Current Stories
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NW salmon plan is in sight
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/24/2009
"With a little bit of work," the government might be able to get approval for the plan to operate the federal hydroelectric system that provides most of the power for the Pacific Northwest, provides barge transportation of goods, and influences flows of water throughout a watershed that is larger than France.
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Western senators sponsor bill to attack pine beetles
San Francisco Chronicle
11/23/2009
More than 2.5 million acres of pine trees in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming have been killed by tiny beetles that burrow under the bark and lay their eggs, turning the green needles to the color of rust as they feed on the tree and restrict its ability to draw water.
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Working plan looks closer for NW salmon protection
Oregonian
11/24/2009
Many hoped more than 10 years of lawsuits over protecting Northwest salmon and running Columbia Basin dams would finally come to a close in a Portland courtroom Monday.
They didn’t, but the end could be in sight.
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Learning the lessons of the Pahsimeroi River
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/23/2009
Ranchers along the Idaho's Pahsimeroir River area have long pointed fingers at the mind-numbing red tape federal agencies required to eliminate barriers that blocked spawning streams and to provide more water for fish. But today, 10 miles of cold, spring-fed creek habitat that had been lost for up to a century are home to salmon
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Idaho Power's cloud seeding efforts
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/19/2009
Idaho Power Co. is investing up to $1 million to seed the clouds above Idaho's mountains in hopes of increasing the snowpack that holds the water that will drive the hydroelectric turbines to produce the cheapest power the company can get.
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Boise company's solar charger may save gas
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/17/2009
Treasure Valley Solar is marketing a way to keep electronic devices revved up in the car without turning on the engine.
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New permits for Idaho's animal feeding operations
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/16/2009
Cattle feeding lot owners will have to submit a nutrient management plan for review under new rules proposed for Idaho by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
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Idaho governor objects to listing peppergrass as threatened
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/17/2009
Gov. Butch Otter said the federal government has let down the ranchers and others in Idaho who stepped forward to help a rare flowering bush that grows in the Foothills and in wet areas of Southwest Idaho's desert - even though it was not protected under the Endangered Species Act.
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Parks Service Jon Jarvis taps Idahoan for parks scientist
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/17/2009
National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis didn't wait long to reach into his Idaho roots.
Jarvis, who served as superintendent of Craters of the Moon National Monument, picked the University of Idaho's Gary Machlis to serve as the first National Park Service science adviser.
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Hunting tradition stays strong in Idaho
KUOW
11/12/2009
While the number of American hunters is going down, the hunting tradition remains strong in rural states like Idaho.
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Idaho universities get money for climate, water research
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/11/2009
Idaho's three state universities will share in a $6 million National Science Foundation grant aimed at addressing climate change.
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Idaho 'smart grid' technology boosts efficiency
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/10/2009
Since 2005 Idaho Power has offered customers in Emmett different rates for different times of the day help people reduce their own bills and the utilities' demand for power. Thanks to a $47 million stimulus grant from the Obama administration's Department of Energy, all of Idaho Power's customers will have similar tools for reducing their power bills by 2012.
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A house made of straw and mud in Boise
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/09/2009
On a small lot tucked between conventional homes on Boise Avenue, Mark Lung is hard at work stacking bales of straw and mixing mud.
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New antennas help biologists study salmon
Seattle Times
11/08/2009
Biologists studying salmon in the Pacific Northwest have for decades lost track of the fish just as they set out on life's last leg, to spawn and die in remote backcountry streams. That is changing, as crews have installed giant antennas in nearly two dozen rivers and streams across the region to track fish.
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Streetcars are our desires
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/03/2009
In Boise, a proposed $60 million trolley plan became a major theme of local elections Tuesday but also represents an American revival. Some 80 US cities have proposals for streetcars, which they hope will become engines for prosperity that will reduce congestion and air pollution by turning back the clock.
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Streetcars on the ballot amid trolley revival
Seattle Times
11/02/2009
A streetcar revival in American cities isn't just kicking up sparks from the tracks, they're flying down at city hall, too. In Idaho's capital, a proposed $60 million trolley plan has become a major theme of local elections Nov. 3.
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Idaho's 'smart meters' could cut energy use
Boise Idaho Statesman
10/29/2009
Smart meters being installed in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon will let homes and businesses see how energy they can save by turning off lights by checking usage before and after, or by measuring 'phantom loads' -- the electricity used by appliances, even when they are turned off.
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Western lawmakers collaborate on climate
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
10/27/2009
Lawmakers from many western states agreed Monday that they should consider collaborating on developing technology to capture and store the carbon gas that's generated from burning fossil fuels.
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Staging a nuclear comeback
Boise Idaho Statesman
10/25/2009
US nuclear power could be emerging from a long sleep sparked by the Three Mile Island reactor accident in 1979, widespread environmental concerns and soaring capital costs. The Idaho National Laboratory, the first to light a bulb with atomic power, stands to play a key role in that future.
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Views: A Tale of Two Rivers
Seattle Times
10/26/2009
Call it a tale of two rivers. On the one hand, there is the Klamath, where after decades of battling over water, salmon, jobs and livelihoods, stakeholders have come to an agreement to put the river and its communities on a path to recovery and remove four outdated dams. On the other hand, there is the Northwest's Columbia-Snake River basin.
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Idaho nursery gives forests a start
Seattle Times
10/21/2009
A Coeur d'Alene nursery is a genetic storehouse for Western forests. One of six nurseries in the national forest system, it grows seedlings that can be used to replenish woods wiped out by fires.
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Views: There's real power in energy conservation
Oregonian
10/18/2009
Right now, all most people want to talk about is the next great renewable energy source - wind farms, solar arrays, small-scale nuclear plants, even wave energy. Yet a proposed 20-year energy plan wisely doubles down on the Northwest's long history of conservation to meet 85 percent of the region's new demand for electricity.
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MT stops wolf hunt near Yellowstone
Seattle Times
10/13/2009
Montana wildlife commissioners shut down gray wolf hunting Tuesday in the backcountry adjacent to Yellowstone National Park after nine of the predators were killed there in recent weeks. Commissioners, however, kept the statewide kill quota at 75.
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Wolf quota eyed after nine shot near Yellowstone
Seattle Times
10/12/2009
Wildlife officials in Montana will consider changes to the state's inaugural wolf hunt after nine of the predators were shot in just three weeks along the border of Yellowstone National Park. All but two of the 11 wolves killed in Montana came from a small portion of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, along the northern border of Yellowstone.
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After hard times, Idaho town of Emmett reinvents itself
Boise Idaho Statesman
10/13/2009
When the mill closed, Emmett seemed destined to become a bedroom community. Even the mill closure failed to slow a steady population increase. Mill workers retrained for jobs elsewhere and became commuters. People from larger cities were drawn by Emmett's small-town charm. From2000 to 2008, its population grew from 5,490 to 6,357. Growth, however, did little to help the local businesses. Store after store went dark as commuters did their shopping in Boise and other Treasure Valley towns. Now, that appears to be changing.
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