Big Wild Bi-Weekly June 10, 2010

Submitted by foc on Thu, 06/10/2010 - 3:55pm
in
Hello Wildland lovers,

Here's to hoping that the rain begins to slow and our warm and beloved Palouse sun begins to shine. The dog and I are gearing up for an off-road vehicle monitoring trip into the Weitas Creek roadless area and the weekend forecast is calling for beautiful blue skies and seventy degrees. I have my fingers crossed that this forecast remains true!

So let's talk some shop. Instead of things slowing down here in the office, and across our beloved wildlands, things have only been increasing in scope and ferocity. Have no fear though, the intent of the Big Wild Bi-Weekly is to neatly package all of this information for you to comprehend and wrap your brains around. In this issue, you will find an update on the proposed Exxon-Mobil U.S. Highway 12 transportation project, the recent public meeting concerning the Bovill mine/processing plant, and the even more recent town hall style meeting about the Upper Lochsa Land Exchange. You will also find information on the Northern Rockies gray wolf, the recently announced extension of the federal roadless moratorium, and the ever-so-fast approaching Friends of the Clearwater sponsored 49 Meadows aquatic ecology workshop.

Friends of the Clearwater (FOC) has been working hand-in-hand with a coalition dedicated to stopping the shipping of tar sands oil processing equipment on U.S. Highway 12 by ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil. Besides posting articles on the front page of our web site, and submitting official comments to the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD), we just finalized a citizen-protest petition. This highly important petition will be available for you to view and sign at the FOC outreach table on Saturday's at the local Farmer's Market. We have also been on the phone with ITD and it is our understanding that public meetings will be taking place in late June and/or early July in Lewiston and Kamiah. Please look in the newspaper for the announcement of the exact dates, times, and locations. In the meantime, http://www.fightinggoliath.org is a great source of information and below is a link to an article that just appeared in the Missoulian, http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_24375452-71f1-11df-beb6-001cc4c....

On Wednesday May 26th, Friends of the Clearwater attended and submitted written comments at a public meeting for the proposed feldspar, quartz, and kaolin clay processing plant near Bovill, Idaho. The highly vocal meeting was attended by a handful of Latah County residents, including a number of members of our organization. FOC would like to thank those folks for attending and speaking against this project. We will keep up to date about this mining project as things unfold. If you subscribe to the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, please use this link to access an article summarizing the meeting, http://www.dnews.com/archived-story/Local/98284/.

Early last week, the Friends of the Palouse Ranger District organized a public meeting concerning the Upper Lochsa Land Exchange. As you may be aware, FOC has been working closely with this group to advocate for a purchase option instead of the exchange. Attendees included, state representatives Shirley Ringo and Tom Trail, Idaho Fish & Game biologist Ray Hennekey, Idaho County Commissioner James Rockwell, and aides for Senator Mike Crapo, Senator Jim Risch and Congressman Walt Minnick. While only some of the aforementioned spoke to the audience, it is worth noting that both Tom Trail and Shirley Ringo publicly stated that they are adamantly opposed to the current land exchange proposal. The Clearwater National Forest will be releasing a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) sometime this summer. If you wish to view the meeting in it's entirety, please go to http://www.moscowcares.com.

There has been alot of news lately concerning the Rocky Mountain gray wolf. While much of it has been negative, an important date to circle on your calendar is Tuesday June 15th. On this day, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, Montana is going to begin hearing oral arguments concerning whether or not the U.S. Department of Interior violated the Endangered Species Act when it de-listed the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf in the spring of 2009. How Judge Molloy rules will ultimately decide if the 2010-2011 gray wolf hunt goes through or not. Friends of the Clearwater, along with other conservation groups, are a plaintiff on the lawsuit. Earthjustice is providing legal representation.

On Saturday May 29th, newspapers across America announced that the Obama administration is extending the moratorium on most logging and mining projects in roadless areas on our national forests. There are approximately 58 million acres of roadless backcountry in our national forests. Unfortunately, the moratorium does not protect the 9.1 million acres of roadless Idaho backcountry because under the Bush administration the highly flawed Idaho Roadless Rule was passed. Besides Idaho, the state of Colorado has petitioned the federal government for a state plan. This plan has not been accepted yet.

In our spring newsletter, FOC announced that we will be working with UI professor emeritus Dr. Fred Rabe to put on an aquatic ecology workshop at 49 Meadows on June 26th-27th. This workshop will explore sensitive peatland ecosystems on the Clearwater National Forest through the identification of plant communities, macro-invertebrates, and physical characteristics of nearby streams and ponds. Due to the super wet spring and poor road conditions, this workshop may be postponed to early July. Fred and myself will hopefully be conducting a site visit fairly soon and I will keep you informed.

Lastly, and I mean it, I have a great way for you to help Friends of the Clearwater. Would you please consider posting a review of your experience with our organization at the following web site, http://greatnonprofits.org/. The Great Non-Profits web site is an excellent place for millions of Americans to find, review, and talk about non-profit organizations doing positive work in our communities. A review will help people discover the important work we do!

And happy, happy wedding wishes to FOC Board member Jill Johnson and Craig Watt.

For the Wild,

Brett




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