First and foremost, The overpass alternative presentation-Renee Seidler and Kim Trotter were literally front and center at the information staging in the room.
It was presented on graphics generated (the same as the rest of the information-so obviously ITD produced them), and Renee Seidler was there to promote and inform the visiting public all about the alternative she and others have been working on for years. They have found the perfect public works opportunity to insert themselves within. There was NO PUBLIC SOLUTIONS PRESENTATION AVAILABLE. If the public had other ideas, they could write them down on a comment or draw them on a map (forms provided) and put them in a comment box. The meeting was well attended. The statement and observation from many known locals as we circulated and listened…90+% of the people in the room…were not 'locals' that were recognized. We have previously heard that observation/concern expressed ...this meeting would be 'stacked' with overpass solution supporters. We didn't expect that ITD would reveal so openly or be so bold as to give them a presentation slot at their meeting while the community was not given one!!! That was a dead give-away!!! Without a PUBLIC SOLUTIONS opportunity to comment on, the meeting will undoubtedly result in many positives for the Seidler and Trotter presentation. ITD IS OBVIOUSLY WORKING ON THE TARGHEE PASS PROJECT WITH YELLOWSTONE TO YUKON. THE RENEE SEIDLER HIRE WAS NO COINCIDENCE-WAS THAT A NON-COMPETITIVE HIRE OPPORTUNITY? SEIDLER IS A RINGER TO TRY TO ACHIEVE AN OVERPASS, OR MULTIPLE OVERPASS BUILDS AT TARGHEE PASS…JUST LIKE SHE DID IN WYOMING, WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE STUDY WORK SHE AND HER ASSOCIATES HAVE ALREADY DONE. THE P. CRAMER STUDY IS A RINGER…LOOK AT THE PEOPLE WHO CONDUCTED IT…SEIDLER WAS ONE OF THEM AND SO WAS KIM TROTTER. If ITD is going to move forward based on the recommendations of the P.Cramer study as they have done so up to this point, then IP you better wake up and pay attention. If her initial recommendations for Targhee Pass are accepted…what is to stop them from following them all over the coming years….17!!! ITD is currently developing a multi-year plan...as it stands right now...the Cramer study is obviously what they are predicating that planning on. Island Park in 30 years, if funding remains available and they can ask and budget for it based on the recommendations Cramer has made…Island Park will be full of them. Targhee Pass is just the beginning. The dollars for real HWY 20 necessary improvements that we all can support, will go to the conservationists goals instead…and with them will come their miles and miles of required fencing….and all and every land use restriction the multiple migratory species here require. The highway will change all of Island Park through the structures they want to build upon it. This is not a how-can-we-get-enough-private funds-MILLIONS $$$-hoped for-but-where-does-the-money-come-from-idea anymore for the non-governmental groups involved, they have found their funding and build opportunity with the ITD and the FHWA. We saw some ‘locals’ we did recognize engaged with ITD people in the meeting, we look forward to hearing/reading their assessment and the information they gleaned from those conversations. On its face, that meeting visually proved a lot. ITD is looking to build overpasses at Targhee Pass and its not just a rumor or a concept that Kim Trotter and her Y2Y people, the IP Master Naturalists, and Island Park Safe Wildlife Passage Initiative are promoting. ITD is planning for it and they will use public money to do it. They already are. Its time for ITD to tell the truth….give us the opportunity they have already been giving to Y2Y, HFLP, HOTR and the rest, and they need to do it sooner than later and quit wasting our valuable time. If they think that the 2 meetings we have had, the one last night supposedly-a sorry-excuse-for an opportunity for the Island Park Community and Fremont County to offer alternatives, when they have obviously been involved with planning for overpasses with the groups that want them for quite a long time now, and that it was anywhere equal to the time or the opportunity they have given them...they are wrong. The P. Cramer study was published in 2016 and the NON-governmental people involved with this project have been involved with ITD for at least that long, WHILE WE HAVE NOT. We saw our Fremont county Commissioners there, and listened..they were engaged and seemed none to happy. Oh and btw...on the top right-hand corner of the Seidler presentation it clearly stated overpasses would require restricted human activity...get ready to kiss snow machining and ATV-ORV'ing recreation good-bye if this concept is successful....and that's just the start of it Friends. Get informed and get engaged.
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Making Sense of It All
This blog will help you make sense out of all the information on the website, how it affects IP, our history, and how efforts continue to put IP into various forms of conservation status. Archives
May 2023
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