Curt Fransen, deputy director of the Idaho DEQ since 2007, has been named the agency's director by Gov. Butch Otter. Current Director Toni Hardesty is leaving this week to become the Idaho director of the Nature Conservancy; Otter praised Hardesty as he named Fransen to the post.

“One of the best measures of Toni’s effectiveness as director is the quality of the team she’s built at DEQ, and Curt is ‘Exhibit A,’ ” the governor said in a statement.  “Along with Director Hardesty, he’s helped establish a high level of respect for the agency with industry, the environmental community and federal regulators.”

Fransen is an attorney who started with the state as a deputy attorney general in 1983, and moved to Coeur d’Alene in 1997 to represent a number of state agencies on mining cleanup and other North Idaho natural resources issues; he became DEQ’s deputy director in 2007. Fransen said, “I appreciate the support of Gov. Otter and look forward to maintaining and advancing the high standards established at the Department of Environmental Quality by Director Toni Hardesty.” Click below for Otter's full announcement.
  

Idaho's Department of Environmental Quality has lost a quarter of its budget  to cuts since the recession began, AP reporter John Miller reports, and it's part of a national trend that's seeing conservation programs and environmental regulations pared back significantly as states grapple with budget deficits. Miller reports that because environmental programs are just a sliver of most state budgets, the cuts often go without much public notice, while more attention is focused on larger reductions in Medicaid, public education or prisons. Click below for his full report.

Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan is sponsoring a two-hour program to discuss the current conditions of Lake Coeur d'Alene from a scientific perspective this afternoon. The program will focus on important topics like metal pollutants (lead, zinc, cadmium), oxygen, phosphorus (algae), and milfoil. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe have been jointly implementing the management plan since July 2009. Now, IDEQ coordinator Glen Rothrock and tribal counterpart, Rebecca Stevens, have launched an education program as part of the lake management plan. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. today in the Coeur d'Alene Library Community Room, 702 Front Ave. There is no charge to attend. You can read more information about the plan and the meeting here.

• Also: Click IDEQ/tribal ad below 3rd post in main Hucks Online thread for more info.