mtexpress.com | Volume 43 | Number 10
wednesday, december 27, 2017
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IDAHO MOUNTAIN
ITD mulls moving out of Shoshone
F orest Plan Salmon-Challis planning for future Page 3
Page 5
Man files $3M tort claim against city
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Ketchum, mayor of Hailey settle claim AND GUIDE
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Congress leaves CHIP on the table Despite federal stopgap, health insurance remains uncertain for Idaho children By MARK DEE Express Staff Writer
Express photo by Roland Lane
In Sun Valley, A Winter Wonderland Olaf, the lovable snowman from the blockbuster Disney movie “Frozen,” sings and dances with a group of youthful backers during the Skating in a Winter Wonderland Ice Show on Christmas Eve at Sun Valley Resort. The ice show attracted throngs of viewers taking part in a longstanding Sun Valley tradition of kicking off Christmas Eve outside the Sun Valley Lodge. The approximately half-hour show was followed by the annual Torchlight Parade down Dollar Mountain and fireworks in the sky above Dollar. To see more photos of the event, turn to Page 32.
Recovering the Big Wood River Scientist calls for master planning process duce fish that weighed four times that, Thurow said. “What we have now is a fraction of what that was,” Thurow said in an interview Dec. 21. “We’ve had a loss in the Big Wood since the ’40s. Historically, the Big Wood was a remarkable fishery.” By PETER JENSEN In a 2006 study using land-use maps, the Hailey-based Wood Express Staff Writer River Land Trust calculated the loss of riparian habitat along the s debate ramps up over the future of the Big Wood River fol- river from 1943 to 2004. The river lost 25 percent of habitat over lowing last spring’s severe flooding, fisheries scientist Russ that time period, though it also lost habitat prior to 1943, the study Thurow wants Blaine County residents to use history as a reported. From the Warm Springs confluence to a point south of guide. He wants them to underBellevue, 40 percent of the riverbanks stand the historical potential of were hardened by riprap or levees. In its trout fishery. 2006, the Big Wood had lost 1.69 miles Thurow, who works at the U.S. Forest of river length due to channel straightService’s Rocky Mountain Research Staening, the study reported. tion in Boise, said that decades ago, the Furthermore, Thurow said fish river was capable of producing larger habitat on the Big Wood lacks the Russ Thurow and more abundant fish. As human Fisheries scientist, U.S. Forest Service complexity it once had. Historically, development along the river increased the river featured greater diversity of dramatically from the 1970s onward, the riverside habitat has insect life, as well as more spawning habitat, side channels, multideclined. ple channels, deep pools, riffles, woody debris and streamside veg As a result, the fish have shrunk in size and number, Thurow etation such as willows, brush and cottonwoods. said. Ask a fisherman: A good day on the Big Wood now might net It’s an example of what Thurow calls a shifting benchmark. a 3-pound rainbow trout. In the 1950s, the river could reliably proSee RIVER, Page 20 The last in a series of stories examining the flooding that inundated the Wood River Valley last spring.
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“Draw a line in the sand and say, ‘We’re going to keep what’s left.’”
Congress left Washington last week with a ‘CHIP’ on its shoulder. A short-term deal passed Thursday night dodged a government shutdown, but failed to produce a long-term solution for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, despite broad support on both sides of the aisle. Instead, it allocated $2.85 billion to keep the program funded through March, and pay three months in back bills. Funding for the program lapsed Sept. 30 after lawmakers failed to agree on a five-year extension. Last week’s extension provides temporary relief for the 8.9 million lowincome children who depend on CHIP coverage, but little certainty. CHIP covers kids in households that make too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance. The $15 billion program is almost entirely funded by the federal government, but is administered by states. A quarter of the way through fiscal 2018, many have built federal money into their budgets. That includes Idaho, where 35,964 kids—about 8 percent of Idaho children 18 and under—relied on the program in fiscal 2016, which provides the most recent data available. As of 2015, 24 percent of children in Blaine County were covered by either CHIP or Medicaid, according to a study by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. In Idaho, CHIP comes in the form of the Idaho Health Insurance Plan for Children. Building on Medicaid, it provides coverage to kids whose household income is up to 185 percent of the poverty line. For a family of four, that’s around $45,500. While parents handle some co-pays and premiums for care, they’re capped. “CHIP was specifically designed to include child-appropriate benefits,” said Dr. Kathryn Beattie, executive medical director and administrator at St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital in Boise. “This legislation provided a short-term fix. This fix does not provide long-term certainty for access to the basic health care that is critically See CHIP, Page 19