Recent IDL News Releases
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Current News Coverage
U.S. House of Representatives’ Spending Bill Calls for Lava Ridge Wind Project Plan to be Delayed
Chairman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, Congressman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), announced in a press release today that the U.S. House of Representatives has passed the 1,050 page Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 which calls for a pause in the implementation of the plan by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) within the U.S. Department of the Interior to install thousands of wind turbines in southern Idaho.
The Idaho Dispatch brought you details of the proposed project and BLM’s plans here and here.
Found on pages 647-648 of the appropriations bill is the following proposed requirements:
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Preparing for Wildfire on March 12
Idaho County Free Press, 3-6-24
KOOSKIA — The Friends of the Kooskia Community Library is sponsoring “Preparing for Wildfire” on Tuesday, March 12, at 10 a.m. at the Kooskia Community Center. Learn about the Fire Mitigation Program from Sandi Paul, of Idaho County Fire Mitigation, and talk with Idaho County’s Disaster Management Coordinator Jerry Zumalt. Other agencies and organizations have been invited including the US Forest Service, Idaho Department of Lands and local volunteer firefighting organizations.
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Stop Idaho wildfires before they start
Mountain Express, 3-6-24
(letter to the editor)
An open letter to Blaine County residents, civic leaders and business owners:
As I write this, a massive wildfire, the largest in Texas history, is tearing through the Texas Panhandle, carried by high winds of up to 60 mph. It could end up being the largest U.S. wildfire of the year.
In 2022, the nation’s largest wildfire was the Moose Fire near Salmon, Idaho. That fire started on July 17, 2022, when someone camping on public lands a few miles from Salmon left a campfire unattended. A spark flew. Due to hot temperatures and wind, the fire was quickly out of control. When it was all over, 200 square miles had burned. Three firefighters had died. The cost to taxpayers was $100 million. Untold numbers of wild animals burned to death.
The current Texas fire and the Moose Fire have several things in common: heat, wind and dry landscape. Those are impossible to control.
We Can Still Save Trestle Creek and Uphold Idaho’s Lake Protection Act
Idaho Conservation League website, 2-27-24
In a remarkable show of unity and determination last year, the community rallied against a proposed expansive marina at the mouth of Trestle Creek on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille. Despite ongoing complications, we can still stop it from happening!
Last summer’s saga involved three affiliates of The Idaho Club submitting an application to the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) for a community dock. The application is part of the private club’s strategy toward their broader plan to build a 105-slip private marina covering 15,550 square feet, alongside a luxury residential development—all at Trestle Creek. More than 1,300 comments from the public flooded in, and hundreds showed up at a public hearing, reflecting our community’s deep-seated disapproval of the project.
IDL has a legal obligation to protect public trust values such as water quality, fish and wildlife habitat, aquatic life, recreation, and aesthetic beauty. To carry out their plans, The Idaho Club wants to dredge nearly 14,000 cubic yards of dirt and lakebed, including the removal of an island, and discharge more than 10,000 cubic yards of this material into wetlands and waterways to straighten and harden the shoreline. This would dramatically diminish the quality of nature at the site and the public trust values. The development would cause significant impacts to water quality, spawning habitat for bull trout and kokanee, beavers that live there, and nesting and roosting habitat for eagles and other birds. This proposed large private marina is designed for exclusive use by The Idaho Club’s members and is not in the best interest of the greater community.
Despite the overwhelming objections and legal complexities surrounding the project, IDL Director Dustin T. Miller approved the lakebed encroachment permit for the marina on October 27, 2023. However, before that permit was issued to the applicants, a land transfer of one of the three parcels threw a wrench into The Idaho Club’s plans. The change in ownership has rendered the application and its approval invalid.
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Cabin Fever - Bear on a Chair
Posted March 8, 2024
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Negotiated Rulemaking
Posted March 7, 2024
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