‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through Bonner County, a lot of creatures were stirring… because, well, both the Bonner County Commissioners and the Property Rights Council were both still holding meetings. Indeed, this week, the Bonner County Commissioners have an attack on caribou habitat scheduled, and the Property Rights Council will be discussing how to eliminate drinking water protections for county water supplies.
Monday night, the Bonner County property rights council promises a “Commencement of hearings on proposed watershed control ordinance.” In the meeting agenda (pdf), the chairman describes the ordinance as “a proposal to lay the foundation for new county wide compulsory controls on private lands for the benefit of public water system source water quality.”
Then, in a procedure typical of the PRC so far, the Council proposes to have a “discussion/decision” of how exactly the hearing will be conducted, after the “commencement of the hearings.” According to the proposed hearing process, the PRC “shall take testimony” on a specific sequence of subject matter topics, also noting that “The PRC places the burden of proof for new public controls on the proponents of public control. The Proponents must show public controls are necessary and must show that private alternatives are not likely to provide the necessary protections.” It is not entirely clear, however, why proponents would bother to participate in such a charade.
Meanwhile, on the caribou battlefront, the Bonner County Commissioners will attempt Tuesday to monkeywrench the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designation of critical habitat for the endangered Selkirk woodland caribou. With an overwhelming portion of the critical habitat on government-owned upper-elevation backcountry lands, and with none of the habitat on developed private lands, the Commissioners’ fit of pique appears to be mostly a knee-jerk reaction to anything federal government related. The Commissioners are evidently demanding that the federal government “coordinate” with the county on the habitat designation where it might conflict with local land use priorities. Of course, the County’s own comprehensive plan acknowledges the caribou habitat, and most of the critical habitat land is already federally-owned, so it isn’t entirely clear where the local land use conflict is.
Whatever it is in the Bonner County government’s egg nog, we’ll pass.
Typo: County is repeated in the title of the article.
You might want to correct that.
Ha! Fixed. (I’d like to say that it was an intentional test to see if anyone was paying attention, and that you passed, but no. Just totally not paying attention. Thanks.)