Kootenai Co Idaho

Choose towns over politics, panel told Collision causes minor injuries

COEUR d'ALENE - Calls for a focus on local community interests rather than political interests dominated much of the public testimony heard by members of Idaho's Citizen Commission for Reapportionment at their hearing Wednesday in Coeur d'Alene.

The meeting, one in a series being held throughout the state, brought about 35 citizens out to the North Idaho College Campus. Nearly half of those who attended chose to address the commission.

The six-member, bipartisan commission is charged with reshaping the legislative and congressional districts in Idaho to align with the results of the 2010 federal census.

Coeur d'Alene City Council member John Bruning, who spoke on behalf of Mayor Sandi Bloem and the rest of the council, told the commission that maintaining the city's boundaries within one legislative district is crucial to the community.

"There is no more clear definition of a community of interest, including many traditional neighborhoods, than a city," Bruning said.

Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, agreed with Bruning, as did John Cross, regional chair for the Idaho Republican Party.

Goedde and Cross also called for the commission to maintain Idaho's existing 35 legislative districts, rather than reducing the number of districts, and in turn cutting the number of state legislators.

Helo Hancock, legislative director for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, urged the commission to keep the reservation intact, and in a district that's joined with Kootenai County. The reservation now lies in District 2, Hancock said.

He said the tribe has significant cultural and economic ties to Kootenai County, and makes financial contributions to the community, including financial assistance to schools and for public transportation.

The tribe does not want to see the reservation pushed south into Latah County's district, Hancock said.

Coeur d'Alene resident and real estate appraiser Ed Morse told the commission he had reviewed some of the redistricting proposals submitted by citizens and some lawmakers, which are available for viewing on the commission's website.

"I was shocked by the gerrymandering for lack of a better word," Morse said.

He said he saw diverse areas linked together that had no "commonalities of interest, of geography, of economy."

Morse said he saw political agendas in some of the other testimony, including the tribe's request to be part of Kootenai County.

Economically and geographically, Morse said the reservation has more common community interests with Benewah County.

More moose on the loose in Kootenai County, Idaho | The Wildlife News

Now personally there has been some to quite a few Moose hanging out around Jackson this winter it seems also because of the snow. And last summer saw more Moose back in that Thorofare Absaroka country then I have seen in the last some previous years. I hope the Moose numbers are coming back up around here.

But if their numbers are coming up, one thing that needs to happen wherever is to keep the hunting restrictions in place! How many fish and game agencies think once a small uptick in numbers, is to increase the hunting permits. This should not happen and they should let the Moose numbers just come back up for a good long while with continued Hunting Restrictions. In My Opinion!

Thank you Kayla and ProWolf in WY for your recent observations.

I thought it was settled, except among the anti-wolf militants, that the decline of moose in Yellowstone Park and adjacent areas in Wyoming was mostly due to the 1988 fires (and subsequent ones) plus a general drying of the area.

Now that fires are over 20 years behind us and maybe there has been an abatement of the drought, perhaps moose are making a small comeback.

I know that moose populations have varied enormously over time, The early explorations of Jackson Hole and Yellowstone Park found, I believe, almost no moose.

Over my lifetime, I have seen Utah go from a place with no moose to a state with many. They migrated down from the Yellowstone area at the start.

I have noticed, over the last decade, that there are places where beaver have taken up dam building along US191 north of Black Butte and a couple places south of Fawn Pass. I have seen moose there in more recent years when I only saw them near the Greyling Creek area, about eleven miles north of West Yellowstone and along the upper Madison River where it leaves the park. Maybe beaver have a lot more to do with that than one might expect…?

There are several up there. Also, the Taylor Fork area, especially up on Wapiti trail – I think it is – there is some significant beaver presence right alongside the road.

There are quite a few along the south fork of the Madison on both sides of US20. Some are there because some local feeds them and some other wildlife they’ve habituated. Targhee Pass area has several. I don’t know where all that talk of the moose being gone because the wolves ate ‘em all came from, seems that a change in behavior is what happened. If you can’t see ‘em from the pick up truck on the road then I guess they don’t exist.

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Digest of the decisions of the Supreme court of Idaho, covering all cases reported in volumes 1 to 24, Idaho reports, together with table of cases of all Idaho decisions embraced in this digest, showing under what subject and where the cases are digested, as well as the volume and page of the Idaho and Pacific reports where reported

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Tariff hearings before the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, Sixtieth Congress