Notebook: Idaho Parks and Rec announces campsite, entrance fee increases
The Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation announced in a news release Monday that it will change its fee structure for campsites and increase its motor vehicle entrance fees for state parks.
Entrance fees, which were previously $5 per vehicle, will increase to $7. The agency has also changed its categorization of campsites. It now categorizes sites as basic, electric and full hook-up which it says will better identify features for campers. Fees for camping will increase between 8% and 16%. All fee increases go into effect Dec. 10.
Officials said the new fees now include taxes, making them more transparent.
“With our improved fee structure, users will know exactly what they are paying for their sites,” Susan Buxton, interim department director, said in the news release. “And additional revenue from the fee increases will be used to improve and maintain campsites, ensuring users have great outdoor experiences for generations to come.”
Idaho State Passport stickers are still available for $10 with vehicle registration. The stickers allow access to parks without an additional entrance fee.
Idaho outdoors brands launch effort to benefit conservation
Several Idaho companies that make outdoor gear have joined an effort to support conservation nonprofits through a project called the Common Wild Initiative.
Common Wild launches Dec. 3 with a limited series of merchandise — a Nalgene water bottle, enamel mug and baseball cap — with all proceeds going toward conservation nonprofits selected by the 16 companies involved in the project. Those companies include several Idaho businesses: Ketchum-based hunting apparel company First Lite, Sun Valley-based women’s apparel company Wild Rye and Boise’s Exo Mtn Gear and Argali, which offer hunting gear.
“We want to show Americans that conservation is fundamental to the $887 billion-dollar outdoor economy and that support for the protection of wildlife and wild places unites all outdoor recreation businesses,” said Ford Van Fossan, conservation manager at First Lite, in a news release.
Van Fossan spearheaded the campaign as a reminder “that conservation is not a Republican or Democratic issue,” he said.
The Common Wild website points to conserving the outdoors as a vital part of preserving the $887 billion recreation economy. To learn more, visit commonwild.org.
Idaho Water Board will help finance Anderson Dam project
The Idaho Water Board decided during its November meeting to become a “lead partner” with the Bureau of Reclamation to help finance a proposed project to raise Anderson Ranch Dam, according to a news release from the board.
The project would raise the dam by 6 feet, adding 29,000 acre-feet of water storage in the Elmore County reservoir. A draft study of the project’s environmental impact estimated it would cost $91 million, the non-federal portion of which is due upfront. The state water board would help finance that non-federal portion. It “will likely issue revenue bonds and then sub-contract with water users to pay for the new reservoir space. The revenue bonds would be retired with payments from the water users over time,” according to the news release.
Officials are expected to make a final decision on the dam project in May.
In recent years, Elmore County officials have also proposed recharging the area’s depleted aquifer by pumping water from the South Fork Boise River into Anderson Ranch Reservoir.
Washington wildlife officials show how they count wolves
By Eli Francovich
The Spokesman-Review
How do you count one of the world’s more elusive ground animals?
Very carefully.
That’s one of the messages from a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife video released Thursday called “How to Count a Wolf.”
The video, which was produced by Benjamin Drummond and Sara Joy Steele in conjunction with WDFW, explains how WDFW estimates the number of wolves in the Evergreen State.
Part of that process is done from the air, using helicopters to find, sedate and collar wolves. It’s dangerous work and the stress is palpable in the 8-minute video.
“We’re flying 10 feet off the ground, 30 miles an hour around trees,” said Trent Roussin, a state wolf biologist in the video. “Just to get a chance at maybe darting a single animal.”
Dangerous as it is, that aerial perspective lends itself to gorgeous cinematography.
The video was released at the Wolf Advisory Group meeting last Thursday.
The video is an interesting and timely look into how WDFW estimates the state’s wolf population: an important process that sets a minimum number of wolves and packs in the state and guides management decisions for the year to come. It’s a hotly anticipated piece of research that occasionally draws criticism from those who believe it either undercounts or overcounts the number of wolves.
Generally, the annual wolf survey is published in April.
When Washington’s wolf population was relatively small, it was possible to collar every individual, or at least have a collar in every pack. As the population has grown, an average of 28% a year since 2008, that’s no longer feasible.
Now, in addition to collared data, WDFW biologists spend days driving up and down Forest Service roads looking for wolf sign, comb through photos and videos from game cameras and take reports from the public.
That work is usually done in January and March. Wolves mate in the late winter and den in the spring, with pups born around late April.
The most recent report, released in April 2020, documented a minimum of 108 wolves in 21 packs and 10 breeding pairs in 2019. That’s compared to 97 wolves in 22 packs and nine breeding pairs in 2018.
The video discusses all that and more.
“I like to say they’re just another critter on the landscape,” Ben Maletzke said in the video. “They’re not near the Big Bad Wolf that everybody makes them out, but they’re not a saint, either. You know they’re right in the middle.”
This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 9:30 AM.
