In the previous post it was noted that another $25,000 was being spent to study the Hwy 87/Hwy20 junction for road-kill and justification for wildlife overpasses. Only identified as a federal-state partnership, the information on who is involved became available.
This new waste of money is from a grant written by Idaho Fish & Game Rene Seidler, who was involved in all the previous studies and was honored for her antelope overpass work in Wyoming, and Elizabeth Davy, District Ranger, Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Two friends with the same ideology using your tax dollar again to advance their objectives. The project is described as the following: "Within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Fremont County, Idaho hosts charismatic megafauna such as elk, mule deer, pronghorn, moose, grizzly bears, and wolverine. In December of 2017, a wildlife roadkill study was initiated along US Highway 20 and State Highway 87 in Fremont County. With volunteer support, the study focuses on these two highway sections because they bisect big game movement routes. Volunteers will continue to support the roadkill study through December 2019, and data will be stored in a statewide database. The Caribou-Targhee National Forest will use the data for land-use planning, facilitating community engagement locally and statewide, and refining data collection protocols for other similar studies." In truth, the studies began in 2014. The "volunteers" are actually individuals who are part of the Idaho Fish & Game Master Naturalist program, who participated in the previous studies as well. It is also interesting to note the statement on using the data for "land-use planning". Which land, federal, state, or private land? And how would land-use decisions about state or federal land affect or be imposed upon private land? Restrictions are the only answer as it is well documented restrictions come with migratory corridors and wildlife overpasses. It is truly astounding that a state and federal employee can use our tax dollar in such a manner to execute their objectives, regardless of how citizens have objected. It is truly an out of control government.
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In spite of the fact that taxpayer dollars were spent on studies to determine where wildlife crossed Hwy 20 in Island Park with recommended areas for wildlife overpass placement in the 2016 Cramer report, and an overwhelming rejection of overpasses by a Fremont County advisory vote in 2018, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is wasting more money to study the issue.
In a "federal-state" project, $25,000 is being spent, or rather wasted, "to identify road-killed animals in a major wildlife migration corridor to determine collision hotspots and potential locations for wildlife crossing structures." All of this was done in separate studies from 2014 to 2016. In fact, Idaho Fish & Game (IDFG) has a wildlife collision database online, for the whole state! The focus area for this study is U.S. Highway 20 and State Highway 87, which is the area Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) desperately wants for their connectivity agenda. But IDFG has the same objective having already completed their linkage mapping in Idaho. The final Environmental Assessment draft is still not complete. Is this another desperate attempt by the federal and state governments to try and get their way? Where did that $25,000 come from? Did Y2Y assist with that funding, or was it just further waste of tax dollars? This is outrageous, the citizens of Fremont County have spoken and no further studies are going to justify destroying Island Park with overpasses. It is time the government wakes up to reality. |
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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