Emond lacks understanding

I take exception to Mr. Edmond’s letter of March 14, casting judgment on the Idaho Conservation League and other so called “radical environmental hippie organizations.”

I don’t take exception to Mr. Edmond having his opinion, but he casts judgment on the organization that I represent without first taking the time know and understand what we are all about. Since open letters are an open invitation, I’ll take this opportunity to share some information about the Idaho Conservation League.

ICL is actively involved in the Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative, where community stakeholders are working on forest management projects that support local jobs and improve forest health. Through KVRI, we recently developed recommendations for a timber sale in Twentymile Creek that will reduce the threat of fire to municipal drinking water supplies and deliver logs to local mills. We have two other such projects in the hopper.

ICL is about managing the land, fish, and wildlife using the best available science. Boundary County is the last place where nearly all of northern Idaho’s native fish and wildlife are still present. It is our goal to conserve caribou and other native species for the benefit of present and future generations of Boundary County and the State of Idaho.

If these things make me a radical hippie, then I’m happy to be one. As for Mr. Edmond, it’s sad that he would likely take pleasure in the extinction of caribou, but since I don’t know him, I will withhold casting any judgment.

Brad Smith

Sandpoint