Idaho Nature Notes

A Place To Call Home

2013-04-29T08:54:00.001-07:00

By Dayna Gross, Silver Creek Preserve Manager When you live in a climate where winter dominates much of the year, the first signs of spring are enough to get your blood flowing and optimism churning. In February, the Red-winged Blackbirds return and mark my favorite day of the year- when I first hear them singing. Like many things that are ‘common’ it may not be the most newsworthy event. The

Are You Going to the Dance?

2013-04-15T11:20:00.001-07:00

By Art Talsma, Director of Stewardship and Restoration Thank goodness sage grouse like to dance. Male sage grouse "strut their stuff" by puffing up, creating one of the most memorable spring spectacles out there. Combined with deep music tones, their display is designed to attract females to the dancing ground. The males gather in remote sagebrush country throughout their native range in the

The Wheels on the Bus

2013-03-29T12:58:00.002-07:00

By Justin Petty, Associate Director of Philanthropy The snow around town is all but gone, and the 5 day weather forecast is predicting highs in the low 60’s. Trout have been on the rise, a few low elevation trails close to home have dried out enough to hike, and I find myself staring out my office window wishing I was spending more time outdoors. Before moving to Idaho, I would tell folks that

Sharing Idaho's Natural Heritage

2013-03-20T09:06:00.001-07:00

By Nathan Welch, GIS Analyst So, you're backpacking in the Pioneer Mountains of south-central Idaho and you have a close encounter with a wolverine... Wolverine photo-op, courtesy of the National Park Service You immediately want to share this thrilling sighting with the world… but how? A post on Facebook might get lost among posts on the relatively mundane eating habits of your friends.

Good Fire, Bad Fire

2013-02-27T12:26:00.004-08:00

By Ryan Haugo, PhD; Forest Ecologist The 2012 Pacific Northwest wildfire season was one for the record books. In Idaho, the Mustang Complex alone burned 300,000 acres. In my home state of Washington, over 350,000 total acres burned and fire suppression costs alone totaled more than $70 million dollars. Not exactly chump change in this time of fiscal cliffs and sequestration. Yet, fire always

Sustaining Our Global Food Supply

2013-02-20T13:10:00.001-08:00

By Bas Hargrove, Senior Policy Representative About 10,000,000,000. That will be the population on earth in 2050. How do we feed 10 billion people? How do we conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends while feeding all these folks? These questions have been on my mind lately as the Conservancy has taken an increasingly hard look at the role of agriculture and conservation. As part

A logger, a forester, an ATV enthusiast, and an environmentalist walk into a bar…

2013-02-06T13:29:00.001-08:00

By Will Whelan, Director of Government Relations This isn’t the set-up for yet another version of the old joke formula. It is what actually happened last week in Boise at the annual conference of the Idaho Forest Restoration Partnership. A remarkable trend has emerged in recent years in the much fought-over national forests of Idaho. People with very different viewpoints are working together to

The Hemingway House Preserve In Fall

2013-01-28T09:25:00.004-08:00

By Caroline Clawson, Philanthropy Assistant Ernest Hemingway wrote a eulogy for a Sun Valley friend, Gene Van Guilder, who died in a tragic bird hunting accident on an autumn day in 1939. It reads in part: “Best of all he loved the fall … the fall with the tawny and grey, the leaves yellow on the cottonwoods, leaves floating on the trout streams and above the hills the high blue windless

Life Without Winter

2013-01-18T09:39:00.001-08:00

By Lou Lunte, Associate State Director Okay, like many people I can get pretty grumpy about winter. I’ll admit it, come mid-January, the darkness, bitter cold and icy roads get to me. Sure, I ski and like the view of a beautiful winter day, but that’s just not always enough to contain the grumpiness. Sometimes my wife can hear me muttering about “Why is it so cold and dark? Couldn’t we just

Christmas Bird Count

2013-01-07T22:55:00.001-08:00

By Marilynne Manguba, Idaho Protection Specialist Maybe you read the news in October - “Most of Idaho town destroyed by fire - six buildings burn in Howe.” I thought of the Little Lost Store and the restaurant next door, a traditional stop on the way out of camping trips into the Little Lost Valley or the west side of the Lemhi mountains. Both closed the last few times I’d been through

Senator Crapo steps up to protect a key conservation program

2012-12-17T08:23:00.001-08:00

By Will Whelan, director of government relations for The Nature Conservancy in Idaho These days, it seems rare for senators from both parties to unite on any issue. So, we took note last week when Senator Mike Crapo joined 48 of his Senate colleagues to call for the renewal of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, one of our landmark conservation laws. The Land and Water Conservation Fund Act

A life-changing summer at Silver Creek

2012-12-06T13:09:00.001-08:00

By Ham Wallace, 2012 Silver Creek Intern Editor's note: Ham became our intern through The Charlie Blumenstein Water and Wildlife Conservation Internship program at Colorado College. The program was established by the Blumenstein family to provide an internship experience that might spark a life-long interest in the environment and conservation in much the same way it did for their late son,

A special place in the heart of the Wood River Valley

2012-11-30T07:56:00.002-08:00

By Toni Hardesty, state director of The Nature Conservancy in Idaho Since I was a little girl, I always loved coming over Timmerman Hill and getting my first peek at the Wood River Valley. Seeing the valley meant it was either a weekend or we were on vacation; we were headed for some outdoor fun (skiing, camping, fishing, riding horses); and, we would most definitely see pretty places and

Horrible things can be wonderful

2012-11-09T07:32:00.000-08:00

By Susanna Danner, Director of Protection, The Nature Conservancy in Idaho You know you’re in a healthy forest when you have two horrible species. When I visited a North Idaho forest recently, I was lucky enough to see one and relieved to not see the other. One can pincushion your skin with hundreds of brittle spines, and the other can eat you. Scientific names are funny things.

Staff Spotlight: Bob Unnasch

2012-11-05T08:34:00.003-08:00

In our 2012 annual report we visit with Idaho's Director of Science Bob Unnasch to chat about his 25-year-anniversary with the Conservancy and what keeps him excited about conservation. Read on for the full interview: Bob Unnasch spent much of his childhood outdoors. After feeding him and his brother breakfast, Unnasch’s mother would put the boys outside and say, “Don’t come back until it

Silver Creek and the Union Pacific Years

2012-10-22T14:06:00.001-07:00