Reader_Oct20_2022

The week in random review

DEAR READERS,

READER

111 Cedar Street, Suite 9 Sandpoint, ID 83864 (208) 946-4368 www.sandpointreader.com

quotable

“People travel for the same reason as they collect works of art: because the best people do it.”

By Ben Olson Reader Staff road trip lessons

After eight days in a car road tripping from here to the Grand Tetons and back — camping all along the way — there are several tips I wish I’d remembered before the trip. First, always carry a stick of palo santo wood to burn at night and shut in the car to avoid those stale road trip odors. Sec ond, pack your coolers with easy access to the drain holes so you don’t have to lug them in and out of the car to drain the water. Finally, when you find a great primitive or free camp spot, mark it on your map for the next trip. This is especially helpful if it’s after dark and you’re still looking for a spot.

yellowstone soundtrack

My lady discovered the absolute perfect soundtrack to play while driving lazily through Yellowstone National Park on a sunny October day: The 1959 album Cool Water by cowpoke Western band The Sons of the Pioneers. Their haunting harmo nies and melodies are just perfect for this occasion. After sitting with all the other tourists to watch Old Faithful erupt (with a bison also watching from nearby), we got back in the car and the next song was actually about Old Faithful. It was crazy. Change my mind.

all washed up

I once eavesdropped on a woman telling her friend that the road departments actually install washboards into gravel and dirt roads to help control the speed. I held my tongue the entire time, not wanting to disrupt her completely inaccurate (and crazy) explanation. Instead, here’s how they actually form:

When you drive on an unpaved road, a wavy pattern will ultimately develop. At first, tiny ripples form, which get larger as more cars pass over them. The hopping of the wheels over the ripples is mathematically similar to skipping a stone over water, in fact. Just as a skipping stone needs to go above a specific speed in order to develop enough force to be thrown off the surface of the water, vehicles need to be moving at a certain speed in order for washboarding to occur.

To avoid washboards forming on your gravel roads, you can either drive about three miles per hour, lay better gravel on the surface or get a hold of a flying car.

OK, OK, I call “uncle.” No more smoky skies, please. These sunny and mild fall days have been glorious, but not being able to see Baldy Mountain from my office at the end of October is pretty lame. Have no fear, though, it looks like the season will finally catch up to us Friday, as the National Weather Service is calling for “big weather changes” as a strong cold front will bring colder temperatures, snow and high winds. There is a chance for “significant” snowfall at elevations above 4,000 feet Saturday, and as far down as 2,500 feet Sunday. If you’re reading this on Thurs day, it means cram in all the sunny weather activies you can, because it’s about to get North Idaho on us quick.

I don’t mind the change. Part of living in North Idaho is embracing change. Ev erything else is constantly changing around here, so why shouldn’t we also embrace when it goes from extended summer to pre-winter in a single day?

Curl up with a Reader, a good book and something warm to drink, my friends.

– Ben Olson, publisher

Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com

Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com

Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (News Editor) lyndsie@sandpointreader.com

Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus)

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Contributing Artists: Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, Otto Kitsinger, Bill Borders, Marie-Dominique Verdier

Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Kelcie Moseley-Morris, Kristina Kingsland, Marcia Pilgeram

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— Aldous Huxley

Herndon blames ID Democrats for alleged campaign sign vandalism

BoCo Dems ‘strongly denounce all acts of vandalism’ in statement

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

District 1 Idaho Senate candidate Scott Herndon, who won the Republican nomination over incumbent two-term Sen. Jim Woodward in May, has filed a complaint with the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office over alleged vandalism to several of his campaign signs in Bonner and Boundary counties over the weekend of Oct. 15-16.

According to a news release issued to local media Oct. 17 from the Herndon campaign, the candidate was “shocked and disgusted” to find on Oct. 16 that five large pro-Herndon signs had been marked with swastikas.

Based on numerous social media posts in the ensuing days, the swastikas were spray-paint ed in orange and black on large signs located along U.S. High way 95 and Highway 200.

Herndon’s campaign accused “Idaho Democrats,” and Bonner County Democratic Party Chair person Linda Larson, in particu lar, of being responsible for the defacement.

“[Larson] has smeared Herndon as a ‘fascist’ on social media and called him their ‘enemy,’” the campaign news release stated. “All across Idaho conservative Republicans and Christians are being vilified as ‘Christo-Fascists.’”

Speaking on behalf of herself, and not the Bonner County Democrats, Larson in an email to the Reader late Oct. 17 wrote, “It is ridiculous to accuse me of this crime. I do not support van dalism in any form. It’s illegal. Herndon should file a complaint and law enforcement should investigate and prosecute.”

Herndon told the Reader on Oct. 17 that he reported the de facement to the sheriff’s office,

and a deputy has documented the damage.

BCSO Captain Tim Hemphill confirmed to the Reader that Herndon “did in fact make a report to our office and the case is currently under investigation at this time.”

Hemphill added that “de pending on specific circumstanc es, someone who intentionally damages or defaces campaign signs could be charged with (misdemeanor) malicious injury to property or (misdemeanor) graffiti. Again, circumstanc es and evidence would play a significant role in the potential of criminal charges.”

In Idaho, misdemeanor offenses are punishable by jail time not to exceed six months, a fine of no more than $1,000 or both, though alternative penalties may be imposed based on the statute and a judge’s ruling.

According to Herndon, quoted in the release, “Frankly, this criminal activity has been fomented by the Idaho Demo cratic Party through their hateful and extreme rhetoric.”

When asked by the Reader if the Herndon campaign had any other evidence connecting local Democratic groups to the alleged vandalism, or if it was explicitly basing those claims on the statements to which it referred in the news release, the campaign responded: “The references to Linda Larson are based on statements discov erable on her Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as the accounts for the Bonner County Democratic Party.”

In a post to local Facebook group Rosebud on Oct. 16, Herndon wrote, “The local Dem ocratic Party and their chair woman have been whipping up a froth by characterizing conserva tives, Christians and Republicans

as ‘fascists.’ I call upon Linda Larson to stand down in her rhetoric and begin behaving re spectfully. Linda is disrespecting the majority of North Idahoans in her hateful rhetoric.”

In addition, Herndon posted a number of screenshots, including one apparently from Larson’s personal Twitter account dated May 15, in which she wrote: “Scott Herndon- believes all abortions for any reason is murder and should be punished as such- vs Jim Woodward-sane incumbent Republican State Senator Idaho Northern most District 1. It could be a complete fascist take over in North Idaho and across the state.”

Herndon is a well-known local conservative activist, who for years led “abortion abolition” protests in public venues. In 2019, he and another local man attempted to enter the Festival at Sandpoint with firearms, trig gering a multi-front legal battle between the city of Sandpoint

and Bonner County, as well as gun rights lobby groups, over whether it was legal under the terms of its lease with the city for the Festival to ban firearms from publicly owned War Me morial Field. A judge ruled twice in favor of the defendants. The cases cost more than $200,000 in taxpayer dollars.

Herndon is the chair of the Bonner County Republican Com mittee and running as the Repub lican nominee for the District 1 Idaho Senate seat, opposed only by independent write-in candidate Steve Johnson.

In the Oct. 17 news release, the Herndon campaign called on local Democratic Party organiza tions to “repudiate” the alleged vandalism, with an unnamed spokesperson calling on the Bon ner and Boundary County Dem ocratic Party Central Committees “to join [Herndon] and the Bonner and Boundary Republican Party Central Committees in denounc ing this crime in the strongest

possible terms. The Democratic Party needs to definitively state whether or not they consider this crime to be acceptable. If Idaho Democrats choose to say nothing they will be tacitly condoning this hateful act.”

The Bonner County Demo crats issued its own statement late Oct. 17:

“The Bonner County Dem ocrats strongly denounce all acts of vandalism. As proud Americans, we firmly believe in the First Amendment right to free speech. This includes the freedom to express oneself with a campaign sign. As we have also experienced rampant vandalism of campaign signs in numerous past election cycles, we whole-heartedly understand the feelings of violation that vandalism incurs.

“All acts of vandalism should be promptly reported to the local police or sheriff’s office.”

One of Scott Herndon’s signs defaced with a swastika, in an image posted Oct. 16 by the candidate on the Rosebud local Facebook group.

Bill prohibiting public drag performances on tap for 2023 Idaho Legislature

By Kelcie Moseley-Morris Idaho Capital Sun

A bill that would ban drag performances in all public venues will be introduced in the first days of the next session of the Idaho Legislature in Janu ary, Idaho Family Policy Center President Blaine Conzatti told the Idaho Capital Sun.

Conzatti and other conserva tive activists around Idaho and across the country have protested against events in public spaces that feature drag queens, includ ing drag queen story hour events at public libraries. In September, Idaho Republican Party Chair woman Dorothy Moon called for people to pressure corporate sponsors of Boise Pride to pull their names from sponsorship at the event over a scheduled “Drag Kids” performance for ages 11 to 18, which was ultimately post poned over safety concerns.

Conzatti said the draft bill is ready to be introduced as soon as the session gets underway but declined to share the text of the bill with the Sun and wouldn’t name the legislators who worked on it with him.

“No child should ever be exposed to sexual exhibitions like drag shows in public places, whether that’s at a public library or a public park,” he said.

Conzatti also cites a drag performance in Coeur d’Alene in June as another example of pub lic indecency, when a performer was accused of exposing himself during a Pride in the Park event. After complaints, the local pros ecutor’s office determined the video was edited to look like the performer had exposed himself when he had not. The performer has since filed a defamation law suit against North Idaho blogger Summer Bushnell over the inci dent, according to reporting from

the Coeur d’Alene Press.

Group cites section of Idaho Constitution as basis for law

The Idaho Family Policy Center circulated a petition leading up to Boise Pride asking state lawmakers to prohibit drag performances from public places, citing a section of the Idaho Constitution that states the first concern of all good government is the virtue and sobriety of the people and the purity of the home. It says the Legislature should “further all wise and well-directed efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality.”

“There were many Supreme Court decisions from the 19th century dealing with public virtue and how sexual practices should not take place in public because it degraded public vir tue,” Conzatti said.

In Conzatti’s opinion, drag is inherently a sexualized caricature of gender, which he compared to racist blackface per formances that were a common practice in theater up until the past 50 years. He recognized that might be an offensive compari son to some.

“You overemphasize certain natural characteristics so much that it becomes a caricature of itself,” he said.

More than 3,500 people signed the petition, according to a newsletter from the Idaho Family Policy Center, and more than 26,000 emails were sent to corporate sponsors of Boise Pride over the course of a day and a half.

Longtime drag performer says sexualized characteriza tions are insulting

Boise resident Crispin Gravatt has performed drag for more than a decade under the

stage name Penelope Windsor in all types of venues, including drag story time at libraries and at Boise Pride in September.

“At its core, drag is art, and art can be powerful,” Gravatt said. “For a lot of us it’s a way to be part of a community and do something fun and creative. For me and for my friends, it’s kind of like art therapy, the same kind of thing we see with veterans or abuse survivors. It’s a way we can find joy and work through some of the challenges in a world that can be challenging at times for people like me.”

To Gravatt, drag is no differ ent from original Shakespearean theater performances when men played women on stage and women played men, or the way a clown entertains a crowd. The misinformation about drag that is spreading is harmful, they said, because many people don’t know what drag actually is and end up believing something that isn’t true.

“It’s a little insulting that these folks think people like me don’t know how to act appropri ately for where we’re at,” they said. “In my experience being in this community performing,

producing, going to shows, and just celebrating who I am and who my community is, it’s weird to see that such a small group of people has made it so far in what they are trying to do, because 99% of people I meet all over the state — they think it’s a either a fun creative outlet or something that may not be for them, but isn’t a threat.”

Boise Pride director hopes to see pushback if bill is introduced

Boise Pride Executive Di rector Donald Williamson also received thousands of protesting emails in the days leading up to the event. He said he is aware of the draft bill and thinks it would be a violation of free speech to ban a certain type of performance, despite Conzatti’s assertions that it will be legal ly defensible if it passes the Legislature and is subsequently challenged in court.

“It’s just wrong on so many levels,” Williamson said. “If you don’t agree with the performanc es, then you don’t go. It’s just like any other venue. It’s why I don’t go to country music con certs; it’s not my cup of tea.”

Williamson spent sev eral years as a bartender at a drag club in Oregon, and said drag was not built on a sexualized foundation.

“It was meant as a means of expressing your identity that maybe you didn’t have the ability to do in your public life, as a form of expression and empowerment,” he said.

“Obviously like any other form of entertainment, there’s going to be some sexualizing in one way or another. … There’s a differ ence between a drag show that you and I might see if we decided to go see a drag show on a Friday or Saturday night with a cover charge, versus a drag show on a Sunday afternoon at a park in front of the public.”

Williamson said Boise Pride is planning an alternative kids’ drag show at a private venue for a later date so that the performers’ family and friends can attend and the work the performers put in doesn’t go to waste.

If the bill is introduced as planned, Williamson said he expects a lot of pushback, and he hopes those who showed up for Boise Pride will show up to the Statehouse or contact their representatives.

“Show up and show out huge, not only when we see this legislation, but any legislation that’s targeting anybody that’s hateful or hurtful and is going to affect vast swaths of the population in a negative way.”

This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news out let the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com

Idaho Family Policy Center helped draft legislation, says it will be legally defensible

The Idaho House of Representatives conducts its business from the House chambers at the Statehouse in Boise on April 6, 2021. Photo by Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun.

City Hall roundup

Leaf pickup, housing workshops and surveys go on the calendar

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

It’s a busy season at the Sandpoint City Hall, with a number of announcements, including several opportunities to provide public feedback on issues ranging from housing to recreation in the Little Sand Creek watershed to large-scale improve ments at Travers Park.

First, the city has scheduled its annual leaf pickup for the week of Monday, Oct. 24-Friday, Oct. 28, and Monday, Nov. 14-Friday, Nov. 18.

Residents are asked to place unbagged leaves in the street next to the curb by Sun day, Oct. 23 for the first round and Sunday, Nov. 13 for the second round.

“Crews will not pick up leaves when the scheduled weeks have ended, and it will be the property owner’s responsibility to remove them from the street. Branches and bagged leaves will not be picked up,” according to the city.

For more information, call 208-2633428.

The city is also hosting two drop-in open house workshops focused on housing and neighborhoods, intended to provide information and collect community input that will inform the ongoing update to the Comprehensive Plan.

The first workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 26 from 1-7 p.m. at the Sandpoint City Hall Council Chambers, 1123 Lake St. The second will take place Thursday, Oct. 27 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Tango Cafe Community Room at the Sandpoint Center, 414 Church St.

City officials will provide information on current regulations and identify oppor tunities for housing solutions, as well as gather feedback on where and what types of housing the community supports. Those opinions will be used to determine what gets incorporated in the Comp Plan and applied to future regulations.

“Sandpoint is at the point where infill development and redevelopment are necessary to create housing, but this type of development is often met with neigh borhood resistance,” stated Sandpoint City Planner Amy Tweeten. “Finding the balance between protecting neighborhood quality of life and providing needed housing for current and future residents is the challenge as we move forward with the Comprehen sive Plan.”

Meanwhile, residents have until 12:59 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30 to weigh on the

Little Sand Creek Watershed Recreation Master Plan, which is described as the final piece of a larger watershed management plan adopted by the City Council in 2021.

The watershed is a basin northwest of Sandpoint between Baldy Mountain to the south and Schweitzer Mountain to the north, draining into Little Sand Creek — a tributary of Sand Creek — which flows into Lake Pend Oreille near City Beach and includes all the drainage area above the city’s drinking water treatment plant, locat ed about a mile to the west on Schweitzer Mountain Road.

Encompassing about 7,400 acres, the city is the majority landowner with about 53% of the area. Other owners include the state of Idaho, Bureau of Land Manage ment, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Schweitzer and other private entities.

Residents are being asked whether and how they think the city should leverage its ownership in the watershed for various rec reational purposes, including biking, hiking and more.

As of Oct. 19, the survey has gathered 104 responses from 346 survey takers. Find the survey at opentownhall.com/por tals/287/Issue_12276.

Finally, the deadline for a survey on future programming at the planned James E.Russell Sports Center at Travers Park is scheduled for 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30.

The project is being made possible by an historic gift to the city of $7.5 million from James F. and Ginny Russell in memory of James E. Russell, and will be constructed in two phases: Phase 1 including tennis/pickle ball courts, lockers, indoor/outdoor accessi ble restrooms and a community room. Phase 2 envisions two collegiate-sized basketball courts with an overlay of four volleyball courts, and is intended to serve multiple purposes. The latter phase is dependent on additional funding.

Emerick Construction and ALSC Archi tects have almost finished the final construc tion design, and the Phase 1 main pavilion is expected to be complete in 2023. Ahead of that, the city has contracted with Berry Dunn to review and validate the facility de sign, and put together a staffing, operations and management plan for the facility. The survey is intended to inform that effort.

As of Oct. 19, 562 survey visitors have provided 179 responses. Take the survey at opentownhall.com/portals/287/Issue_12275.

Find more opportunities for public involvement at sandpointidaho.gov.

Bits ’n’ Pieces

From east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

Families of eight Sandy Hook school shooting victims won $965 million in damages in their case against Alex Jones, who has insisted on air that the shooting was a government hoax, according to The New York Times.

A large study in Scotland found one in 20 sick from COVID-19 had not recov ered at all, and four in 10 took months to recover, according to a report in Nature Communications. Symptoms in those who had previously experienced COVID-19 infections included breathlessness, palpi tations, confusion or difficulty concentrat ing, and elevated risks for more than 20 other symptoms. A new report from the Brookings Institute says about 16 million Americans suffer from long-COVID, with up to 4 million being out of work due to their symptoms.

Russian-Ukrainian headlines: “France pledges to train up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers and offers air de fense missile system”; “Biden authorizes additional $725 million in military aid to Ukraine”; “Saudi Arabia promises Ukraine $400 million after siding with Russia on oil deal”; “Elon Musk drops threat to halt internet service in Ukraine”; “‘Coffins are already coming’”: The toll of Russia’s chaotic draft.”

According to various media sources, the Jan. 6 House Committee voted unani mously to subpoena Donald Trump to answer their questions while under oath and laid out what the former president knew, his state of mind and intent regard ing the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that aimed to stop the electoral count vote in 2021 — and took five lives. That evidence revealed that Trump’s plan for resisting election results began well before Election Day, as early as July of 2020. After the vote, Trump knew he lost since he was informed of that repeatedly by the attorney general and his advisers, but others encouraged him to say he won, and he said the vote should be stopped before it was finished. Although Trump challenged the vote in 62 court cas es, the courts denied election fraud. Trump was advised to concede and still refused to do so. An aide to Trump’s chief of staff said he was “raging” about losing, and Trump said, “I don’t want people to know we lost. This is embarrassing.”

Trump pressured election officials

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

to falsify results in states he lost, and pressured Department of Justice officials to change the election results, but they threatened a mass resignation. He tried to replace Biden electors with fake Trump electors, knowing that was illegal, and pressured the vice president to illegally swing the outcome. He summoned sup porters to the Capitol, knowing they were armed and dangerous, and fueled that danger by claiming the election was stolen and urging them to march on the Capitol.

Online comments before and about the Jan. 6 event included “gallows don’t require electricity” and “lawmakers in Congress can leave one of two ways… in a body bag [or] after rightfully certifying Trump the winner.”

The FBI notified the Secret Service about white nationalists who would be at the Jan. 6 event and who were prepared to shoot and kill for Trump. Trump refused to call off the mob before violence occurred. Secret Service communications show they were well-informed about a Capitol attack and the committee con tinues to investigate their role. Footage shared at the hearing showed elected lead ers begging for help that did not arrive when called. The rioters did leave when Trump told them to, after the chaos could only be described as an attempted coup.

Overview from the committee: Trump was the main cause of events at the Capitol on Jan. 6. A final report from the committee is expected in December, and legislative recommendations to ward off similar future events are expected. The committee is also expected to decide if they will make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.

Trump did submit a 14-page response to the Committee’s subpoena request. Most noticeable to Committee Member Rep. Jamie Raskin was Trump’s claim that there was a “feeling” of a rigged election. Raskin commented that “your feelings cannot dictate our elections,” Huffington Post reported.

Blast from the past: “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal,” former President Richard Nixon said in 1977. In 1974 he announced his resignation due to the Watergate scandal. As pointed out in a recent New Republic article, Nixon’s statement was more akin to that of a monarch — exactly what the nation’s Founders resisted with the Revo lutionary War.

Refund marks end of MLD reconsideration process on planning director’s personal file

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

Bonner County commis sioners voted unanimously Oct. 18 to approve a refund request from neighbors of the Wood View Acres minor land division after they opted to pull a reconsideration request of the MLD.

Bonner County Planning Di rector Jacob Gabell — also the prop erty owner — submitted the Wood View Acres MLD application in June, prior to being hired to lead the department. Under the original proposal, the division would create four lots — one 3.49-acre lot, one 1.06-acre lot and two one-acre lots — out of Gabell’s 6.27 acres. While MLDs are usually administratively approved by the planning director, the file went to the board due to Gabell’s personal conflict.

The file saw vocal opposition from residents concerned about county plan

ners interpreting “urban services” in the code as “publicly or privately maintained water supply and distri bution systems” and therefore allowing Gabell to drill one well to service the three smaller lots.

Neighbors ap pealed the board’s ap proval, and the BOCC upheld its original decision in August. The appel lants then filed a reconsideration request, but before that request saw a response, Gabell submitted modifications to the Wood View Acres MLD. Commission ers approved the new file — which only divided Gabell’s land into two lots rather than four — on Sept. 21.

During the Sept. 21 hearing, Gabell said that he “didn’t feel [he] could meet the conditions” attached to the MLD’s

original approval “in a timely manner,” and therefore altered his application.

Also at the hearing, Elizabeth Iha — representing the neighbors — testified that appellants had paid $330 to file the reconsideration request just two days before Gabell modified his MLD.

Planning staff told commissioners Oct. 18 that the neighbors withdrew the recon sideration request on Oct. 4. The board voted unanimously to refund the money.

“Thank you,” Iha said at the meeting. “That’s all.”

Neighbors and other opponents to the original file — including land use watch dog nonprofit Project 7B — maintain that the Wood View Acres MLD remains a concern due to the conversation that arose surrounding how Bonner County interprets its own code regarding “urban water.”

“Mr. Gabell’s failure to acknowl edge that this split-well-as-urban-water [scenario] is not consistent with the code, and the fact that he will be in the unique

position of administratively approving other MLDs which may try to use this same erroneous interpretation — that’s problematic,” Reg Crawford with Project 7B said at the Sept. 21 hearing.

Wood View neighbors awarded refund Lakes Commission meeting Oct. 26

By Reader Staff

The Lakes Commission will meet Wednesday, Oct. 26 from 1-4 p.m. at the West Bonner County Library (118 Main St. in Priest River) to discuss issues relat ed to North Idaho’s waterways.

The commission, which serves as an advisory board to the state of Idaho, will hear a recap of the 2022 boating season from the Bonner County Marine Divi sion. Next, commissioners will take in a presentation from representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on opera tions at the Albeni Falls Dam, as well as updates on local USACE projects.

The Idaho Department of Water Resources will also present updates on operations at the Priest Lake Outlet Dam.

Following a 10-minute break around 2:15 p.m., an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity will update the com mission on the status of the permits for the Idaho Club’s proposed Trestle Creek Marina project, followed by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which will provide information on invasive snapping

turtles. Trout Unlimited will be on hand present before an opportunity for public comment, questions and announcements around 3:45 p.m.

The meeting can be attended in person or via Zoom by going to lakescommis sion.wordpress.com, clicking on the link below “Upcoming Board Meetings 2022” on the right hand side of the home page,

then clicking the registration link.

Those with questions can email lakes commission@ gmail.com or call 208-2654568.

Bouquets:

•I have to call out our “Lum berjill” columnist Jen Jackson Quintano, for her excellent writ ing of late. Jen’s perspective is so wonderful to read in our paper. We’re honored to have her words, her insights and her stories ap pear in the Reader every couple of weeks or so. I love all of our columnists, of course, but after reading Jen’s article last week, I think it’s important to give cred it where credit is due. You rock, Jen. Keep up the good work.

Barbs:

•It angers me when people vandalize election signs before an election. There is no place for vandalism, especially with symbols of hate — no matter what side of the aisle the candi date will sit on. If you don’t like what a candidate’s positions are, you show them by voting against them at the ballot box, not spray painting swastikas onto signs. It also angers me when the van dalism is baselessly blamed on a group or person without any evidence to support the claim. Nobody wins here, so let’s just knock off this crap and get back to the more important things in life. Geez, I really, really despise what elections do to people.

•One thing I’ve noticed about people’s driving habits after an eight-day road trip is that so many people tailgate the car in front of them. This is not only annoying to the driver in front — especially if they are going the speed lim it or just over — but dangerous, since stopping time should be more than two seconds to avoid sudden braking, animals running into the road or poor surface con ditions. Don’t be that guy. If you have to pass, do it, but don’t ride someone’s back bumper for miles just because they aren’t going as fast as you want them to.

‘Correct the mistake’…

Dear editor,

My fellow Republicans, we made a huge and catastrophic mistake in the spring primary when we turned away from Jim Woodward, a reason able, productive and effective legis lator, to Scott Herndon, an alt-right puppet of out-of-state big money.

On Nov. 8, we can correct this mistake and write in Steve Johnson for Idaho Senate, District 1. I know Steve Johnson to be reasonable, smart, effective and civic-minded. Please help correct the mistake: Write in Steve Johnson.

Daniel Haley Sandpoint

A campaign commandment…

Dear editor,

Regarding letters concerning Scott Herndon as a moral man and good Christian, here are my thoughts. If that is true, why did he run a campaign of lies against his opponent Jim Woodward?

One of the 10 Commandments states, “You should not bear false witness against your neighbor.” It seems Mr. Herndon ignored that in his recent campaign.

Barbara Patton Ponderay

‘Get out the vote!’...

Steve Johnson has already made himself available to Dist. 1 voters…

Dear editor,

Is Scott Herndon now afraid to share his extremist views? Both he and Steve Johnson have been invited to an interview by KRFY, our community radio, and the Reader invited them both to participate in a town hall or debate. Steve Johnson has agreed to both requests, however Scott Herndon has turned down both invitations. Makes me wonder why Herndon can only campaign through mailings of false accusations and untruthful attacks on his opponents as he did to Jim Woodward. Steve Johnson has even made himself available for informal question-and-answer “get acquainted” opportunities at many local venues in the communities he hopes to represent. He was even at an SHS football game. So let’s write in Steve Johnson for Legislative District 1 state senator and bubble the adjoining square to vote for an honest, open-minded, committed, independent candidate who really cares about us and our future!

Thank you, Pam Duquette Sandpoint

Steve Johnson is the rational choice for Dist. 1 Senate…

Dear editor,

When I was younger, and ranged far afield, I’d tell people I was from Idaho. “Which part? Nazis or potatoes?” they’d ask. At that point, they’d learn more than expected about the importance of hops, hay and sugar beets, orchards and win eries to Idaho’s economy.

Then it would be on to North Idaho, and how the extremists got a lot of press, but most of us are really cool and super into the outdoors, and basically rational people. That was 20 years ago, before Scott Herndon showed up and managed to get on the ballot, spouting statements so alarming National Public Radio picked it up. Stuff like that really weakens my argument about North Idahoans being a welcoming bunch, who support public land access, fund ing schools and veterans affairs.

Normally — faced with one untenable option, whose views are inimical to everything I value — I’d be tempted to write “My dog Mister” in as a candidate. Happily, I have an other option — I can write in Steve Johnson, and trust that enough ra tional, like-minded people care about the real rural community and follow suit. He’s a way better bet than the other guy, and has more job skills than my dog.

election and his belief that guns are appropriate everywhere — even a peaceful concert in the park — frighten me.

As long as we still have a free and fair general election, it is crit ical that we exercise our political power: our one humble vote. Write in Steve Johnson for District 1 Sen ate if you value our freedoms.

Susan Drumheller Sagle

Dear editor,

Someone painted swastikas on Scott Herndon’s signs. This is never acceptable. Nearly as troubling, Herndon went to social media to blame a local Democratic leader. While it’s no secret that a lot of local voters — including many Republicans — are mad about his smear campaign against Sagle GOP Sen. Jim Woodward, it’s complete ly unfair of Herndon to blame a Democrat. Instead of tamping down bad behavior, he ramped it up with unfounded accusations.

Let’s vote for the person who best represents our views and not get hung up on R, D, L, C after their name. Write-in candidate Steve John son is running as an independent.

Talitha Neher SandpointDear editor, Integrity should be mandatory for the Idaho Senate. Unfortunately, Scott Herndon does not have that trait. Steve Johnson easily fills the need for an honest person for senator.

Scott is backed by extremists. Much of his campaign finances have come from many areas other than Ida ho. His positions are narrow in scope, hoping to form a sovereign state, independent from all other states.

There was an excellent letter in the Oct.13-19 Inlander tying Scott to many of the values of early Commu nism: eliminating birth control meth ods, terrorizing librarians, banning books they did not want in a library.

Steve is an honest person who has a long history in Bonner County. He has been a logger and I also was a logger in California in the 1970s. We immediately had a bond! He has been a teacher, which allowed him to interact with young people and learn their quirky ways.

I have grown to respect Steve as a person who will be able to bring years of experience to the position of state senator.

When you vote, remember to write in Steve Johnson under Scott

Don’t fall for Scott Herndon’s ‘hypocritical campaign’… ‘Write in Steve Johnson for a free Idaho’...

Dear editor,

I’m even more committed to sup porting Steve Johnson for District 1 state senator after reading Jennifer Cramer’s letter [“Herndon will represent N. ID values in Senate”..., Oct. 13, 2022] when she pointed out the hypocrisy of Scott Herndon without realizing it: “As a small business owner and farmer, Scott understands how big government is always trying to take more con trol from local people; he will fight against big government expansion.” Making laws that take away wom en’s rights is absolutely government overreach. Taking money from pub lic education with vouchers creates inequities for students of Idaho and will cost taxpayers even more.

Write in Steve Johnson and fill in the box to vote for someone who supports women’s rights, public education and so much more. Don’t fall for the hypocritical campaign of his opponent.

Julie Menghini Sandpoint

Dear editor, A recent letter claimed that only Scott Herndon fully understands this part of Article 1 of our state Constitu tion: “All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right to alter, reform or abolish the same whenever they may deem necessary.”

Herndon understands that po litical power is inherent in himself and like-minded others who seek to undermine our government and re make it into something unrecogniz able to free-thinking people. Sadly, he doesn’t get the equal protection and benefit part. He doesn’t respect those who cherish our right to privacy and bodily autonomy; our right to love whom we choose and read what we wish; and our public institutions — the libraries, schools and public lands that serve us all, rich and poor.

Herndon’s radical ideas, the lies about his opponent in the primary

We know public school funding is on the next Legislature’s agenda after $410 million was passed this summer in a special session. The 100,000 Idaho voters who signed Reclaim Idaho’s initiative that forced this large investment expect to see funds appropriated toward more high school career-technical classes; more counselors for elemen tary and secondary students; salary increases competitive with neigh boring states for teachers and staff.

Writing in Steve Johnson for District 1 Senate will represent this view.

Be sure to fill in the box when writing-in “Steve Johnson” to make your vote count.

Rebecca Holland

Reclaim Idaho District 1 co-leader Sandpoint

Got something to say? Write a letter to the editor. During election season, we accept letters under 200 words that are free from libelous statements, exces sive profanity and personal attacks. No trolls. Please elevate the conversation.

A write-in vote for Steve Johnson will support Idaho education…

Herndon’s name, and do not forget to fill in the bubble completely.

Jim Corcoran Sagle

County needs to tighten reins on spot zoning

By Kristina Kingsland Reader Contributor

Zoning is a term that refers to the set of laws enacted by the county or city that define how property can be used, how small the land can be subdivid ed in each area, what types of buildings and how many can be built there, and what types of business can be conducted in an area or zone. The zoning map is the law that guides people looking to purchase land. It provides the most comprehen sive and up-to-date information available to show what zone overlays each property and how much distance there is between a property and the nearby zones.

This is important information so that people can properly lo cate themselves to best accom modate their lifestyle. If their dream is to run a day care out of their home and to have their mother live on their property in an additional dwelling unit, they will want to be sure that these things are allowed in the zone where they purchase land. If they have lived next door to a small-lot subdivision in the past and now wish to be further from that type of population density, they will want to purchase land that is further from zones where these are allowed.

These types of laws are the norm across our great state. Idaho passed its first planning and zoning legislation in 1935 and in 1975 passed the Local Land Use Planning Act, which set out many of the state stat utes we operate under today.

This all sounds straightfor ward but it gets more compli cated when a property owner wants to change the zoning of their property. Bonner County has a process in place where

owners can apply to have their zoning changed. This pro cess involves applying with the Planning Department for the Zoning Commission and the county commissioners to conduct public hearings on the application and approve or deny the request.

Property owners typically apply to have their zoning changed because they want to do something with the land that is not allowed in the existing zone. Often what they want to do is subdivide the property into parcels smaller than the es tablished zone minimum. This can seem innocuous enough, but it undermines the effective ness of the zone itself, it chang es the experience of all the other landowners in the zone and it confers a discriminatory benifit on that one landowner.

If a person purchases a property in an area zoned for 10-acre minimum size parcels for, say, $300,000 and then has the zoning changed to allow five-acre parcels, that would then be worth $250,000 or thereabout each — they increase their value substantial ly. This economic incentive is encouraging property owners to apply for zone changes all over our county.

There are statutes, code and ordinances that attempt to determine how these rezone ap plications are considered. Idaho State Statute 67-6511 includes this guidance: “Particular consideration shall be given to the effects of any proposed zone change upon the delivery of services by any political subdivision providing public services, including school districts, within the planning jurisdiction.”

Bonner County Code Title 12 stipulates: “12-216: EVAL

UATION OF AMENDMENT PROPOSALS: Staff and the Governing Bodies shall review the particular facts and circum stances of each proposal submit ted and shall determine whether there is adequate evidence that the proposal is in accordance with the general and specific objectives of the comprehensive plan [Ord. 501, 11-18-2008.]”

By state direction, we are asked to consider the effect of these rezones and the increased population that comes with them on the publicly main tained roads, on the water sys tems or groundwater resources, on the sewer systems or the efficacy of septic systems, on the fire protection and emer gency services, and on the school systems in the area that is being rezoned.

Our Comprehensive Plan implementation — Chapter 2.8 Public Services, Facilities and Utilities — has a clearly stated goal: “Future development shall provide adequate services and should not adversely im pact the services or utilities of present-day users.”

Both short-term and longterm effects need to be taken into consideration because once changed, that zoning runs with the land when it is sold and future owners will expect to use it to the full extent of the allowed activity.

We are not in compliance with this guidance when we are rezoning piece by piece without evaluating what the cumulative effects will be on the greater area. If we are overloading the roads or over burdening our school systems who will pay to expand these services? Not the developers of these properties who pocketed the increased value. We, the taxpayers, will pay that bill.

This form of rezoning is changing our county but it is not based on a plan, it will have an effect going forward but we are not considering what those effects will be nor are we directing them. Spot zoning is not in compliance with Idaho Statute, nor is it in compliance with Bonner County Code. Spot zoning is widely known to be an illegal act.

Wikipedia has this to say about spot zoning: “The small size of the parcel is not the sole defining characteristic of a spot zone. Rather, the defining characteristic is the narrowness and unjustified nature of the benefit to the particular proper ty owner, to the detriment of a general land use plan or public goals. The rezoning may pro vide unjustified special treat ment that benefits a particular owner, while undermining the pre-existing rights and uses of adjacent property owners.”

American Law Reports pro vides insight on determining if the rezone is an example of ille gal spot zoning: The most wide ly accepted tests for determining illegal spot zoning — some times stated in combination, sometimes separately — are whether the zoning of the parcel in question is in accordance with a comprehensive zoning plan, whether the zoning of the

subject parcel is compatible with the uses in the surrounding area, and whether the zoning of the subject property serves the public welfare or merely confers a discriminatory benefit on the owner of the property.

Having a process in place for property owners to ask for their zoning to be changed is appropriate, but this process should comply with state statute and consider the effects of these changes cumulatively and in the long term. The test to avoid illegal spot zoning must be applied — does this change to the zoning map serve the public welfare or does it only benefit this one particular property owner?

Our rural water systems are already at maximum capacity, our schools are at full enroll ment and if all the properties were built out to the current zoning, our road systems would be inadequate. We must make a plan to address these issues, not just exacerbate the problem. Spot zoning that leaves the rest of us picking up the tab must stop.

Kristina Kingsland has lived in North Idaho since 1976 and served on the Bonner County Zoning Commission from May 2022 until her removal by com missioners in August 2022.

‘This form of rezoning is changing our county but it is not based on a plan’

Science: Mad about

funky Volcano Behavior

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist

Volcanoes are one of the most powerful and destructive forces on the planet. The raw power of the Earth is nothing short of awe inspiring, and the mere sight of a volcano instills both fear and wonder in anyone who gazes upon it.

It’s easy to think that a vol cano is simply a mountain that spits fire and smoke, like Mount Doom looming over the blasted plains of Mordor. Volcanoes are actually very complex structures with some pretty wild phys ics and chemistry going on all around them. Intense heat and pressure make elements do wild things — things that can dra matically alter the world around them in unexpected ways.

At the heart of a volcano is a magma chamber, a huge res ervoir of molten rock and gas under incredible heat and pres sure. These magma chambers are heated and fed by the Earth’s mantle below, which causes the Earth’s crust to fracture and swell, often breaking apart to allow the molten rock and gas to rush to the surface. Relieved of the pressure, this molten rock cools like a scab over a scratch on your skin, frequently sealing escape routes for the gas and rock below. If the gas from the magma chamber doesn’t have enough space to escape, it will make space by pushing rock out of the way — violently, in an up ward direction. This is an erup tion, which can come in the form of weeks-long belching of gas, ash and pumice to create new layers, or it can blast a massive hole in the side of the mountain and fling debris for miles.

This is business as usual for

volcanoes, but major eruptions are relatively rare — so what happens between blasts?

Fumaroles

A fumarole is a vent from which volcanic gas, but not liquids or solids, escape. These vents are often predictors of an impending eruption, but will sometimes persist for decades. They spew superheated poison gas, which cools as it reaches the surface. Sulfur will begin to col lect and crystallize on the ground around the fumarole, giving the ground a strange yellow appear ance. The mixture of sulfur and methane spewing from a fuma role can also give off a nasty rotten egg or fart smell as well.

Fumaroles will sometimes hoard precious metals belched up from the mantle, but due to the nature of the superheated toxic fumes, they’re unsafe to harvest. Some fumaroles belch up enough sulfur for humans to gather so that we can produce things like gunpowder, rubber and sulfuric acid.

In extremely cold climates, some of the gasses expelled by fumaroles will cause snow and ice to form steam that immedi ately freezes, eventually building chimney-like towers several meters tall.

Mudpots

Mudpots are what happens when biology, chemistry and physics team up to create a weird volcanic puddle. They appear to be craters of bubbling mud, which isn’t all that interesting until you factor in how they’re created. There isn’t often a tremendous amount of water in a volcanic setting, but when there is, you may see it mixing with minerals to create mud. These minerals are broken down by ex

tremophile microorganisms that live close to the volcanic vents to turn the mud into a thick, viscous slurry. Depending on the minerals present in the slurry, it may appear to be normal, boring mud, or it may take on a tar-like appearance or even be very col orful and surrounded by red iron oxide and yellow sulfur crystals.

Often, these mudpots will fling mud out and over their edg es to begin creating something that looks like a miniature cinder cone within a larger volcano.

In case you’re thinking it might be fun to take a nice, warm mud bath, it’s not. These features are not something akin to a spa trip. They are extremely hot, to the point that they can turn water into steam, and acidic enough to dissolve a human body in 24 hours — a factoid that was proven by an unfortu nate Yellowstone tourist in 2016.

Cryovolcanoes

These kinds of volcanoes prove that everything is relative. You don’t need extreme tem peratures to create a volcano. These have been observed on the icier bodies in our solar system and would be nearly impossible to emulate at scale on Earth.

Normally gaseous elements like hydrogen and methane can be trapped under miles of icy crust on planets far from the sun and pressurized into a liquid form. One theory is that over time, semi-translucent ice paired with a solid insulating crust can cre ate a greenhouse effect, trapping heat from light and causing the liquids and gasses beneath the icy surface to expand and put pressure on the surrounding structures. Just like molten rock here on Earth, the pressure has only one direction to release: straight upward against the path

of least resistance.

“Ice volcanoes” on Earth are a very different phenomenon altogether, usually happening along the shores of large fresh water lakes. Lakewater splashes and the cast-off immediately freezes, piling up into a mound shape similar to the cinder cone of a volcano. Water can create a channel in the center and “erupt” from it, further building the ice volcano from within. These are fragile structures that are easily

destroyed by warming tempera tures and halted by even colder temperatures, as the water freez es over and ceases splashing. It’s likely that wind plays a major part in helping ice volcanoes form. These have been known to form on the great lakes in the American Midwest — I don’t think I’ve ever seen one on Lake Pend Oreille, and I suspect our mountainous topography has something to do with that.

Stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner

Don’t know much about halloween? We can help!

•The earliest usage of the word Halloween, or Hallowe’en dates back as far as 1745 in association with Christian origins. In Scottish, Hallowe’en means “saint’s evening’’ and would have been written as All Hallow’s Eve.

•However, the day was cele brated in pagan cultures for several hundreds of years, with roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which was a pagan celebration to welcome the harvest at the end of summer when people lit bonfires and wore costumes to ward off spirits. People believed souls would come back to walk the earth at Halloween time, so they wore masks to scare away the evil spirits.

•Charlie Brown was the first TV character to go trick-or-treat ing. In 1966, an episode of Charlie Brown had characters go trick-ortreating — which was the first time this concept was seen on TV.

•A German tradition calls for people to hide all their knives on Halloween to protect their relatives from the wandering spirits.

•Black cats have been symbols of superstition for many centuries. Across France and Spain during Medieval times, cats were associat ed with bad luck and curses, which made them a natural sidekick for witches. The Puritans in North America would sometimes burn a black cat on Shrove Tuesday to ensure they would not have any house fires that year. As people began decorating their homes with anything associated with witchcraft and superstition this time of year, black cats became powerful symbols of curses.

•Of all the spooky songs played this time of year, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is the most played. Other notable mentions are “The Monster Mash” and “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”

•The largest collection of peo ple to ever dance the “Time Warp,” from the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, happened on Oct. 31, 2010 when 8,239 people participated. Dammit, Janet!

A mudpot at Yellowstone National Park. Courtesy photo.

On the elk’s terms

To be prepared as an elk hunter is to expect the unexpected

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

I nearly failed hunter’s ed.

At least, that’s what it felt like at the time, as a 9-year-old girl who accidentally let her finger slide inside the trigger guard while handing a rifle to her partner during the firearm-handling por tion of our field test.

I had enough gun safety knowledge to know better than to touch the trigger of a weapon while passing it to another person; but, in the heat of the moment, I did it anyway. I will never forget the immediate dread I felt and the embarrassment of the quiet berate ment from my instructor.

I passed, but I never forgot.

Hunting has proven to be a perfect setting for these kinds of lessons — when no amount of preparation or common sense can save you from yourself when the adrenaline kicks in. This is partic ularly true while hunting for elk.

Once I was old enough to be comfortable hunting alone, my dad would send me down familiar skid roads and trails to popular game crossings, where it would be my job to sit at the edge of a clearing and wait while he and other members of the hunting par ty walked wide routes in hopes of pushing animals into my path.

I had prepared for that fateful moment in every way I knew how. I sighted in my rifle, and practiced shooting in various positions: sitting, standing, kneeling, leaning against a tree. I packed my hunt ing license, tags, gloves and an extra flannel to provide a barrier between myself and the ground. I knew where — and approximately when — my dad would come into the clearing after he was done walking.

What I couldn’t prepare for was the moment I heard the elk coming.

The first time, I sat frozen in

fear until the large, tan body of the herd’s lead cow materialized be fore me. I inadvertently stood up, sending her crashing away with the rest of the herd behind her, out of sight before I could even think about shouldering my rifle.

This kind of elk hunting — on the animal’s terms, in close quar ters amid thick timber — is, in my mind, ethically ideal. It also re quires a level of stealth that takes years of practice, and — at least in my case — years of patience.

I found myself in the same clearing the next season, feeling more prepared than ever to hear the signature sound of a heavy ungulate barreling down a game trail in my direction. The moment came, and I stood, situating my feet into the ideal shooting stance, long before the tan bodies reached the treeline.

Rifle shouldered and hide in my sights, I flicked my thumb hard against the safety. The result ing sound of metal on metal sent the animals over the clearing’s embankment in a flash. I’d been made by a noise I never consid ered might be problematic, but to the ears of an elk, signaled danger.

Another season gone by, and another lesson learned.

It would be a stretch to say that I have since learned to keep my cool and be entirely prepared for every contingency of elk sea son. Besides, the joy of the hunt is in the unpredictability. Case in point: Opening day of rifle season this year.

My husband Alex and I hiked our usual opening-day route — the same one I showed him five years ago when he first came to hunt with my family. Pieces of the route have earned place names thanks to the experiences we’ve had together, like “the cat cross ing,” where an indifferent cougar walked up on us a few years ago; or the “skunk spot,” where one year the scent told us we had just

spooked a skunk from its den. It’s a grueling hike best for open ing-day legs, so we started up the ridge at dawn and, within the hour, we heard elk.

Our best efforts to divide and conquer sent the herd crashing through an impenetrable wall of shrubbery and pine and down into the canyon. We met back on our usual trail and considered our options. The attempt on the hidden herd had proved costly; with the sun now rising over the ridge, the wind would soon change and everything uphill would smell us. I texted my dad, hunting a route not far from us, and he advised us to continue our regular walk.

“Can run into them again, or I could put them back to you in a while,” he wrote.

That was at 8:03 a.m. By 8:20, we had meat on the ground.

What transpired in those 17 minutes undoubtedly began with

me rolling my eyes at the absurdi ty of continuing our regular route knowing that every uphill animal could smell us coming. Not five vertical steps later, a calf came ambling over the ridge, head ed straight for us, and probably would have run into Alex had he not taken off his hat and waved it at her. She reared away, sidehilling in the direction of the herd. Alex and I shared a wide-eyed, grinning glance, and carried on our way. Later, we agreed that seeing the calf would have made the hunt worth it, regardless of what hap pened next.

I had just fallen back into a contemplative hiking rhythm — one foot in front of the other, stopping every six steps or so to listen — when I noticed Alex pick up his pace. He started waving me forward frantically, and after a few running strides, two elk appeared, doing what elk do in the fall. It

would prove to be the male elk’s final act.

While we could have never prepared for the morning’s wild twists and turns, our material preparation served us well: knives for dressing, rope for pulling, a plastic bag for the spike’s heart. We earned our keep, just the two of us, packing him out whole with only minimal cursing, grunting and back injuries. We maneu vered the elk over blowdowns and through brush with rifles slung over our backs. At one point, Alex handed his gun to me and I grasped it by the stock, sure to keep my fingers away from the trigger.

Hunter’s ed had at least pre pared me for that.

Alex Carey stands with his 2022 harvest. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey.

A taste of the future

Sip coffee and learn more about Kaniksu Land Trust’s efforts to save the Pine Street Sled Hill at the Sled Hill Sneak Peek

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

Since Kaniksu Land Trust announced in March that friends of the trust were under contract to purchase the long-loved Pine Street Sled Hill — thus giving the nonprofit time to fundraise the $2.1 million needed to secure the 48-acre property — KLT Execu tive Director Katie Cox said it has become apparent that this is an opportunity people are eager to be a part of.

“It’s been amazing to see ev erybody contributing to this,” she said, “and knowing what a legacy moment this is for our community — to be able to save this forever.” The sled hill served as an informal wintertime recreation area for decades, before property owners closed the area to the pub lic during the winter of 2020 due to possible liability issues. When

the property — which includes not only the hill but also forest land, an orchard, a large pond and homestead structures — went up for sale, KLT set its sights on ex panding the public access already established on the neighboring 180-acre Pine Street Woods.

Cox told the Reader that as of Oct. 17, KLT had raised about $1.32 million of its $2.1 million goal.

The public will have the chance to contribute to the cause and see the property firsthand as KLT and Evans Brothers Coffee host a Sled Hill Sneak Peek event on Saturday, Oct. 22 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The event will feature coffee tasting at five stations around the property — located at 11735 W. Pine St. — meant to highlight different features of the sled hill and beyond.

“As you go around tasting the

coffee and pastries, you’ll also learn a little bit about the vision for the sled hill,” Cox said.

Tickets to the Sled Hill Sneak Peek are $35, and include all five tasting stations, featuring baked goods from Winter Ridge and Rustique Bakery paired with spe cial reserve blends by the experts at Evans Brothers.

“It’s really fun how Evans Brothers is figuring out what kind of pastry will taste good with this kind of coffee,” Cox said, noting that this is a unique opportunity perfect for “a Saturday morning in Sandpoint.”

Attendees are invited to bring their own mug to the event or pur chase a commemorative “Save the Sled Hill” mug. There will also be tea provided.

While the event begins at 10 a.m., Cox said people are wel come to embark on the self-guided tasting tour any time during the

three-hour event window.

“It’s a little bit of a paradise up there,” she said, “and a lot of people haven’t had the chance to explore beyond the sled hill.”

Purchase tickets at kaniksu. org/happenings, and learn more by

There will be commemorative “Save the Sled Hill” mugs for purchase at the Oct. 22 Sled Hill Sneak Peek event. Courtesy photo.

calling KLT at 208-263-9471 or emailing info@kaniksu.org.

Outdoor ed. to focus on autumn ecology, fall birding and animal tracks

By Reader Staff

Libby Hostel Base Camp is sponsoring an outdoor educational class on Saturday, Oct. 29, titled “Autumn Ecology, Fall Birding and Animal Tracks,” which will focus on seasonal changes, resident and migratory birds, and the basics of animal tracking.

The medium-paced educational program will be taught by qualified instructors, with participants meet ing at 9 a.m. (Mountain Time) in the Viking Room at the Venture Inn in Libby, Mont., located at 1015 West Highway 2.

After a short classroom session covering the basics and handout materials, the group will head to the field to visit several types of habi tats. Participants will convoy with their own vehicles on a road tour to selected observation points and undertake short hikes of less than a quarter mile on private property.

The class is intended to teach participants how to use their own

powers of observation to increase their knowledge and enjoyment of the outdoors without relying on computers, and instructors un derscored that the program is not a casual walk in the park, but an instructional class.

“It also is not a contest to see who can yell out the species of bird first or how many species can be identified and tallied,” organizers stated.

Attendees should come with full gas tanks, proper clothing layers, good footwear, water, lunch, binoc ulars, bird field guide books, cam eras and a good sense of humor. Of special importance, participants are asked to bring along orange safety vests, as well.

The program will wrap up at ap proximately 3 p.m. (MST). The class is reserved for those 18 and older and no pets are allowed. The group size is limited to no more than 10 people, and registration is required to attend. For more information and to register, call 406-291-2154 or email b_bax ter53@yahoo.com.

Conservation: From the Timber Wars to collaboration

What is ‘winning’ in the woods? — Part I

By Zach Hagadone Special to the Reader

This article is Part 1 of the conclusion to a series of articles supported by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council and sponsored by Friends of the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness. Previous installments were published in the Feb. 2, Feb. 9, June 2 and June 9 editions of the Reader. For more information on this series, which will end in the Thursday, Oct. 27 edition of the Reader, visit scotchmanpeaks.org.

It is tempting to think of the so-called Timber Wars as a relic of the past. The period of dramatic unrest in the 1980s and ’90s, with its protests and counter protests, some more violent than others throughout the Northwest and California, does seem distant. But as recently as September 2017, longtime Idaho columnist and political observer Marty Trillhasse had occasion to write a piece in the Lewiston Tribune under the headline: “Are we seeing an end to Idaho’s ‘forest wars’?”

Noting that the origin of the term “forest wars” lay with late-Boise State University Western policy expert and Professor John Freemuth, Trillhaase wrote, “Certitude hardened into paralysis as both resource industry and conservationists pursued the perfect to the detriment of the good: Timber jobs disappeared while overgrown forests risked catastrophic wildfires.”

Still, in 2017, “both sides” were “finding their way back toward consensus,” he wrote, citing a state-level management plan for 9.3 million roadless forest acres, the creation of wilderness areas in the Boul der-White Clouds and Owyhee Canyon lands, and “broad-based collaboratives to forge ahead on forest health, habitat improvement and logging.”

That collaborative approach is wholly distinct from the hodgepodge of policies that animated public land policies in the previous century and more, and is indic ative of the broader sweep of how both institutional stakeholders and the public, in its understanding of how decisions are made regarding those landscapes, have shifted from all-out Timber Wars to areas of agreement and conservation gain.

Projects to sell and salvage timber in the Nez Perce-Clearwater, Panhandle, Pay ette and Boise National Forests would be fast-tracked, creating more than 1,000 jobs,

generating almost 66 million board feet and creating $68.5 million in wages.

Trillhasse wrote that this “welcome news” brought together the administration of then-Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and the U.S. Forest Service, and not much “squawking from conservationists, either.” All the projects had passed federal envi ronmental review. Because they would be administered by the Idaho Department of Lands under the “Good Neighbor Authori ty” policy — giving the state power to man age federal lands — there would be even greater transparency, access to state public records being less cumbersome than going through the Freedom of Information Act.

It’s arguably more of a “win” for timber than conservation, but does meet many of the goals of collaboration, in that it seeks to serve both the increased scale of harvesting while still maintaining environmental protections.

“[Y]ou can still have a profitable timber sale while protecting some of those sensi tive resources,” Trillhaase quoted Jonathan Oppenheimer, of the Idaho Conservation League, from an Associated Press article.

“Too good to be true?” Trillhaase wrote. “Maybe.”

It was five years ago that Trillhaase wondered whether the “forest wars” might be ending, and more than 20 years after what are more popularly referred to as the “Timber Wars” were a hot-button issue occupying activists, industry leaders, politicians, journalists and timber families throughout the West.

The fact that such a headline could exist in 2017 speaks to the deep roots of the con flict and the long road — especially through roadless areas — by which it has been de fined. To get to 2017 and beyond, however, it’s important to return to the flashpoint era in greater detail and look at the clash during its height in the last two decades of the 20th century, then work forward to an era of “collaboration” as it has and is being built step by (often wary) step.

‘A critical moment’

The Deseret News in Salt Lake City car ried a piece Sept. 6, 1993, from the Associ ated Press headlined “Radical Group Mak ing Enemies as it Battles Logging in Idaho,” focused on environmental group Earth First! and its efforts to stave off the Forest Service’s plans for a logging operation “in a huge roadless area in central Idaho.”

Despite its seeming quotidian headline, that AP article could be seen as marking

the beginning of a crescendo to the Timber Wars in Idaho, and a hinge on which the interrelated issues of timber harvesting and conservation moved from conflict to collaboration.

Referring to unrest in the Cove-Mallard area east of Lewiston, described in the article as “one of the largest roadless areas in the contiguous 48 states,” the AP reported that as many as 145 miles of logging roads were planned in the Nez Perce National Forest, providing access to “carve out scores of clearcuts totaling more than 6,000 acres.”

Earth First! carried out a sustained op position, including tactics seen elsewhere in Oregon, Washington and California, with its members erecting barriers, tree sitting, par ticipating in sit-ins, chaining themselves to vehicles and locking themselves to concrete blocks buried in the ground.

At risk was not only the immediate Cove-Mallard area, but what Earth First! said was a critical wildlife corridor linking the Frank Church River of No Return, Gos pel Hump and Selway-Bitterroot wilder nesses, which together protected a total of 4.3 million acres.

“I think it was a critical moment in critiquing what was happening on public lands and litigation was a relatively new tool, and it had been used in the past. It was being used more,” said Gary Macfarlane, who retired in April 2022 as Ecosystem Defense director for Friends of the Clearwa ter, which he served for more than 20 years, first as a volunteer in Moscow, then board member, then full-time employee helming everything from policy analysis to filing ap peals to bringing litigation related to public land issues in the Clearwater Basin.

Macfarlane spent more than 30 years as an environmental activist — including at Cove-Mallard — and received the Alliance for the Wild Rockies Conservation Award in 1997. Upon his retirement, the Tribune added another descriptor: “feisty,” noting that because of the group’s opposi tion to “collaboration” as a model for public land management, it has been considered “something of a pariah at times.”

He described the so-called Timber Wars “as a last gasp, trying to save the bits that were left with varying success.”

“I think it’s more of a blip. I don’t see it as a high point in forest protection, though some people might, I really see the high point happening prior to that — well prior to that — though things have been downhill since then,” he added, tracing the “down

went on in Oregon and Washington,” he said.

The vigor of the Cove-Mallard protests were significant in their occurrence and aims but, also, as the AP noted, because they provided “another indication that the timber wars are moving east.”

That had happened, O’Laughlin said, because of reduced timber harvesting in the federal forests of spotted owl country on the West Coast in the 1980s and early 1990s, which pushed demand eastward across the Cascade Crest. The Northwest Forest Plan, fronted by then-President Bill Clinton in 1994, as well as its localized offshoot plans were supposed to address these new stresses on inland forests and — hopefully — halt or at least lessen the spread of the “Timber Wars.”

“There might be a few exceptions, but things aren’t better for most species,” Mac farlane said, pointing out that despite all the furor of the “Timber Wars” period, timber production reached a peak in the mid-1980s of 13 billion board feet, compared to the 1 billion board feet produced in the pre-war years. More on that later.

On the Good Neighbor Authority and “collaboration” writ large, he called it “an intellectual form of capitulation,” where by conservation groups jettisoned their political capital for a seat at the bargaining table with whom he called “elites” on the conservation, industry and governmental policy-setting sides. In the Nez Perce-Clear water area — the very heart of Idaho’s most vigorous protests — he said collaboration accomplished one thing: “Greatly increas ing the logging levels.”

Macfarlane’s assessment of collabora tion notwithstanding, the Good Neighbor Authority, in particular, has been support ed by conservation groups at least in part because it offers them the opportunity to assure the process of environmental review — including on lands adjacent to Forest Service holdings — is implemented in a reasonable manner.

And the degree to which lawsuits build political capital are up for debate. Legal action may often be useful in defending against egregious actions on the land, but not always best suited to influencing local, state and congressional policymakers. That may well be the difference between politics

and activism.

“You don’t have a level table or play ing field, and even the professionals in the environmental movement — and I’ve been one for many years — it’s truly not level. To participate you sort of give up whatev er leverage you have through the judicial review process,” he said, further describing collaboration as a methodology that is, at base, “very anti-democratic.”

It depends on who you ask.

‘Loggerheads’ Shawn Keough came to the Sandpoint area in 1979 — about a year out of high school. In 1988, she began what would become a 12-year period working with the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce. She also became involved with the timber in dustry, and today serves as executive director of the Associated Logging Contractors, and, in 1996, launched her political career serving in the Idaho Senate from District 1, which covers Bonner and Boundary counties.

She held that position for 22 years, leaving office in 2018 as the longest-serv ing female senator in Idaho history. Today, she serves on the Idaho State Board of Education.

So it is that Keough’s experience unites economic development, the timber industry and the legislative process in ways that give her a unique perspective on what we call the “Timber Wars,” and how the climate surrounding public land management has evolved from those conflict-centric years to a greater emphasis on collaboration.

“I came into those [issues] in the very late ’80s and through the ’90s, up to where we are today,” she said. “‘My side,’ I guess, feels pretty strongly that the National Forest system was set up as a multiple use system, which has multiple uses including timber harvesting to provide a growing nation the materials needed to grow.”

Meanwhile, “another side,” she added, “in the extreme had and continues to have a no-cut policy, and it just puts people at loggerheads — no pun intended — and so there was a struggle and a debate, and that debate continues today.”

Former District 1 Sen. Shawn Keough. Photo by Marie-Dominique Verdier.

Looking back on those most divisive years of the 1990s, Keough remembered that what she described as “radical environ mental activity” did occur in the northern counties — mostly in the form of vandalism of logging equipment — but nothing like what was happening in the Clearwater-Nez Perce area. She chalked that up to commu nities in Bonner and Boundary counties being “used to seeing clear cuts … used to seeing logging, and that was just part of the landscape, so to speak, and there was an understanding among folks who lived here that logging happens.”

The reaction to those methods of timber harvesting was different in states to the west of Idaho, where large private timber companies like Weyerhaeuser and others engaged in “tree farming” — clear-cutting huge swaths of timberland and replanting it in a system analogous to crop rotation. It’s a practice that continues today.

“They clear cut everything and replant, and the National Forest System at the time was also doing clear cuts. And when you drive up and down I-5 and see clear cut after clear cut, or even I-90, I think those timber practices, sort of as a culture, really lit the fire or was the first volley in the Tim ber Wars because folks got really upset,” Keough said.

“If you don’t know what’s going on, logging is ugly, and then when it’s a clear cut, people really take offense,” she added. “The general public doesn’t like clear cuts, and even when you explain the potential positives of them, they don’t like them. And when buffer strips started to be left along highways, then the activation was, ‘Well now you’re just trying to hide the bad practice.’ … I think that really galvanized the environmental movement. …

“When we started to see that really for est management was happening by judges in courtrooms and work wasn’t getting done because the Forest Service couldn’t do the paperwork absolutely correctly, that’s when I think the efforts toward collaboration started happening.”

‘People here are madder than hell’

While protests in the forests and fights in the courtroom certainly occurred in the Gem State — and continue today — the vit riol often went in different directions from other timber states, underscoring just how complex it would be to find a path from conflict to collaboration.

O’Laughlin said that had much to do with the size of the industry and magnitude of its harvests in Idaho.

“In Oregon, 35,000 people lost their jobs as a result of the spotted owl, and 60% of those people left the state,” he said. “We had similar reductions in Idaho, but not to the same scale because timber harvesting wasn’t to the same scale. We didn’t have as many mills.”

People in North Idaho felt what they

perceived as a downturn in the timber in dustry during the 1980s and ’90s, however, and often placed the blame on “environ mentalists” as well as the Clinton adminis tration for mill closures and layoffs.

In the AP’s Sept. 1993 reporting on Cove-Mallard, residents were quoted as saying the efforts of Earth First! to stop log ging in the Nez Perce-Clearwater were do ing more harm than good. One Dixie, Idaho area hunting outfitter told the AP that while he was against the timber sales — fearing harvests would scare off clients and wildlife alike, driving him out of business — “Peo ple here are madder than hell at Earth First! … The tactics they’re using, destruction of other people’s equipment, nobody agrees with that at all.”

Environmental policies and lawsuits grinding timber operations to a standstill were decried as handicapping the industry, while Clinton era trade policies — particu larly the North American Free Trade Agree ment, enacted in 1994 — were accused of exposing domestic lumber producers to artificially lower-cost product from Canada, which unfairly undercut their prices.

Helen Chenoweth-Hage, who served in the U.S. House from the Idaho First Con gressional District from 1995 to 2001, made pushing back against both the environmen tal and trade policies of the Clinton admin istration one of her signature issues.

In her first year in office alone, Che noweth-Hage cosponsored the NAFTA Withdrawal Act, the NAFTA Accountability Act and the Emergency Lumber Act — all intended in one way or another to slow or stop subsidized commodities from coming into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico. She again cosponsored the NAFTA Accountabili ty Act in 1997 and put her name to other bills intended to pull the country out of interna tional trade and monetary organizations.

Perhaps the arch-conservative Che noweth-Hage’s most famous political gesture was denying the endangered status of Snake River sockeye salmon — despite only eight of the fish returning to Redfish Lake in 1994. She attended so-called “endangered salmon bakes” in Stanley, not far from Redfish Lake

— at which salmon was served from coastal waters. When asked why she didn’t believe the Snake River sockeye could be endan gered, she responded, “How can I, when you go in and you can buy a can of salmon off the shelf in Albertsons?” according to an AP article reprinted Aug. 28, 1994, in the Lewiston Tribune.

That remark prompted conservation proponents, who were at that time pushing for policies to protect the salmon — and therefore affecting the amount and location of timber that could be harvested along certain Idaho rivers — to devise the slogan: “Can Helen, not salmon.”

Despite the rhetoric coming from poli ticians like Chenoweth-Hage, compelling analysis from University of Idaho Sociolo gy Professor Ryanne Pilgeram, cited in her 2022 book Pushed Out: Contested Devel opment and Rural Gentrification in the U.S. West, showed that while the number of mills in North Idaho fell from 133 in 1979 to 38 by 2006, “the amount of lumber produced in North Idaho actually increased in nearly every reported period between 1979 and 2006, from 930,446 board feet in 1979 to 1,213,987 in 2006.”

It wasn’t “environmentalists” or Clinton pushing mills out of business and workers out of their jobs, it was “the closure of small mills and the growth of much larger ones that simply needed fewer people to do the same work because of the rapid mechaniza tion of the industry,” Pilgeram wrote.

Keying into other research, Pilgeram added that while mill employment fell 2% per year during the 1980s, production rose by the same percentage. Though there were fewer workers in the mills, their labor productivity rose by 3.1% per year between 1975 and 1996.

Pilgeram wrote that the listing of the spotted owl under the Endangered Species Act in 1990 and wilderness protections at the time “took much of the blame.”

“While it is absolutely true that the sup ply of timber from federal lands was dra matically limited by [wilderness] policies ... some of the loss of timber from federal land was made up for by increased logging on

Left: Former Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage testifies before Congress in 2000. Photo courtesy C-SPAN. Right: Gary Macfarlane explores the Mon tana wilderness in the 1980s. Courtesy photo.

private lands and state lands,” she wrote.

Ultimately, researchers have found that those policies accounted for fewer than 5% of decline in timber industry employment during the period. The remainder can be mostly attributed to consolidation, automation and, in some cases, large lumber producers relocating their operations to the U.S. South.

“You do have mills closing, there’s no denying that, but I don’t think it’s the Endangered Species Act or a bunch of Earth First! radicals that are probably causing these things, it’s more complicated econom ic stuff,” said University of Idaho Professor Adam Sowards, an environmental historian and professor who serves as director of the Pacific Northwest Studies Program at the University of Idaho, adding that there was a willful desire to ignore the technological changes occurring in the mills in the ’80s and ’90s, and a decided preference to see “environmentalists” as enemies.

“The political polarization is so severe, and its roots are deep. I see it start bubbling forth in the late ’70s and early ’80s, and just hardening even more in the ’90s and harden ing even more in the last decade,” he added.

In spite of that politicization, with its dense matrix of enemies, allies and talking points, there was yet collaboration on the horizon, as the various “sides” began to realize that no one wins in a trench war. Those wins started to materialize as the conflicts of the 1980s and ’90s faded and a new model of decision making took hold in the first decades of the 21st century.

This is Part 1 of a two-part article. For more information on this series, which will conclude in the Thursday, Oct. 27 edition of the Sandpoint Reader, visit scotchmanpeaks. org. To ind previous installments, visit sandpointreader.com

Homegrown science

Free apple tasting, webinar series and food summit make for a busy fall at UI Sandpoint Organic Ag Center

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

Everyone knows that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. As it turns out, samples of a few dozen apples on a Saturday afternoon keep agri cultural science alive and well in Sandpoint, so make sure to do your part at the University of Idaho Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center on Saturday, Oct. 22 from 1-4 p.m., as the orchard hosts a free tasting of 30-40 different apple varieties.

“I was originally hoping for around 30, but I think we’ll be closer to 40 varieties to taste,” said Orchard Operations Manager Kyle Nagy. “There should be a lot of great apples for people to taste, and some that are cider apples that aren’t great for eating but I figure it’s good to give people a taste of all the different apples that are out there.”

The Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center (10881 N.Boyer Road) is a 66-acre property located at the base of Schweitzer Mountain boasting 68 varieties of apples, eight varieties of pears, and several other fruits and agricultural projects. Dennis Pence gifted the land to the university in two parts — first in 2007 and then in 2018.

“The big thing that separates us from other UI ag stations across the state is that we’re certified organic and we’re dedicated to organic and sus tainable agriculture practices,” Nagy said. “That opens up a lot of opportunity for grant funding for research for the universi ty because a lot of grants for organic research require that that research take place on a certified organic farm.

“By having one of those in the UI network, it’s easier for them to work with these organ ic applications,” he added.

Researchers are currently using the property to evaluate soil health in organic produc tion systems; to grow huck leberries and study pests that typically target the plants; and to test a multi-species rotational grazing system including sheep and chickens.

“We’re hoping that people will hear what we have going on up here and think of the University of Idaho as a higher [education] institution that’s pursuing regenerative and sustainable agriculture,” Nagy said.

As for the Oct. 22 apple tasting, Nagy said attendees are welcome to walk through the various sample stations anytime between 1-4 p.m. on a self-guided tour of the orchard with scoresheets in hand, rating each apple on a scale from 1-10 in flavor and texture categories.

“We hope people will leave those sheets for us, and then I will compile all that data … and put out a top-10 list of what varieties people enjoyed eating,” he said, noting that the event is a way to conduct “a little bit of citizen science.”

While the tasting tour is free, there will be apples for sale. SOAC also sells its organic apples at Winter Ridge Natural Foods and Yoke’s Fresh Market, and will soon have cider for sale at those locations as well.

“All the funds come back here so that we can keep work ing on projects,” Nagy said.

As for future events, SOAC will be hosting the Sel kirk-Pend Oreille Food Summit on Friday, Nov. 4 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The summit will

feature presentations from local producers and other food pro fessionals, as well as a catered lunch and cider tasting. Tickets to the event are $35 for the general public, $15 for students and available at sp-food-sum mit.eventbrite.com.

“That’s going to be an allday event trying to connect our community with the local food systems here,” Nagy said.

SOAC is currently hosting its annual Heritage Orchard Conference, which offers monthly webinars targeting fruit tree enthusiasts. The series runs from October to April, with the next talk scheduled for Wednes day, Nov. 16. Register for the conference and learn more about participating speakers at uidaho.

edu/cals/sandpoint-organic-agri culture-center/conference.

While the conference was originally held in person in Sandpoint, it went online during the pandemic and has since been attended by nearly 2,000 people in 27 countries.

“It’s great having the inter national exposure,” Nagy said. “We were nervous about pivot ing to a webinar, but it’s really helped expand our reach.”

To learn more about SOAC, visit uidaho.edu/cals/sand point-organic-agriculture-cen ter. Nagy can be contacted at knagy@uidaho.edu.

dumb of the week

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

This week’s entry comes from right here in Idaho, where we seem to hold a copyright on the attempt to pass laws that are not only dumb, but will surely be shot down after lengthy (and costly) court battles.

Blaine Conzatti, president of the Idaho Family Policy Center, told the Idaho Capital Sun to expect a bill to come before the next session of the Idaho Legislature in January that would ban drag performances in all public venues.

Aside from the overt homopho bia and parochialism dripping from this potential bill, I see about a hun dred problems that will arise if our elected leaders choose to pass this legislation and it becomes law.

First of all, really? With all the problems we face in this country, in our state, in our communities, why are we even wasting time considering such a backwards bill? Whether it’s furries in school, critical race theory, “grooming” or transphobia, the Republican Party is consumed with these nonsensical (and oftentimes, nonexistent) issues, passing legisla tion for problems that aren’t there.

When I was in high school, there was an event called Powderpuff in which senior girls played football and the senior guys dressed up as cheerleaders. I suppose that counts as drag, doesn’t it? Does that mean anytime a guy dresses as a girl in public, he’s then breaking the law? What about women dressing as men? Are we going to start legislat ing whether women can legally wear long pants? What about kilts? Are we going to discriminate against hippies and Scotsmen? Will men be allowed to wear an earring? I have so many questions.

Sorry to break it to whoever this Blaine Conzatti bozo is, but people have been dressing in drag for literally millennia. In fact, if you want to be a stickler, people were dressing in drag onstage in Ancient Greece, well before the foundation of Christianity.

If this law passes, I’ll be the first one to dress up in my best taffeta gown and dance for anyone who wants to watch. Then, after they arrest me, I’ll finally be able to retire after suing the shit out of the state of Idaho. I’m tired of these pearl-clutching homophobes who seem to always talk about freedom and liberty, but when you examine their actions, are more interested in taking away rights of Idahoans.

An orchard worker harvests apples from the Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey.

events

October 20-27, 2022

THURSDAY, October 20

Live Music w/ Brian Jacobs

6-8pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall

Live Music w/ Jake Robin

6pm @ The Blue Room

Thursday Trivia Night

5-8pm @ Paddler’s Alehouse

Live Music w/ Devon Wade

Panida Theater Annual Meeting

6pm @ Panida Theater (main stage)

Vote in new board members and important announcements about Panida Century Fund

Meet and Greet for Steve Johnson

2:30-4:30pm @ Hope Mem. Com. Center

FriDAY, October 21

6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall

Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz

4-7pm @ Barrel 33

Live Music w/ Scott Reid Trio

5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Live Music w/ Hillstomp

8pm @ Eichardt’s Pub (see Page 21)

A bucket ’n’ slide brand rock ’n’ roll band.

Live Music w/ The Cole Show 6pm @ The Blue Room

Hickey Farms Harvest Festival 2-5:30pm @ Hickey Farms

Bookmobile Pop-Up 10am @ Hickey Farms It’s the library — on wheels!

Live Music w/ Kevin Dorin 7-9pm @ The Back Door

SATURDAY, October 22

Live Music w/ Luke Yates

6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall

Live Music w/ Doug and Marty 6pm @ The Blue Room

Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz

4-7pm @ Barrel 33

Live Music w/ Ken Mayginnes

5:30-8pm @ Drift (in Hope)

Hickey Farms Harvest Festival

10am-5:30pm @ Hickey Farms

Family Fall Fest

3-5pm @ 520 N. Third Ave.

Benefiting the BGH Healing Garden

U of I SOAC apple tasting

1-4pm @ Spt. Org. Agriculture Center

Taste up to 40 varieties of apples FREE

Sandpoint Chess Club

Live Music w/ Justyn Priest Trio (FREE)

6-7:30pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Live Music w/ Pamela Benton 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Sled Hill Sneak Peek

10am-1pm @ Pine Street Woods

A self-guided sneak peek of some special features of the sled hill property. Coffee and pastries. Tickets $35 include 5 tastings

Kendal Mountain Festival Tour

7pm @ Panida Theater

A selection of 8 short adventure documen tary films that celebrate the outdoors. Tick ets $17/advance ior $19/day of show. See Page 19 for more information

Live Music w/ Stephen Wayne 7-9pm @ The Back Door

SunDAY, October 23

9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee

Hot Wing Challenge

2pm @ Powderhound Pizza

Can you handle the heat? $25 to try 10 wings of escalating heat. Prizes!

Hickey Farms Harvest Festival 10am-5:30pm @ Hickey Farms

Sunday Tabletop Game Day

12-8pm @ Paddler’s Alehouse Bring your own games or come to meet others

monDAY, October 24

Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Lifetree Cafe • 2pm @ Jalapeño’s “How God Answers Prayer”

Group Run @ Outdoor Experience 6pm @ Outdoor Experience 3-5 miles, all levels welcome, beer after

tuesDAY, October 25

Harold’s IGA in concert at Little Live Radio Hour by KRFY 88.5 8pm @ Panida Little Theater (no late entry after 7:45pm)

A free, intimate concert with Harold’s IGA, aired live on KRFY 88.5FM

wednesDAY, October 26

Live Music w/ Brother Music on flute

5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Free pistol intro class

Hickey Farms Harvest Festival 2-5:30pm @ Hickey Farms

ThursDAY, October 27

11am-1pm @ Priest River Senior Center

Thursday Trivia Night

5-8pm @ Paddler’s Alehouse

Students will get basics of pistol shooting, safety and more. Sign up: 208-255-8862

Adventures across the pond

Kendal Mt. Festival to show films in the U.S. for the first time, including at the Panida

By Reader Staff

For the first time in its 42 year histo ry, the Kendal Mountain Festival Tour is coming to the U.S. — including a show ing in North Idaho showing at the Panida Theater on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m.

Originating in 1980 in Kendal, Cumbria, on the edge of the U.K. En glish Lake District, the Kendal Mountain Festival Tour has grown from a two-day event featuring local art, seminars, films and photography to a collective of events known around the world — the film tour being just one facet — focused on the mantra: “Share the adventure.”

The tour this year in cludes a selection of eight short adventure documen tary films that celebrate the outdoors, whether through sport, adventure travel or culture. These are films viewers won’t catch elsewhere, featuring stories with a uniquely

British and European slant. It’s a good chance to discover new people and places, all instantly lovable characters in amazing locations.

Kendal Mountain Festival Tour

Saturday, Oct. 22, 7 p.m.; doors open 30 minutes be fore the show; $17 advance, $19 day of show. Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave., 208-263-9191. Get tickets at the door or panida.org.

Some of the films include bicycling with irrepressible gravel-racing hero Leo Rodg ers in the film Bicycling Pres ents or The Traverse, in which two world-class female ath letes attempt to ski the famous Haute Route non-stop from Chamonix to Zermatt. Or join Tom Randall, a world-class crack climber and self-admit ted horrible runner in The Process, as he takes on the U.K. Lake District’s biggest and toughest endurance challenge.

In four decades, the Kendal Mountain Festival Tour has proven a power ful outlet for stories big on

Panida to discuss new board members, Century Fund campaign at annual board meeting

By Reader Staff

Members of the public are invited to attend the Panida The ater’s annual member ship meeting Thurs day, Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. at the main theater.

Panida staff and board members will hold board elections and provide updates on important projects facing the theater, in cluding infrastructure needs like the lobby, restrooms, backstage areas, acoustics, plas ter and seating, as well as other dire maintenance needs to ensure the theater will remain a central part of Sandpoint’s cultural scene for decades to come.

Also to be discussed is the newly an nounced Panida Century Fund campaign,

which aims to raise $1.9 million ahead of the historic theater’s 100th birthday in November 2027.

To kickstart the campaign, local inter net company Ting has pledged a $200,000 match to all donations of up to $5,000. Also, the Innovia Founda tion has provided a new endowment fund, which will establish a consistent revenue stream for the theater.

“A gift to the endowment fund is es sentially a never-end ing gift,” said Panida Managing Director Veronica Knowlton.

These developments and more will all be discussed at the annual meeting Thurs day, so be sure to attend if you’d like to have your voice heard.

exploration — both of new places and the people who attempt to conquer them. In bringing these stories to audiences world wide, the tour proves that human stories of grit and endurance are unbounded by

geographical lines.

Read more about this year’s films at panida.org/event/kendal-mountain-festi val-tour.

An audience watches the Kendal Mountain Film Festival in 2019. Courtesy photo.

The Sandpoint Eater Make mine pink

hybrids would take a blue rib bon for the ugliest pumpkins, of that I’m certain.

By Marcia Pilgeram Reader Columnist

According to Delta Airlines, I flew more than 5,800 miles since my last column. Between those coast-to-coast miles, I saw signs of fall everywhere I went: corn husks, colorful leaves and a plethora of pump kins, in every size, shape and color. In Midtown Manhattan, I even spied a Madison Avenue window display, filled with huge pink pumpkins and avant garde fashions. Honestly, I didn’t even know pink pumpkins existed; and, later that day, I saw even more of them as part of a breast cancer awareness display at the annual Making Strides Walk in Central Park.

I was smitten with the color and thrilled to find some offered at a fancy little market not far from my hotel, but I was a bit leery of TSA rules for carry-on pumpkins, and decid ed it wasn’t worth the risk of forfeiting the pricey pink fruit (I’ve had my treasures seized, and my heart broken, by TSA more than once).

Locally, I’m not sure you can find a pink pumpkin, but you’ll find plenty of orange ones in nearly every shape and size at our own Hickey Farms, and there are still a couple week ends left to head over and claim one for yourself. A little farther away, the u-pick farm producers in Green Bluff still have plenty, too. My neighbors just returned from Creston, British Colum bia, and brought back some of the strangest looking pumpkins I’ve ever seen. Lots of county fairs have awards for the biggest pumpkins, but those Canadian

Most of us think of pump kins as the consummate Hal loween accessory. We add them to porch displays — paired with some corn husks — or carve them elaborately and insert a candle for a glowing effect. Actually, only a small percentage of the crop ends up as a Halloween prop as most pumpkins are harvested and processed into pulp.

In a pinch I’ll use processed pumpkin, but it doesn’t compare to the taste of preparing fresh pumpkin for pies filling, breads and soups. The easiest way to prepare a whole pumpkin is to give it a good scrub, cut a few slits for ventilation, place on a cookie sheet and cook for about

an hour, at 350 degrees. To retain its pretty orange color, I prefer this method over cutting it in half and baking (which causes the exposed surfaces to turn brown when baking). Once cooled, just scoop out the seeds and strings, and puree the soft fruit in a food processor.

Pumpkins are thought to have originated from Central America, though the name pumpkin actually originated from the Greek word for “large melon” which is pepon. Native Americans used pumpkin as a food source by roasting long strips, but they also dried strips to weave into useful mats.

Sometimes I forget if pump kins and squash are siblings or cousins. Both are in the vine crop family, called “cucurbits’’ and it’s hard to distinguish one

Pumpkin bread

Lots of fall flavors in this bread, spiced up with apple cider and toasted pecans. For an adult version, you can substitute bourbon for the cider. Makes one 9x5-inch loaf or four individual loaves.

INGREDIENTS: DIRECTIONS:

•1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

•1 tsp baking soda

•2 tsp ground cinnamon

•¼ tsp ground nutmeg

•¼ tsp ground cloves

•¼ tsp ground ginger

•¾ tsp salt

•2 large eggs, at room temperature

•½ cup granulated sugar

•¾ cup packed light or dark brown sugar

•1 ½ cups fresh or canned pumpkin puree

•½ cup vegetable oil

•¼ cup apple juice

•⅔ cup butterscotch chips

•⅔ cup toasted chopped pecans (reserve a few to sprinkle over top)

Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Line a metal or glass 9x5-inch bread pan with parchment paper and spray lightly with non-stick spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and salt together until combined. Set aside. In a bowl of a standup mixer, whip together the eggs, granulated sugar and brown sugar until combined. Slowly add in pumpkin, oil and apple juice. Mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients and gently mix on low until blended. There will be a few lumps. Do not over-mix. Gently fold in the butterscotch chips and pecans.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes on the center rack of the oven. Bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cover loosely with foil if bread is getting too brown.

Allow the bread to cool complete ly in the pan on a wire rack before turning out.

Cover and store leftover pumpkin

from the other. One thing is for sure, pumpkins are a huge crop, with more than 150 varieties. Some work best for carving, others are more decorative and some are grown for their taste. Illinois grows more pumpkins than any other state; but, oddly, New Hampshire (which isn’t even one of the biggest produc ers), has adopted the pumpkin as its official state fruit.

Pumpkins also are not just for pies, which is pretty evident if you take a peek on Amazon — there are dozens of cook books filled with sweet and savory pumpkin recipes.

Pumpkins even have a fairy tale existence — think of Cin derella and her ornate coach, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater, the infamous pumpkin in Legend of Sleepy Hollow and, of course,

Linus’ elusive Great Pumpkin character in the comic strip, Peanuts

And don’t forget about those pretty pink pumpkins! Maybe we can even entice our local growers to plant some of the Porcelain Pink or Porcelain Princess pumpkins. These pretty varieties fascinated me, and I have since learned that there’s even an organization called the Pink Pumpkin Patch Founda tion. Learn more at: pinkpump kinpatch.org. The foundation raises funds during the matched season of October’s breast can cer awareness and pumpkin har vest. Seems like a good match to me. Another good match? Replacing the apple cider with bourbon in this week’s recipe for Pumpkin Bread (you’re welcome).

bread at room temperature for up to two days, or in the refrigerator for up to a week.

If desired, make a glaze with 1

tbs cider (or bourbon) and ¼ cup of powdered sugar. Blend well and drizzle over top. Sprinkle with a few remaining pecan bits.

Emptying the bucket

Hillstomp is a dash of punkabilly, a bit of Appalachia and a blues-thumping good time

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

Genres are helpful to narrow down music styles into convenient buckets. But what happens when those buckets are flipped over, emptied of their contents, placed upside down and banged on for all they’re worth? You get Portland, Ore. duo Hillstomp, which has boot-stomped its unique sound on the live music scene for more than 20 years.

Hillstomp will play Eichardt’s Pub at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21 as members “Hurricane” Henry Hill Kammerer and John “Lord Buck ets” Johnson breeze through town on their latest tour. There will be a $10 cover to attend the show.

This two-piece blues reviv al band is indeed something to behold. Kammerer and Johnson are known for inventive originals, unique versions of traditional material and energetic live per formances. And buckets. Lots of buckets.

Called everything from “junk box blues” to “do-it-yourself hill country blues stomp,” Hillstomp is one of those bands that’s fun to listen to, but absolutely mes merizing to watch live. With Kammerer on the slide guitar and banjo and John son with an impro vised drum kit made

Hillstomp

of assorted buckets, cans and barbecue lids, the music that comes from these two souls sounds somehow fuller than it should.

Attempting to pin a genre onto Hillstomp is like trying to place a greased pig in a bucket. Their music features elements of country blues stomp, North Mississippi trance blues, Appalachia, punkabilly, slide rock guitar and a dash of Zydeco to fill out their specialized sound.

Their 2005 album The Woman that Ended the World was named Album of the Year by Portland alt-weekly Willamette Week, and they’ve toured with notable blues royalty such as Reverend Horton Heat, The Devil Makes Three and Southern Culture on the Skids, among others.

Friday, Oct. 21; 8 p.m.; $10. Eichardt’s Pub, 212 Cedar St., 208-263-4005. Lis ten at hillstomp.com.

When asked who their main influences are, they credit noted American blues mu sician R.L. Burnside, who became famous late in his career for introducing bluesy elements to the punk and garage rock aficionados of the 1990s.

Close your eyes, and you’d think Hillstomp was more than just two dudes giving it their all on stage. Listen to Kammerer’s slide guitar and banjo work and you’ll know how he got the nickname Hurricane. Paired with Johnson’s furious banging on buckets, brake drums and broiler pans, and you’ve got an intricate, hand-craft ed sound that will get everyone from barefoot hippies to bootscoot hillbillies off their butts and onto the dance floor. You won’t have more fun with your pants on anywhere else in town.

The duo has received plenty of attention of late. Hillstomp’s 2010 album Darker The Night contains one of its live favorites, “Cardiac Arrest in D,” and after the 2014 release of Portland, Ore., the band attracted the notice of Dan

Akroyd’s infamous blues radio show The BluesMobile. Akroyd said, “Hillstomp is a band out of Portland, hoping to bring the same energy to Oregon that the Allstars brought to north Mississippi.”

Film directing duo the Coen Brothers used a Hillstomp track for the trailer for their film Hail, Caesar! and one of the duo’s songs was also featured on the third season of the popular show Sons of Anarchy.

Despite this increase in na tional attention, attend the show at Eichardt’s and you’ll feel like you’re watching two musical geniuses busk on a street corner with homemade instruments and heartworn stomp ballads.

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint

This week’s RLW by Ben Olson

READ

One of the best Christmas gifts I’ve received in recent years is a collec tion of Butler Mo torcycle Maps for Washington, Idaho and Montana. These aren’t just for motor cyclists, but are great for anyone looking to get off the beaten track during their travels around the region. The maps are waterproof, tear-resis tant, sturdy and highlight various “lost highways,” which are perfect for a ride on your motorcycle as well as a road trip with the family. They’re well worth the money and hold up under excessive usage.

LISTEN

After a long road trip around the West, I came home with a fa vorite playlist from Spotify. It’s called “40s country” and contains some real gems from that decade. This is, in my opinion, the heyday of country music, before it developed into the shit-kicking, patriotic nonsense you see a lot of today. Artists in clude Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, The Carter Family, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, Hank Snow and many more.

WATCH

A son of Spokane and second oldest of 10 children in a musical family, Luke Yates knows how to stand out — and is widely regard ed as a standout regional perform er of country, blues and rock.

Local live music aficionados might remember back when Yates took the stage alongside Christy Lee for a rollicking Sandpoint show in March; and, if anyone missed it, now is their chance to see Yates in action with a solo

return to MickDuff’s Beer Hall.

With more than 2,000 shows to his credit, and touring across the country, Yates is a performer par excellence and his sound is perfectly paired with a pint or two at the Beer Hall.

— Zach Hagadone

6-9 p.m., FREE. MickDuff’s Brewing Co. Beer Hall, 220 Cedar St., 208-209-6700, mickduffs.com. Listen at lukeyatesmusic.com.

If you haven’t listened to Bak er Thomas Packwood, also known as BTP, then let me welcome you to Sandpoint.

This classic rock trio consists of Benny Baker, Ali Thomas and Sheldon Packwood on guitar, drums and bass, respectively.

They are all accomplished musicians whose songs cover a wide variety of fan favorites over the decades, dipping in and out of the classic rock genre to explore all your favorite tunes.

BTP will play the stage at the Hickey Farms Harvest Festival, a month-long family friendly event with u-pick pumpkins, food and drink vendors, live music, mazes and other fun kids’ activities. Take advantage of the great fall weather we’re having and head on out.

—Ben Olson

Noon-3 p.m., FREE. Hickey Farms Harvest Festival, 674 Hick ey Road, 208-290-1539, hickey farmsidaho.com.

The Law & Crime Network channel on YouTube blew up in popularity after the Johnny Depp vs. Am ber Heard def amation trial. The channel is dedicated to showing both full live streams and snippets of important trials going on around the country, including a whopper of a trial in volving Alex Jones from InfoWars and his years-long campaign to label the Sandy Hook massacre a “hoax,” causing untold amounts of stress to grieving families. If you’re interested in the legal pro cess at all, this channel is a great place to start.

Luke Yates, MickDuff’s Beer Hall, Oct. 22 BTP, Hickey Farms Harvest Festival, Oct. 22

“Hurricane” Henry Hill Kammerer and John “Lord Buckets” Johnson are Hillstomp. Courtesy photo.

From Northern Idaho News,

TAKES DOSE OF POISON THROUGH A MISTAKE

James Weaver, son of the well-known market gardener of the same name, had a narrow escape from death Friday night through poisoning. His wife was away on a visit and he was eating supper with his parents. He complained of having a cold and of not feeling well and his mother wanted him to take some quinine capsules. He refused, saying he had some medicine at home which he would use. Going home about 8 o’clock he took two tablets of the cold medicine as he supposed, and went to sleep.

About 10 o’clock he awak ened with a severe pain in his stomach. Looking carefully at the label on the medicine he had used he discovered he had taken bi-chloride of mercury antiseptic tablets. He at once called help and secured an antidote, also taking an emetic.

A doctor was called but refused to respond and it was nearly midnight before a physi cian finally arrived. He found Weaver in a fairly comfortable state and it is believed he will recover, although he is badly salivated. He took a dose large enough to have killed a dozen people and the fact that he took it on a full stomach probably saved his life.

BACK OF THE BOOK

Confessions of a puzzler

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

My grandma was a puzzler. Not neces sarily in personality — though some others may disagree — but in the sense that she liked brain teasers. Crosswords in particular. I have many memories of arriving at her house and, as I sat down at her kitchen table, her greeting me as she pushed aside a folded newspaper with a half-filled crossword. She had a special mechanical pencil that she always used, which I have inherited. There’s nothing particu larly special about it, other than the strip of masking tape she wound around it to give her fingers extra grip. It was 10 years ago in July that she died, and hers is the pencil I still use to do my crosswords at home.

I don’t only do crosswords at home, though. At some point about eight years or so ago I, too, became a puzzler. It must have started when I was the editor-in-chief of the Boise Weekly. One of my duties then, as it is now at the Reader, was to double-check the crossword answers.

As any old-salt newspaper boss would tell you, an editor can screw up a lot of things — get a date, name or even page number jump wrong — but mess with the crossword and you’re dead meat. This is true.

My method of checking the Boise Weekly crossword was to ensure the top-left and bottom-right down and across clues matched the answer key, which in our case was provided with great secrecy by The New York Times, due to the fact that we car ried the Sunday puzzle. At first, I checked and moved on. As time went on, I’d ignore the answer key and linger a bit longer, filling in the boxes on my proofing sheets. Soon enough, I was taking a copy of the paper with me to lunch and work the puzzle while I ate alone and ignored everyone and everything around me.

I still do this, and it has morphed into one of my great (and really pretty few) entirely

STR8TS Solution

personal pleasures. Sometimes, if people I know see me sitting in a restaurant doing the Reader crossword and actively avoiding the rest of existence, they’ll poke fun at me for it. I’ll usually say something like, “The crossword is the only reason I pick up this rag,” which is actually more true than not.

By the time the Reader appears on any given Thursday, I’ve read damn near every word in it at least twice. Not so with the crossword. I still only check the top-left and bottom-right corners, figuring that’s a pretty small cheat, and trying my hardest to forget those answers as soon as I’ve verified that they match up. Heck, grandma had a whole book of crossword hints at her elbow when she did her puzzles. Not me.

I even like to add a little extra challenge to my lunch-time crossword ritual: I sit down at the table, make my order and see if I can finish the whole thing before the food comes. I can usually do it, and in pen, no less. I save grandma’s pencil for when I do the Sunday Times puzzle at home.

My wife bought me one of those puzzle collection books for Christmas last year and wrapped it up in a brown grocery bag bearing the tag: “To: Zach, From: Will Schwartz.” Her charming misspelling of legendary Times puzzle master Will Shortz’s name has become my kids’ shorthand description for pretty much any crossword. They’ll see me working a puzzle and say, “Ah, doing your Will Schwartz?” There’s almost certainly a real-life Will Schwartz, but our imaginary version has become a part of the family — a long-lost uncle who wraps presents in brown grocery bags.

My puzzle mania has steadily spread over the years. The Reader puzzle can only occupy me for so long. I also do the Inland er’s crossword each week, though it’s a little harder for me, being a “pop culture” puzzle. I do the Bee’s sometimes, too, and (no slight intended), it’s the easiest of them all.

I’ve tried to do Sudoku, but it mostly

Sudoku Solution

evades me. My wife can do the hardest of Sudokus in about 15 minutes. Str8ts is a total mystery to me.

For the past year I’ve also added a bunch of online puzzles to my routine. Each morning I do the word-guessing game Wordle; then Quordle, in which you solve four Wordles at once; then Waffle, a kind of crossword that gives you only a certain num ber of letter “swaps” to fill in the answers. Beyond words, I also do Worldle, wherein you guess a country based on its outline; Framed, which gives you a number of guess es to identify a film based on one frame; and, finally Heardle, which is the same thing as Framed but for songs, only giving you a small number of short “skips” to get the correct answer. I suck at that last one.

My friend Ricci also does all these games, and we text each other our scores every morning with little quips, gifs and memes. It’s a nice way to start the day.

There are so few things we can control and so few things we can get right — es pecially these days, it seems — so maybe puzzles are a flight from that. No matter what, though, the crossword is far better than cross words. And it’s the only reason I pick up this rag.

Crossword Solution

If you lose your job, your marriage and your mind all in one week, try to lose your mind first, because then the other stuff won’t matter that much.

Laughing Matter

[adjective]

By Bill Borders

CROSSWORD

ACROSS

Copyright www.mirroreyes.com

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