Top city officials said they're confident the city will be able to save the trees on the dike, and they weren't giving it any political spin. City Administrator Wendy Gabriel and Mayor Sandi Bloem said they believe they are very close to certifying the flood plain through a third party at the price of around $200,000. That would allow the city to keep most, if not all, of the 500-700 trees the Army Corps of Engineers has ordered removed. Details and meetings will be worked out in the coming months, but Gabriel said the chance at tree-keeping is “very good.” Bloem seemed even more confident/Tom Hasslinger, Coeur d'Alene Press. More here.

Reaction?

Taking a closer look at the impacts of the Corps of Engineers mandate to remove trees from the Rosenberry Drive dike, a local engineering firm was engaged by North Idaho College to review options for the City of Coeur d’Alene. In the review, the firm estimated that the costs of removing trees and roots, and then reconstructing the dike, would cost upwards of $1.6 million. The cost estimate was presented at a recent meeting of the ad hoc committee formed by the City of Coeur d’Alene regarding the dike road trees issue/Terry Harris, KEA, via Twitter. More here. (SR file photo of a mother rollerskating her then 3-year-old daughter on picturesque Dike Road on Lake Coeur d'Alene's north shore)

Reaction?

The Kootenai Environmental Alliance received this photo of Congressman Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, flipping through the big stack of Dike Road Trees Petitions. Rep. Labrador’s office agreed to carry the petitions to Washington DC to Jo-Ellen Darcy, the U.S. Army Assistant Secretary for Civil Works. The KEA launched a petition drive to save the large pines along Dike Road after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ordered them clear cut. More from KEA Blog here.

Item: Coeur d’Alene City Council Signals Stronger Stand on Dike Road Trees/KEA Blog

More Info: In a procedure that will set up action at the next City Council meeting, Councilman John Bruning made a motion (seconded by Councilman Edinger) that would have the city formally opposing the Corps position, and would set up an ad hoc advisory committee to help the city fight the Corps and protect the trees. The motion passed unanimously setting up final action at the September 20th meeting. Councilman Bruning, reading from prepared remarks, said that the City needed to be clear in its opposition and needs to “draw a line in the sand and say no to a federal agency.”

Question: Is this a signal that the City Council was listening to the community?

Coeur d’Alene isn’t the only community miffed at the loopy demand by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clear-cut viewtiful trees from flood prevention levees. Sacramento, Calif., is, too. The corps, as you may recall, freaked out after Hurricane Katrina, ordering communities to remove trees and vegetation from levees (like the ponderosas on Coeur d’Alene’s waterfront dike road), claiming the vegetation destabilizes them. Cash-strapped California communities and flood agencies could spend millions of dollars removing trees and shoring up levees to meet the corps’ inflexible demand. In an editorial urging the corps to revise its levee policy, the Sacramento Bee pointed to a study conducted by the agency that shows some levees are strengthened, not weakened, by trees. The Bee concludes that corps muckety-mucks should heed the findings of their own study and “develop a more flexible, case-by-case policy for levee maintenance nationwide.” Bingo/DFO, Huckleberries. More here.

Weekend SR columns:

• Eagles prove riffraff can play rough/John Blanchette
• WSU nets $1.8M classic angling book collection/Rich Landers
• Program makes running a family affair/Cindy Hval
• Spokane's Thin Air Radio grows closer to regular air/Jim Kershner
• Federal officials giving tribes more authority/Betsy Z. Russell
• Ugly lights give me a bright idea/Doug Clark

Terry Harris/Kootenai Environmental Alliance has just launched an online petition drive to save the viewtiful ponderosas and other trees along Rosenberry Drive (NIC Dike Road) from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers clear-cutting dictate. Petition language reads: “We, the undersigned, object to the levee vegetation policy as currently implemented by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, which would result in the removal of hundreds of trees along the Rosenberry Drive levee embankment in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The trees are not a danger to flood control and they provide the city with significant and irreplaceable environmental, aesthetic, and recreational values to our community. We urge your reconsideration of the policy so that we may preserve our trees.” More here. (SR file photo: Kathy Plonka)

Question: Are you interested in signing and/or circulating the petition?

When it comes to trees and levees, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needs to revise its one-chainsaw-fits-all policy. A new study by the Corps reveals why. The study, conducted by an Army Corps research unit in Mississippi, examined how trees affect flood-control levees in California, the Pacific Northwest, New Mexico and Mississippi. It found that trees actually strengthen levees in some situations. It also urged that engineers conduct site-specific evaluations to determine if trees on levees are harmful or beneficial, according to a report Saturday by The Bee's Matt Weiser. The Corps didn't need to commission a study to inject some common sense into this debate. But we are glad it did/Sacramento Bee Editorial Board. More here. (SR file photo/Kathy Plonka: Roger Smith, a retired civil engineer from Coeur d'Alene, said the Ponderosa pines in question are an “aesthetic heritage feature” for the city)

Question: Do I sense that momentum is changing in this debate (which includes the Corps of Engineers goofy demand to clear-cut Coeur d'Alene Dike Road trees)?

After years of receiving a passing grade for safety from the Army Corps, our local dike was examined by an independent contractor who found over 100 flaws in the dikes’s structure and then recommended the city should remove all the trees. It’s another Alice in Wonderland moment. First the verdict, and then the trial. The trees must go, but the Army Corps admits there is no scientific evidence to suggest our trees are destabilizing the dike. That’s yet to be determined. Let me be clear. The real, everyday issue is not flood prevention but the prevention of high flood insurance rates. A major flood has not come in the 58 years that my husband, Scott, and I have lived in Coeur d’Alene, and it may not come within our lifetimes/Mary Lou Reed, Inlander. More here. H/T: Terry Harris, KEA Blog

Question: Are you willing to sacrifice the trees along the Dike Road (NIC's Rosenberry Drive) to protect the home insurance rates of Fortgrounds residents?

TomTorg: (re: Corps: Cut trees along NIC Dike Road): The Army Corp of Engineers is demanding the city of CDA cut down all the trees on the dike road as they are a risk to the levee’s failure!!!!!! This must be stopped! Our local leaders are not going to support or agree with this but may have their hands forced! Contact your state and federal (Mike Crapo, Raul Labrador, Mike Simpson and Jim Risch) leaders and demand this idiocy stop!!!!! They made the same decision on the St. Joe and then “pulled back” after they had cut down most of the Cottonwoods. Back off, Feds!

Question: Do you plan to call our Idaho delegation to demand, as TomTorg sez, “this idiocy stop”?

High water levels have Kootenai County officials asking for help in protecting the dam on the southwest portion of Hayden Lake. Concerned about water lapping at the earthen dam, county officials have contacted the Army Corps of Engineers.  The Corps is planning to take some protective measures that might involve reinforcing the structure to ensure its integrity.  Officials have closed the top of the dam to public access, and commissioners will pass a resolution that creates a temporary no-wake zone in the area of Honeysuckle Bay near the dam/KREM. More here.