After years of toil, hundreds of hours of meetings and the input of many citizens and paid consultants, the volunteers on Kootenai County’s planning and zoning board came up with a plan for guiding growth in the county for the next 20 years.
The plan isn’t perfect, but it does reflect the values and desires of county residents as captured by the county’s consultants.
Overwhelmingly, county residents told the consultants that they wanted to protect their rural character, their natural areas and to manage growth to protect their quality of life.
Then came the last-minute salvos from “Citizens for Balance,” a special interest group representing developers, builders and realtors. Citizens for Balance recently delivered a their version of the plan to the county – one that devalues natural resources, rural protection and reducing sprawl.
This week, the three Kootenai County Commissioners began rewriting the draft land use plan based on the edits suggested by Citizens for Balance, while ignoring other public comments.
If Citizens for Balance gets its way, residents can look forward to the same old sprawl that eats up the countryside, increases traffic and pollution, and gradually destroys the quality of life. The commissioners should give the same weight to other public input if they are truly interested in balance.
For years, bighorn sheep have been dying from diseases carried by domestic sheep, prompting the Forest Service to close certain public land allotments.
In efforts to reopen these allotments, a lobbying group known as the Idaho Woolgrowers Association enlisted the help of Dr. Marie Bulgin, Director of the University of Idaho’s Caine Veterinary and Teaching Center and former head of the Idaho Woolgrowers. Dr. Bulgin testified that there was no scientific evidence that domestic sheep transmit diseases to bighorn sheep in the wild and no reason to restrict grazing. Dr. Bulgin’s testimony was the foundation of a controversial state law that prioritizes domestic sheep over bighorn sheep.
Dr. Bulgin is now under investigation by the University of Idaho for potential conflicts of interest. In the meantime, Fish and Game was forced to shoot a sick bighorn ram that had been seen mingling with domestic sheep. Samples for disease analysis were taken to (you guessed it) the Caine Veterinary Teaching Center.
Congress continues to weaken the energy bill that could give us energy security, reduce our dependence on foreign sources of power, and significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
It makes me think the entire 111th Congress is living in a hole where they cannot access any information from the outside world.
Several groups have recently released studies demonstrating that investment in clean energy could create over a million American jobs and significantly lower the national unemployment rate. One report states that Idaho could see a net increase of about $690 million in investment revenue and the creation of 9,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, scientists are finding global warming is happening much faster that we thought. The Obama administration also just released information detailing the affects of climate change in the U.S. and around the world, including higher temperatures, “reduced frost days, increased frequency and intensity of heavy downpours, a rise in sea level, and reduced snow cover, glaciers, permafrost, and sea ice.”
So why does Congress continue to weaken legislation that would reduce our greenhouse gas emissions while creating jobs? We could help solve two of the most crucial problems of our time with one piece of legislation.
On June 2nd HP launched Power To Change, a campaign that encourages personal computer users around the world to make behavioral changes in support of the environment.
Are you up for the green challenge? Download the link and get started. You will receive a desktop widget that tracks the cumulative energy savings associated with turning off your idle PCs when not in use. The Power To Change widget is available for download by individuals and companies across the globe and is compatible with all PC computing platforms. Pass it on!
Power to Change is global. Your friends in China, India, New Zealand, Greenland and Argentina can get on board too. Why widget? HP estimates that if 100,000 users shut down their work computers at the end of each day, energy savings could total more than 2,680 kilowatt-hours and carbon emissions reductions could total more than 3,500 pounds per day. This is the equivalent of eliminating more than 105 cars from the road each day.
I was poking around on the City’s website this afternoon and realized there is really cool and time sensitive opportunity for all bike commuters in Boise.
Would you be interested in covered, safe, secure bike lockers in downtown Boise? If so – take this survey and tell the City what you think.
Plans to upgrade the Blackwell Island Marina into an upscale Marina Yacht Club with 548 boat slips to accommodate everything from 60-foot yachts to dozens of Jet Skis were presented at a packed public hearing before the Idaho Department of Lands and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Thursday night.
Duane Hagadone, the Idaho tourism magnate who owns Marina Yacht Club LLC, watched quietly from the second row of seats that crammed the meeting room as his admirers, watchdogs and interested citizens spent three hours discussing the expansion plans.
ICL’s interest in the project was piqued by plans to dredge 121,000 cubic yards of lake bottom material from the marina basin and store it on a man-made island, an area known to flood. That wouldn’t be much of a concern if a good portion of those sediments weren’t contaminated with heavy metals, such as lead, arsenic and cadmium, from the historic mining operations in the Silver Valley.
In addition to independent oversight of the complicated project, we asked that the state require the marina to provide public access to the boat launch and consider additional public access to compensate for the increased acreage the new marina footprint will take up on Lake Coeur d’Alene.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is accepting written comments until June 15 on the dredging permit.
I spent Memorial Day Weekend trekking in Fish Creek on the Clearwater National Forest. While hordes of people were riding the waves and white water on the Lochsa River, the scene in Fish Creek—a tributary of the Lochsa—was much more mellow, save the torrent of run off coming down the stream.
Indeed, the white water on the Lochsa is a blast. But the Clearwater National Forest has a lot to offer. While my sidekick and I spent the evenings in Wilderness Gateway Campground with floaters from Lewiston, Moscow Missoula and even Boise, we only found two other people about 6 miles up Fish Creek. The trailhead is a short three miles away by car from this popular campground. Only the rushing waters of Fish Creek reminded us that we had a sense of hearing.
The scenery was just as spectacular as the water was loud. Southern slopes had burned some years ago and fresh tree growth was sprinkled with old burnt out cedar stumps. The wet northern slopes held just about every species of pine, fir and other conifers found in the entire State of Idaho.
Its places like Fish Creek in the Clearwater Country that remind me why protecting it is so important. This place that challenged Lewis and Clark on their monumental journey remains more like it did in 1803 than anywhere else in the country. Yet it is also the largest unprotected landscape left in the lower 48 states.
When I’m planning for a backpacking trip, I always study the route I will take, think about much food and water I will need, and plan for rain, snow, or sunshine. I base the amount and type of supplies I need on the length of the trip, weather forecasts, and the terrain. And the more difficult the trek, the more I prepare.
Like a backpacking trip, when an electric utility is planning for a new resource, it should take certain factors into account, such as economic growth, cost of a resource, the amount of pollution produced, and federal regulations, before heading out on its trek. And the bigger and more expensive the resource, the more preparation is needed.
Idaho Power is essentially heading out on a backpacking trip without consulting the weather forecast or studying the terrain in proposing to build a 300-megawatt natural gas power plant. The Company is failing to take into consideration several crucial factors when this will be the single largest capital investment made by the Company since the Hells Canyon Complex was constructed 50 years ago.
We want to make sure the Company is taking off on its trip with all of the gear needed for a major trek.
Yesterday, Boise’s Mayor Beiter announced the creation of a new tool for green entrepreneurs. The aptly named, Green House, will provide support and office space for emerging green businesses.
This sounds like a great idea; I just need a bit more information. For example, what does “green business” mean to the city of Boise? How does this further the City’s commitment to sustainability?
To that end – I appreciate the city of Boise’s efforts to build LEED certified buildings, improve recycling programs, offer electronic recycling days, and the like. But what I would really appreciate, is a website that tells me how I can get involved and gives tools for citizens, businesses, and developers.
I think Boise is poised to step up its sustainability game. We get it – it will save us money and it will improve the economic stability of the City. Now – how can we help?
Posted by Courtney Washburn 
Posted by John Robison 
Posted by Courtney Washburn 
