Burning scheduled for forests near CdA
Prescribed burning is scheduled for the next few days across at least 1,000 acres of national forest between Coeur d’Alene and the Montana border.
The annual spring burns help reduce the severity of summer wildfires and improve forage for wildlife, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Some trails on Canfield Mountain may be closed for the burns, which happen when weather and air quality conditions allow, said Sam Gibbons, fire management officer for the Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District.
Burning is planned for 175 acres around the Canfield-Nettleton area, 112 acres in the Windy Creek drainage on the south end of Hayden Lake, 90 acres in the Hayden Creek drainage east of Hayden Lake, 130 acres in the Pleasant Creek drainage south of Coeur d’Alene Mountain, 100 acres in the Wolf Lodge Creek drainage east of Coeur d’Alene, 40 acres in the Beaver Creek drainage, 250 acres in the Placer Creek drainage south of Wallace and 186 acres north of Interstate 90 on Lookout Pass.
Fires regularly burned through the forests of the Inland Northwest but have been largely snuffed over the past century. As a result, many forests are now thick with brush and small trees – not to mention a growing number of homes – creating potentially explosive situations during dry summer months, when thunderstorms pass over the area.
– James Hagengruber
Coeur d’Alene
Food to be distributed to needy families
Thousands of pounds of fresh produce will be given away to families in need Friday from 10 a.m. to noon at Lakes Middle School in Coeur d’Alene.
The Lakes Parent-Teacher Association is teaming up with Second Harvest Inland Northwest and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans to bring the 24-foot truck to the school for the second time this school year.
No registration is required, and households do not need to have a child in the school to get the produce.
In the truck’s first visit to Lakes in November, 193 families collected more than 9,000 pounds of food.
For more information contact Lakes Middle School at (208) 667-4544 or the school district office at (208) 664-8241.
– Meghann M. Cuniff
Bonner County
NIC nursing program expands to Ponderay
North Idaho College’s registered nursing program will expand into Bonner County this fall thanks to a $60,000 ongoing appropriation from the Legislature.
The money will provide a classroom and laboratory for 10 nursing students and pay for two part-time instructors at the college’s center in Ponderay. NIC plans to use a variety of local health care facilities for on-site training and will partner with Bonner General Hospital.
About 10 nursing students commute from Bonner and Boundary counties to the Coeur d’Alene campus, the only place the program is offered.
The expansion increases the number of spots available in the program and should free up spots at the Coeur d’Alene campus as out-of-county students relocate to the Ponderay center.
– Meghann M. Cuniff