Metals, sediment, pesticides, and other chemical contamination have been detected in the past.

With respect to the “costs” of a watershed overlay, the IRWA notes: “It is fair to say that for every dollar invested in source water protection, a water system could expect to match as much as 100 dollars more to remediate contamination when it occurs.” A catastrophic failure at the City of East Hope plant in 2008 required more than $600,000 to rebuild.

The IRWA is blunt in its assessment of voluntary measures to protect drinking water:

“Unfortunately, private voluntary alternatives are not always sustainable in the long term and therefore may not be as successful as desired or intended. People may not be aware of the assistance that is available to them because of the lack of access to information. However the single-most common reason why private voluntary alternatives themselves are not enough is that the average American takes drinking water for granted. Most people in the United States do not wake up each morning wondering if they will have drinking water that day. It is just assumed.”

The IRWA closes with the famous quote from economist Jeremy Bentham: “It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.”  Here’s hoping the PRC can see the obvious application to Bonner County’s drinking water.

On Thursday, at a special earlier 11am start time, KEA’s regular “Lunch and Learn” series at the Iron Horse will feature Scott Clark from the County’s Community Development Department and Todd Messenger from Kendig Keast, who will give an update on where things stand and where things are headed. The first portion of the meeting will be a more informal discussion and question and answer session, followed by a brief presentation at noon. So come early to get your questions answered.

The code-writing is the culmination of a lengthy and sometimes-painful process of revamping the County’s approach to land use. Starting with “meetings in a box” sessions, through the overhaul of the County’s Comprehensive Plan, KEA is now engaged in this final step — which is to write the actual codes that will be the legal basis for the County’s growth and development processes for years to come.

Controversial issues, kicked down the road for years, are finally being addressed in the codes. For example: appropriate densities for development in rural areas, how to protect water quality and natural resources, how to develop in sensitive shoreline areas, how to accommodate economic growth and development without unacceptable impacts to traffic and infrastructure, and how to do it all in a streamlined but fair process.

We think that modernizing the county land use codes will be one of the most significant environmental achievements for Kootenai County in many years.  Indeed, as evidence that this is an important once-in-a-generation opportunity for the County, we’d simply point out that large portions of the current patchwork of development regulations date back to the 1970s.

To their credit, the current County Commissioners seem to be committed to keeping to a schedule and getting the job done. There is still a lot of work to be done, and embedded in the code there are a lot of difficult decisions to be made. As the process moves along to completion, it will be increasingly important to keep track of the progress. Come learn more at the meeting at the Iron Horse on Thursday. 

Woodland caribou once occupied a vast area of North America stretching from southeastern Alaska and British Columbia to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and extending south into large areas of the northern tier of the United States, from Washington and Idaho, across the upper midwest, to Vermont, and Maine. Through the 20th century, habitat alteration, hunting, and poaching of woodland caribou caused its population and range to dramatically shrink. By the 1980’s, the only caribou population remaining in the U.S. was an isolated herd found in our Selkirk region, extending across the border into southern British Columbia.

The administrative battle to protect Caribou habitat has been ongoing for nearly 30 years. In 1984, the USFWS declared the southern Selkirk Mountains population of woodland caribou as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, characterizing it as “one of the most critically endangered mammals in the United States.” However, USFWS did not designate critical habitat for the species, finding that it was “not prudent” due to the alleged “serious risk of facilitating poaching.”  Back then, it was believed that only approximately thirty individual woodland caribou remained in the U.S. portion of the Southern Selkirk Mountains herd. In the subsequent twenty-eight  years of not doing very much, the number  is down to maybe two or three.  A lawsuit brought by conservation organizations finally forced this habitat designation.

Some 80% of the caribou’s remaining range in the U.S. is in the Idaho Panhandle and Colville National Forests. For this reason, the primary legal effect will be that federal agencies will be required to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service on federal actions that may affect the critical habitat. Federal agencies are prohibited from funding or authorizing actions that would adversely affect critical habitat. However, as the USFWS points out: the designation of critical habitat does not affect land ownership; critical habitat is not the same as a refuge, a wilderness area or any other conservation area; it does not allow government or public access to non-federal lands; and a critical habitat designation does not impose restrictions on non-federal lands unless federal funds, permits or activities are involved. With only higher-altitude, non-developed lands included in the habitat proposal, there will be very little impact on private citizens in Idaho.

Woodland caribou consist of two “ecotypes”: the northern ecotype (associated with flat tundra habitat) and the mountain ecotype like those found in the Selkirk Mountains. Mountain-type woodland caribou spend most of their time at higher elevation and depend heavily on lichens associated with old growth forests as a primary food source. In the warmer months, caribou are able to eat a wider diversity of foods, but  in snowier months, they rely much more heavily (and sometimes solely) on the lichen, which they access by standing on top of compacted snow with their large snowshoe-like hooves.

Caribou, of course, have natural predators like mountain lions and even wolves. But they are also seriously threatened by human-related habitat alterations, particularly snowmobile intrusions into their high-altitude backcountry habitat during the tough winter months.  Scientific research shows that caribou simply will not use highly suitable habitat when intensive snowmobiling activity occurs in high elevation areas. In fact, snowmobiles  displace caribou in essentially the same manner as predators, defeating the purpose of the caribou’s biological choice of high elevations to survive.

The lawsuit brought to require the critical habitat designation was successful because the law recognizes that the woodland caribou is a critically endangered species and habitat protection is absolutely necessary to its survival. It would be a cruel irony indeed to allow the caribou’s extinction in the U.S. simply because we allowed it to become too endangered before taking action.

What you can do: 

1. Sign our new petition supporting critical habitat for caribou.

2. Provide comments to USFWS here.  (Although the comment period is officially closing in the next several days, the USFWS is providing for an additional 60-day comment period at the request of County Commissioners and the State of Idaho.)

We haven’t heard from Secretary Darcy’s office yet, but we certainly hope to get a response soon. We promise to keep everyone up to date. Thanks to Rep. Labrador and his staff for delivering our message.

After several months of study and discussion, tonight (Monday) the City of Coeur d’Alene’s Parks and Recreation Commission will officially consider a consensus recommendation to retrofit a Tubbs Hill trail to accommodate wheelchair accessibility.

Last spring, the City Council separated Tubbs Hill from the McEuen Park project and formed a task force to take a comprehensive look at Tubbs Hill trails. The task force, which included representatives from the Tubbs Hill Foundation, KEA, and the disability community, met through the fall. At the final meeting in December, the group unanimously agreed to recommend that the existing east side trail become the first wheelchair-accessible trail on Tubbs Hill. Meanwhile, the task force also unanimously recommended that any further consideration of a new, north-side trail, be tabled until the east-side trail is completed.

The existing East Tubbs Trail originates at the parking lot on 10th street, follows the lake above the marina, and intersects the main trail. With relatively simple and inexpensive retrofits at several points along the way, the trail would be wheelchair accessible out to marker #14 or so. As able-bodied hikers already know, the trail provides excellent views of the Lake through a nice forest canopy.  As part of the project, surface smoothness, trail width, uphill and downhill slopes, cross-slopes and trail widths along the way would be constructed or reconstructed, if necessary, to accommodate accessibility standards. Based on a fairly detailed segment-by-segment feasibility review, and a site-visit last summer, it appears that the accommodation can be done with relatively minimal reconstruction and expense.

Although routes across the north side of Tubbs Hill were also reviewed for feasibility, the task force decided to postpone any further consideration of the north side until the east side was completed. With feasibility on the north side less certain, with aesthetic concerns more acute, and with still-uncertain connections to the rest of the trail system and McEuen Park, the task force thought it more prudent to drop further consideration for the time being. Indeed, the work on the east side is likely to inform any future decision-making for the north side, and the City would do well to learn from the east side experience first before constructing something new.

The Parks Board will take up the task force recommendation at its meeting tonight at 5:30 at the Coeur d’Alene Library and will forward a recommendation to the City Council.

UPDATE 1/24: The Parks Commission approved the recommendation at the meeting and the recommendation now moves to the General Services Committee of the City Council for its consideration.

UPDATE 1/25: Here’s the Coeur d’Alene Press coverage.