Rathdrum Mountain’s Friends
Rathdrum Mountain features quiet solitude, abundant wildlife, old-growth cedars, logging roads for all-terrain vehicles and spectacular views of the Rathdrum Prairie and Lake Coeur d’Alene.
It doesn’t have many homes or roads. The lack of roads has been good for preservation, but bad for enjoyment of public property that is now inaccessible to the public.
Friends of Rathdrum Mountain is working to keep the hillsides just west of town undeveloped and to give the public legal access to more than 550 acres of city-owned property near its peak. The trouble is the group needs funding to accomplish its goals.
The advocacy group recently won 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, is hosting its first fundraiser next weekend at Rathdrum’s historic Westwood Saloon and is launching its inaugural membership drive.
“We need support – not just from supporting our efforts through talking to neighbors and council members and advocating – but we need financial help as well,” said Friends of Rathdrum Mountain Secretary John Ochenkoski.
Memberships range in price from $25 to $500 for individuals and $100 to $1,000 or more for businesses.
The group hopes to raise enough money this year to fund its 2008 operating budget of $13,900 . A large portion of that proposed budget would go toward continuing noxious weed control and native species plantings on the city’s Rathdrum Mountain water tower site. Other funds would be used toward education and public awareness efforts and helping the city of Rathdrum plan and improve its mountain property. Although the group is run by an all-volunteer board, about $1,750 is needed to pay for administrative expenses like printing, event planning and fundraising.
A separate $15,000 fund to purchase development rights and promote conservation easements on private property is in the works.
Gaining public access to the Rathdrum-owned acreage on the mountain is a key priority for the Friends of Rathdrum Mountain board of directors, said its president Wes Du Charme.
“It’s a very beautiful piece of property,” Du Charme said.
The problem is that no public roads go to the site. City crews may use the private Barrett Drive to access the property for maintenance and official business, but the public cannot, said Rathdrum City Administrator Brett Boyer.
Boyer is working at the direction of the Rathdrum City Council to negotiate with private property owners along Barrett Drive to provide public access to the city’s Rathdrum Mountain property.
Much of the land on the mountain is owned by private logging companies, including Inland Empire Paper, which is owned by Cowles Inc., the same company that owns The Spokesman-Review.
The public can use Inland Empire Paper property for recreation, berry and mushroom picking and firewood gathering for a $10 per day permit fee. More information is available at www.iepco.com.
Du Charme said that one 120-acre piece of the mountain is for sale, but the most of the other land is tied up by the timber interests.
Still, Ochenkoski said it would be foolish to take the mountain’s current conditions for granted.
He would like to see a day when Friends of Rathdrum Mountain has money to buy property to protect it or to buy conservation easements.
“A lot of the time people look up at the trees up there and think it will always be that way,” he said. “But if you don’t do something with it, someone else might. That’s the risk.”