ENVIRONMENTAL

1. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

2. WILL YOU BECOME INVOLVED

3. NEWSPAPER ARTICLES: THROUGH NEWSPAPER ARTICLES, THIS SLIDE SHOW WILL PROVIDE INFORMATION ON JUST A FEW OF THE ISSUES FACING OUR NATION

4. Valley’s biggest polluter agrees to cut emissionsOfficials say noxious odor will be gone, too Rocky BarkerThe Idaho Statesman NAMPA — Amalgamated Sugar Co. will invest $12 million in its Nampa plant to cut pollution, reduce energy use and increase its earnings in the next five years. Yes, the planned improvements also will reduce the pungent odor that has spread from the plant throughout the valley for decades. The decision means the company that converts beets into sugar plans to stay and keep its 400 year-round jobs and $12 million payroll in Nampa. “The company has made a watershed decision to reinvest in the plant,” said Roy Eiguren, an attorney and lobbyist who works with Amalgamated. Amalgamated officials revealed the plan to The Idaho Statesman on Tuesday as they prepare for a hearing at 6 p.m. Sept. 11 at Nampa City Hall on new air quality permits. The Nampa improvements are a part of a nearly $20 million, 10-year program to upgrade all of the company´s plants to bring them into compliance with state and federal environmental laws. In addition to Nampa, Amalgamated operates plants in Twin Falls, Paul and Nyssa, Ore. It processes sugar beets from 232,000 acres owned by 1,100 farmers who together own the company. They receive more than $57 million in beet payments that go into the economy of southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. “We not only will satisfy the state requirements, but it will improve earnings as well,” said Joe Huff, Amalgamated Nampa plant manager. “It´s good for the company and good for the community.” The company´s five-year clean-up plan comes as state and local officials are developing an air quality management plan for Ada and Canyon counties. They are seeking to reduce air pollution before levels exceed federal health limits. The management plan came as a result of a lawsuit brought by environmentalists over particulate pollution rules. Vic Hill, a retired Air Force officer who lives downwind of the plant, has been involved with Idaho´s Clean Air Force, which brought the suit. The first time he smelled the plant it “curled your eyebrows and took your breath away,” he said. He´s pleased with the company´s announcement, though he hasn´t seen the details. “Community health will be the big benefit,” Hill said. “That´s a positive step forward.” The plan comes at a time when the state is implementing a new air permit program that requires all polluters to be brought into compliance with federal and state air quality rules. In the past, many Idaho companies, including Amalgamated, did not have permits to construct or modify their facilities in ways that affected air quality. “This is an area where government and industry have worked together for the benefit of everybody,” said Steve Allred, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality administrator. Only three years ago, Amalgamated was balking at efforts to clean up the plant. It pushed a bill through the Idaho Legislature to limit the ability of neighbors to sue the company as a nuisance. Micron Electronics had brought a suit complaining about the smell. But the biggest health problems come from tiny particles that lodge deep in the lungs and cause breathing problems. Nitrogen oxides, other pollutants emitted, combine with other chemicals to create ozone and carbon monoxide. The company will cut most of its pollution by reducing energy use in the sugar-drying process, Huff said. By burning less coal, the company reduces emissions and cuts its costs. “We wanted to reduce emission sources instead of apply tailpipe solutions,” Huff said. Much of the current odor problem comes from the scrubbing of sulfur dioxide out of its smoke. It mixes with water to form hydrogen sulfite, which creates the classic rotten egg smell. Much of that will be eliminated, Huff said. Shirley Dean, a member of the North Nampa Residents Association, said less coal also will mean fewer trains and more sleep for residents. “We´re used to the smell and the soot that does come from the coal,” Dean said. “I think its wonderful they are looking to take care of the air quality.” Amalgamated is the largest single polluter in the valley. But DEQ officials stress that the main culprit for regional pollution problems is not industry but vehicles. Automobiles produce the largest shares of nitrogen (47 percent) and carbon-monoxide pollution (70 percent) and the second-largest amount of particulate pollution (29.2 percent), trailing agriculture, which produces nearly half of the dust and soot pollution. For overall nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and particulate pollution, industrial sources — led by Amalgamated — contribute 15.4 percent, 3.2 percent and 3.5 percent, according to DEQ estimates.

5. DO YOU HAVE A GAS MASK

6. Mountain pine beetles infest Sawtooth forestForest Service is writing a plan to deal with dead trees Rocky BarkerThe Idaho Statesman Pockets of red break up the green conifer blanket wrapped around the base of the Sawtooth Range overlooking Stanley. The scarlet trees are the red flags of a dying forest infested with millions of tiny insects the size of grains of rice. Mountain pine beetles have killed up to 80 percent of the trees in portions of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, making it a tinderbox awaiting the inevitable fire. The Forest Service is not waiting. The agency said Friday it is drafting a plan that will include building firebreaks and thinning trees near homes and businesses to make it easier for firefighters to battle future blazes. Foresters also are helping landowners balance the strict rules for preserving the scenic beauty and fish and wildlife of the recreation area with the need to reduce the threat of fire. “We´re going to be very careful that we don´t impair any of those values, and we hope to enhance them,” said Debora Cooper, U.S. Forest Service District Ranger for the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in Ketchum. The 756,000-acre area is a magnet for more than 2 million hikers, rafters, hunters, anglers and sightseers annually from throughout the West. It was designated in 1972 to protect the scenic, wildlife and recreational values of the Central Idaho area, which includes wilderness and non-wilderness lands. In deciding how to deal with the Sawtooth beetle infestation , the Forest Service is asking for public help and will hold two public meetings later this month. The agency has identified seven areas, totaling 3,500 acres, where the most serious risk lies, including the area around Redfish Lake. In addition to thinning and logging firebreaks, the agency already is spraying individual trees with pesticide to keep the bugs from destroying the shade in campgrounds. The beetle infestation started in 1997 and peaked in 2000, said Ralph Thier, a Forest Service entomologist. But the bugs could continue to kill trees for years to come. Still, the Forest Service is not attempting to stop the epidemic, triggered by a drought and by the maturation of the forest. Its primary goal is to reduce threat of fire. “We are not going toe to toe with insects,” Thier said. Mountain pine beetles are a natural part of the forest. The destruction they cause is no threat to the ecological health of the forest, Thier said. But the damage crimps human values, including the scenic beauty and economic use, and increases threat from fire. The Forest Service hopes to develop a plan soon enough to begin work on the ground this year. “If everything goes smoothly, we might be able to start some projects this fall,” Cooper said. Thinning and cutting firebreaks near developments were the kinds of projects environmentalists and the timber industry embraced at the 2000 conference sponsored by the Andrus Center for Public Policy and the Idaho Statesman, “The Fires Next Time.” So far, that consensus is holding for the Sawtooth project. John McCarthy, conservation director for the Idaho Conservation League, said his group is eager to work with the Forest Service on the plan. “It´s a chance for all of us to work on a real-life project that´s good for the land and good for the community,” McCarthy said. The lack of any nearby timber mills will make the project more costly, said Stefany Bales, spokeswoman for the Intermountain Forest Association. “We can still use good forest-management practices to address the health of the forest,” she said. The material harvested could be used for posts and poles, log homes and other commercial uses. The agency also expects to sell a lot of the surplus for firewood and allow the public to gather wood in some areas.

7. BEETLE AFTERMATH

8. Fresh air, pine forests and ... lots of trashForest Service says dirty issue is getting worse Idaho´s public lands are being trashed. U.S. Forest Service officials said the amount of garbage discarded is rising. People are taking household trash to campsites along the Payette River and in Garden Valley. In the Ketchum Ranger District, employees have recently found loads of yard waste, a car seat, a tent and enough trash to fill the bed of a pickup truck. Closer to home, trash remains a problem along the Boise Front, where people leave their beer cans and bottles, yard waste and the occasional appliance. But observers say the overall problem is less severe than it was in the 1980s. People are dumping the garbage when they don´t want to go to the landfill and pay disposal fees, said Ken Waugh, outdoor recreation planner for the Boise National Forest. “That actually is a pretty big problem along the Payette River,” he said. “We get a larger volume of garbage than the number of users.” That forces forest workers or campground operators to clean up trash when they could be doing their jobs, he said. Besides the dumping, forest users appear to be an increasingly dirty lot. “When people walk into a campsite, they don´t expect to see a bunch of diapers and aluminum cans,” Waugh said. “It´s on the rise because people using the forest is on the rise.” The Ketchum district has experienced a major upswing in trash — and it´s not small stuff, said David Gordon, recreation manager. “An abandoned trailer was found out at Warm Springs,” Gordon said. “A stripped and abandoned vehicle was found in Deer Creek.” The district estimates it spends more than $15,000 a year picking up trash dumped at recreation sites. The Forest Service is asking forest visitors to place trash in receptacles. In undeveloped forest areas where trash disposal isn´t provided, visitors are asked to take trash home. “It is only a small number of people who are leaving their trash on the national forests,” he said. “However, we are noticing a marked increase in this type of activity, and we need to nip it in the bud before it gets any worse.” Unlike the forest, the Bureau of Land Management says litter is a persistent problem that does not appear to be decreasing in Southwest Idaho. “We see a number of abandoned cars and illegal dumping, but there´s not any upswing,” said Daryl Albiston, area field manager for the Bureau of Reclamation. “We haul up to 10 cars a year. It´s pretty routine.” When there´s a short-term increase, there´s usually a fairly identifiable reason, such as an increase in landfill costs, he said. Albiston said the problem is often easily addressed. “They´re not smart enough to remove their names from their bills. Usually, we give them a warning if they agree to clean it up.” Federal law enforcement officers decide whether a fine and citation are merited, depending on how much of a problem is created, he said.

9. UGLY ISN'T IT

10. Wetlands ecosystem thrives in the cityGravel pit is now an educational opportunity Herbert AtienzaThe Idaho Statesman There´s something in the water at Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve, and Linda Meyer is determined to find out what it is. On Wednesday, the sixth-grade teacher at Lewis and Clark Middle School drew some water samples from a pool at the former gravel pit. She hopes to compare the samples with ocean water she plans to gather on a coming leisure trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. “It´s an opportunity to compare ocean water with water out of a wetland,” Meyer said. “I´m hoping to be able to compare the difference in their salinity and their oxygen levels.” This week, about 18 Meridian School District teachers have been conducting tests and observing what´s been going on at the site in preparation for what they may teach students in the future. The roughly 50-acre site, which was used as a gravel pit about 25 years ago, is expected to be transformed into a nature preserve and science center, like a much wilder and untamed version of Kathryn Albertson Park in Boise. The city of Boise and Meridian School District are working to jointly develop the property, which could take place in the next five years. The city owns about 43 acres, while the school district owns about 10 acres of the area, south of Chinden Boulevard and McMillan Road, at the northern end of Maple Grove in West Boise. The district had wanted to build a school at the site, but has since abandoned those plans. The area has natural pools and wetlands fed by a natural spring, as well as ground water and runoff water. According to plans, Boise will gain ownership and develop the property, while district students will have access to it to study the wood ducks, Canada geese, blue herons, beavers, marmots and muskrats who live there. “I think it really will be a great opportunity for the kids,” Meyer said. “As I´ve walked around here, I enjoyed seeing all the birds ... it´s a good experience.” “This is a very unique piece of property,” said Bob Beckwith, biology teacher at Eagle High School, who is coordinating the teachers´ work. Beckwith said there are few opportunities to see a wetlands ecosystem in the Treasure Valley, which is known for its semi-arid climate. Considering that the Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve is found in the middle of an urban area, it makes it even more special. “Kids can be 10 minutes out of school and spending a day studying the wetlands,” he said. By studying the wetlands now, he said, the teachers would be better prepared to teach students. “It´s like an outdoor classroom for the kids,” said Chris Johnson, a biology teacher at Meridian Charter High School. “It´s not as flashy as what kids might be used to, but it´s a chance for them to really get a feel for nature.” “It´s like the land that time forgot,” said Gina Lockwood, a biology teacher at Centennial High School. “There´s just a cacophony of sounds you´ll hear out here. It´s very impressive.” While the teachers were conducting tests and studies Thursday, Boise resident Larry Hyatt stopped to visit them. He said he is excited about plans for the land that he donated to the city about five years ago. “It´s very consistent with our objectives,” he said. “We just wanted this land preserved.”

11. WETLANDS

12. Feds hand over control of 159 islands on SnakeTransfer settles part of lawsuit brought by state Rocky BarkerThe Idaho Statesman The federal government has turned over 159 islands in the Snake River to the state of Idaho. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill approved the transfer Tuesday as a part of a settlement of a lawsuit. The islands previously were part of the Deer Flats Wildlife Refuge. At issue in the lawsuit was when the islands were formed. Islands that existed before Idaho was declared a state July 3, 1890, belong to the federal government. Islands formed after that date are state property. The islands are popular among hunters for pheasants, waterfowl and deer. “As a result of this settlement, the state now has title to 159 of the islands without the need to pursue lengthy and costly litigation,” said Lawrence Wasden, chief of staff to Idaho Attorney General Al Lance. To prove its case, the state compared aerial photographs from 1938 with those from 1996 that showed several islands had emerged. Scientists working for the state also dug 95 pits to aid in aging the islands. They dug up modern items like a rod and piston from an engine. They also found pollen from plants brought into Idaho since statehood, including Russian olive trees. The age of the islands was determined by comparing the depth where the items were found to the historic high-water mark of the river. The lawsuit came out of an earlier dispute between the federal government and the state over water rights. The federal government claimed a reserved right to sufficient water to ensure the islands in the Deer Flat Wildlife Refuge remained surrounded by water. The Idaho Supreme Court ruled against the federal claim. In the course of the lawsuit, the state discovered the federal government was claiming islands it did not own, Wasden said. “As a result, more than one million acres of irrigated farmland in southern Idaho, which had been threatened by those claims, remain in production today.” Wasden praised the Bush administration for reaching the settlement. “The Bush administration came to the negotiating table with a pragmatic and realistic view,” he said.

13. THE ROLLING SNAKE RIVER

14. Raptors along Snake River an increasingly rare sightFans hope to restore conservation area’s main attractions Tim WoodwardThe Idaho Statesman Norman Nelson remembers his father, raptor expert Morley Nelson, impressing visitors to the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area by predicting aerial battles between eagles and prairie falcons. “He´d tell them a falcon was coming to attack an eagle, and sure enough, it would happen,” Norman Nelson said. “It happened on nearly every one of his tours, and that was just 10 years ago. Now, you´re lucky to see it once a season.” An Idaho treasure, the birds of prey area today is no longer the raptor-rich canyon that became world famous. Prairie falcon and golden eagle populations have declined significantly. Even Swainson´s hawks, once common on the fringes of the canyon and ubiquitous in the surrounding farm country, are in short supply this year. In an area named for them, it can be difficult to see a bird of prey. “When it was a healthy ecosystem, if you went out before the middle of June, you´d literally be in constant view of some bird of prey,” Nelson said. “If you go now, you have to wait an extended period of time just to see a bird in your field glasses. The difference is really obvious and really sad.” Steve Guinn has conducted tours of the area since 1978. “None of our young eagles are coming back because there isn´t enough food for them,” said Guinn, the owner of WSRT/Birds of Prey Expeditions and president of Snake River Raptor Volunteers Inc. “Their numbers are down, but not as much as prairie falcons, Swainson´s hawks, short-eared owls and northern harriers. “… I´m out there all the time, and every year we say the numbers are smaller. But this year we´re seeing a really radical change.” The number of golden eagles, according to U.S. Geological Survey biologist Karen Steenhof, appears to be off by about 15 percent since the 1970s. Reliable figures for prairie falcons won´t be available until late this month, when results of a new canyon study are released, but Guinn estimates that their numbers in the Swan Falls section of the birds of prey area — the part where the tourists go — have shrunk by about two-thirds since 1992. And hundreds of Swainson´s hawks, he said, never returned on their annual migration this spring. “There are usually 2,000 to 3,000 or more in the Kuna-Melba area,” Guinn said. “This year, there are hardly any.” CONTINUED

15. Pesticides, dwindling food supply are factors A number of factors are contributing to the declines. In 1996, Swainson´s hawks that normally return in the spring didn´t. Raptor experts later learned that thousands of the birds had died in Argentina after eating grasshoppers that had been sprayed with pesticide. “There were no regulatory systems there like we have, and they used too much pesticide,” Guinn said. “They sprayed repeatedly with planes and tractors. I called a raptor biologist friend of mine in New York about it. He said he´d been getting calls from other parts of the country, so he went down to check it out. “There were 3,909 dead birds in a 50-square-kilometer area. He figured 20 percent of the world´s supply of Swainson´s hawks were killed in one valley in Argentina.” The Swainson´s hawks were making a gradual comeback each year — until this year. “This year, very few came back,” Guinn said. “We don´t know why yet, but I have a good idea it´s related to this same type of thing again.” Other problems, most of them related to a dwindling food supply, have thinned the ranks of other raptors that have frequented the birds of prey area. Drought, wildfires and loss of native plants to cheatgrass incursions have significantly damaged the natural habitat. Drought reduces the supply of vegetation consumed by ground squirrels and other small animals on which raptors prey, causing their populations to decline. With insufficient food available, some of the birds are forced to leave the canyon for places where they can survive. Wildfires have dramatically reduced the habitat for the prey base that was a major factor in making the birds of prey area a world-class attraction. “Three-hundred thousand of the 486,000 acres in the national conservation area have burned in the last 10 years,” Guinn said. “Some of the fires have been man-caused. Some were started by lightning strikes. The fires have destroyed habitat, and the loss of habitat has decimated populations. “Twenty years ago, I´d see 40 or 50 rabbits every night. I haven´t seen a rabbit out there in three or four years, and the ground squirrel population is almost nonexistent.” Eagles eat jackrabbits, which need sagebrush habitat. When the sagebrush burns, the number of rabbits — and eagles — declines. Prairie falcons prefer ground squirrels. “They´re the primary reason that the birds of prey area was the greatest concentration of prairie falcons in the U.S.,” Guinn said. “The prairie falcons were here because of the canyon and the ground squirrels. The ground squirrels used to be thick out there. You could hardly drive your car along the roads without hitting them. “Now there are hardly any.” CONTINUED

16. Cheatgrass: problem ’No. 1’ As damaging as fires and drought have been, the “No. 1 problem,” in Guinn´s view, is a cheatgrass invasion that threatens the area´s native plants. Cheatgrass germinates early and uses up the moisture the native plants need to begin their cycle. It´s less nutritious than the native plants and dies sooner, leaving little for ground squirrels and other small prey to eat. Cheatgrass is also more resistant to the fires that have destroyed much of the animals´ habitat. “Cheatgrass dies earlier than the other plants, and by the first couple of weeks of June, it´s ready to burn,” Nelson said. “It burns quick and hot and destroys the native plants. But its seed base lasts three to five years, so in the spring it comes back first. It comes back again and again. By about the third fire, you have nothing but cheatgrass. There´s nothing else that can survive.” Some of the problems at the birds of prey area are caused by people. They dump trash there, vandalize improvements and start fires by illegally driving vehicles off-road through the tinder-dry landscape. And despite stiff federal fines and jail sentences, they continue to shoot raptors. Shooting the birds´ prey has even more far-reaching consequences. “Morley and I have counted up to 20 cars of guys at a time out shooting ground squirrels,” Guinn said. “I´d ask how many they´d shot, and they usually say 100 or 150. Half of those would be females with 10 or so young in the ground. They die without their mothers. So if you kill 50 females, you´ve killed 500 ground squirrels. Multiply that times 20 cars, and you´ve killed 10,000 ground squirrels in an afternoon. That´s a lot of food for prairie falcons.” The future of the birds of prey area? John Sullivan, its manager, is hopeful that “we can arrest the downward spiral. We´re reinitiating habitat restoration projects by replanting shrubs like sagebrush or winterfat with an understory of perennial bunch grasses. “But it´s expensive. It costs $75 to $100 an acre, and that adds up fast when you´re trying to do 4,000 or 5,000 acres a year.” Nelson, among others, hopes to see Idaho´s famous birds of prey area restored to the health it enjoyed in the good old days of a decade ago. “It was just magical when my father could predict when the falcons would go after the eagles,” he said. “Now it hardly ever happens anymore. The concentration of the falcons is so much less they´re not even protecting their territory.”

17. BIRD OF PREY

18. Despite reputation, Superfund cleanup has been boon to Kellogg residentsFederal spending, improvements aid North Idaho town KELLOGG — The city of Kellogg can thank the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for $10,000 worth of new computers at local schools and libraries. It also got a $230,000 greenbelt, $542,000 in street maintenance money and $17 million in flood control and street projects — all courtesy of the federal government. The spending may not ease the resentment many Silver Valley residents feel toward the EPA and its massive Superfund cleanup of old mining wastes. But some Kellogg residents say the cleanup has left their town ready for growth after two decades of bad economic news. Small businesses and a nascent tourist industry are emerging. A new industrial park west of town has one major tenant and awaits others. And EPA is poised to return 1,600 acres to Idaho for other development, including a resort-style golf course. “Three years ago, it was bad,” said Mike Domy, the owner of Excelsior Cycle and a former Kellogg City Council member. “But business has picked up a lot, and people are moving here.” Indeed, Shoshone County unemployment improved slightly this year. Unemployment in March stood at 10.8 percent, compared to 12.5 percent a year ago. Kellogg and four other small towns have benefited from $77 million in jobs and community improvements as a direct spinoff from Superfund, a recent report to Gov. Dirk Kempthorne says. Of that total, $42 million went to hire local people during the cleanup, said Chuck Moss, Idaho´s Superfund point man in Boise. Some 600 contractors worked the Superfund job, from hydroseeders in helicopters to demolition experts who crushed and buried hundreds of old buildings. “Eighty-five to 90 percent of the labor force has been local,” said Cami Grandinetti, the EPA´s Bunker Hill project manager. That´s not to say that Kellogg´s economy is roaring back to its mining heyday. It still suffers from the loss of 2,100 jobs provided by Bunker Hill, the defunct mining and smelting company old-timers call “Uncle Bunker.” CONTINUED

19. When the company closed in 1981, 80 percent of the city´s tax base disappeared. Storefronts in Kellogg´s Alpine-themed downtown sit empty. People who stay often commute long distances for jobs. Shoshone County is the fifth poorest in Idaho. But EPA has been a godsend amidst the economic carnage, said Barbara Miller, a local activist who has fought for more cleanup, not less. “Superfund is the only viable economic development this town has seen since 1981. When the community is finally given a clean bill of health, the potential here will be endless,” Miller said. “At the beginning, Superfund was the Mark of the Beast,” said Jerry Cobb, Panhandle Health District director. “But we´ve beat it.” Key to Kellogg´s revival is a little-known initiative called the Institutional Control Program. The program, run by Cobb, maintains a database that shows lead contamination levels on every property within the Superfund site, and whether it has been cleaned. The documentation allows houses to change hands and remediated property to be sold for development. When EPA first came to Kellogg in 1983, Superfund was new and banks and mortgage insurers were skittish. They didn´t want to loan money for projects within a Superfund site. The Institutional Control Program “was designed to keep the banks happy,” Cobb said, by documenting where cleanup has occurred. The program has been central to attracting new businesses to Kellogg — including McDonald´s, Subway, a Motel 8 serving the Silver Mountain resort ski crowd, and the TSI Call Center, with 50 telemarketing jobs. The call center is the first tenant of a 40-acre business park near Smelterville. EPA contributed $950,000 toward road construction, paving and a storm drain system within the park. Area mining companies are paying the $135,000 annual costs of the control program. Rich Nearing worked 27 years at Bunker Hill´s zinc plant, supervising 140 people before the plant closed 20 years ago on a day he still calls “Black Friday.” He now collects a $450-a-month pension for his labor. In 1995, he went to work for EPA contractor Morrison-Knudsen to help clean up after his old employer. His pension after five years on the Superfund site: $650 a month. Workers like Nearing, a Silver Valley native, benefited from a federal law called the Davis-Bacon Act that requires companies to pay union-scale prevailing wages at any Superfund site where EPA is paying the bills. Laborers and teamsters were paid between $22 and $30 an hour. They also got union medical and pension benefits and hazardous waste training. Heavy equipment operators called operating engineers also shared in the good wages and benefits. “For four years, there was good money to be made on cleanup at Bunker Hill,” said Mel Thoresen, a former organizer with the Spokane-based Operating Engineers Local 370. Nearing became a member of Local 238, the Spokane and North Idaho chapter of the Laborer´s International Union. “I wish I´d been with that union all these years,” said Nearing, who is 66. Workers doing cleanup paid directly by Union Pacific Railroad and the mining companies earned $8 to $14 an hour on average. “There´s no obligation for private companies to pay Davis-Bacon wages,” said Chris Pfahl of Asarco, who keeps the books for the mining companies´ private cleanup of polluted yards within the Bunker Hill site. “EPA was paying Seattle-scale wages in the Silver Valley. It´s absurd,” Pfahl said. More than 500 men and women in the Silver Valley would like to see those union-scale wages continue when EPA moves ahead with an expanded cleanup throughout the Coeur d´Alene Basin. They´ve signed petitions calling on the state and EPA to do the work under a Project Labor Agreement, guaranteeing local hires, top wages and benefits

20. AFTER EFFECTS OF MININING

21. ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE LEFT BY MINING

22. Norton: Logging must help pay for fire planOfficial says thinning must be profitable for timber cutters Gregory HahnThe Idaho Statesman President Bush´s plan to reduce fires and improve the health of the nation´s forests will rely on making forest-thinning operations profitable for the companies that cut the trees, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Friday in Boise. Norton was in town to tout the Healthy Forests Initiative, which Bush proposed to Congress this week. The plan, partially based on an agreement that 17 Western governors signed in Idaho City in May, would include a fundamental change in the way forests are managed. That plan relies more on thinning and “fuels reduction” and on 10-year stewardship agreements with loggers, non-profits or communities. At times, Norton said, telling the difference between conventional logging and thinning may not be easy. Norton expects the government will make money off some of the agreements and lose money on others, but she doesn´t envision a time when economics doesn´t play into land managers´ decisions. The taxpayers can´t afford to protect homes, watersheds and forests, she said. “The Interior budget would have to go up many multiples to be able to do that,” she said. But she maintained that these commercially driven choices will affect only “a few trees one way or the other, at the margin.” The bigger challenge in the future, she said, will be to help create more profitable uses for the small-diameter trees that will constitute the vast majority of these thinning operations. Right now, too many of those trees are simply piled and burned, she said. “Why do we say there´s something morally superior to cut down the small trees, put them in a pile and have a bonfire,” she asked. Trying to use those smaller trees is the goal of an entrepreneur who met earlier Friday with Norton. CONTINUED

23. Steve Thorson of Twin Falls said his Forest Concepts facility could provide 20 jobs right away in Cascade and has the potential to grow to three times that. The company uses small, otherwise unwanted trees to make erosion-control structures used to help stabilize land after a fire burns through. It´s just one of the uses for this previously overlooked harvest that could open a new market in Idaho and bring needed jobs to timber-dependent communities. But conservation groups say it´s not the small trees they´re worried about. Matthew Koehler from the Montana-based Native Forest Network said the initiative is “nothing less than a transparent attempt to increase commercial logging in our national forests — which has been this administration´s stated intention since day one.” “The problem with allowing loggers to cut commercially valuable trees is that science has been telling us for years that commercial logging — because it targets the large, fire-resistant trees — has increased, not decreased, fire risk and severity,” he said. These concerns are magnified by Norton´s August decision to appoint as her coordinator of wildland fuels efforts Allan K. Fitzsimmons, who has said federal land decisions should rely more on economic factors than they do. She defended Fitzsimmons on Friday, saying he´s qualified for the job and not as incendiary as his critics make him out to be. Still, Bureau of Land Management fire-suppression chief Larry Hamilton said Friday biologists will make the call on which trees stay and which go. Forest health, Norton added, is about what stays, not what gets taken away. She also countered environmentalist concerns about Bush´s plans to remove some appeals avenues for Forest Service projects and to expedite thinning and other management plans for about 10 million of 190 million forested acres. “We´re not denying access to the courts,” she said. “There´s still an opportunity to go to court and challenge an operation.” As the country battles another tough fire season — almost 6.4 million acres have burned so far — the Bush administration has focused more resources on fighting the fires. The country has more than 4,000 more firefighters and is spending $750 million more on firefighting efforts than it did in 2000, Norton said. Along with protecting the forested areas that surround towns and homes, the money will go to protect municipal watersheds, diseased and weed-infested parcels, and other spots highly susceptible to catastrophic fires — even if these areas are deep within the forest. This will be after biologists have determined that some of the most devastating fires don´t cause long-term damage. Even this year´s worst fire in the Northwest, a nearly 500,000-acre blaze in the Siskiyou National Forest of southwest Oregon, is not expected to harm the long-term health of the 1,400 species of plants and animals there, biologists told The Oregonian newspaper last month. That´s partly why conservation groups say the government´s efforts should be more concentrated on helping homeowners protect their rural homes — a task Norton said also is the responsibility of local governments and zoning boards.

24. THINNING OUR FORESTS

25. 21ST CENTURY LOGGING

26. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES BECOME INVOLVED

27. ASEDUCATORS WE CAN NOT TAKE A BACK SEAT ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES. OUR FUTURE IS IN THE STUDENTS WE TEACH. WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE, IF WE WILL ONLY BECOME INVOLVED

28. NEWSPAPER ARTICLES TAKEN FROM IDAHO PRESS TRIBUNE IDAHO STATESMAN

29. THE END