Caribou issue rears its head again

Just when everyone thought the mountain caribou habitat controversy was solved and done with, here come the usual suspects muddling up the issue again.

The United Fish and Wildlife Service had trimmed the caribou habitat proposal on the Westside from 375,562 acres down to a more sensible 30,010 acres, so-called critical habitat to be set aside for the caribou.But that is not enough for several radical, hardcore environmentalist organizations, so they filed a formal notice of intent to sue to get their way.

According to the under-reported story in the Herald, these groups include the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Northwest, Selkirk Conservation Alliance, The Lands Council, Idaho Conservation League and Defenders of Wildlife.By the way, the weak-kneed Herald called these organizations “conservation groups,” instead of labeling them as radical, hardcore environmentalist outfits. Of course, after reading the insert “Sustainable Living” in the Herald, published by Sandpoint’s Daily Bee, I wasn’t surprised.

Talk about your new-age, hippie, tree-hugger bunch of propaganda; “Sustainable Living” makes Mother Earth News look like a right-wing shooting and hunting publication.As usual, these despicable environmentalist organizations pull their hippie lawyers out and make a sneak-attack and outright ambush on common sense and reason. Any acres set aside for caribou habitat, even one road closed, and any other restrictions on the use of our national forests for a handful of Canadian caribou is ridiculous.

How much money will it cost the taxpayers to fight this frivolous, downright insane, lawsuit? Why are these groups so intent on locking us out of our own forests? Who are the members and supporters of these nefarious groups? Why are they so secretive and cowardly?There are so many questions that need to be answered on this subject. Had the Herald actually accomplished a complete and thorough reporting job, we would know the answers. However, our local so-called newspaper has become a joke, totally incapable of actually covering a story in-depth and intelligently.

I don’t know what is worse: radical environmental hippie organizations bent on locking up all of our land, or a so-called community newspaper that doesn’t report the news.Remember, mountain caribou is the other white meat. We need more of them to feed the wolves, grizzly bears, lynx and wolverines. Too bad sturgeon, ling-cod and bull trout don’t eat caribou as well, then we would have the perfect remedy for all of this nonsense.

Tom Emond

Boundary County