If you walked in late to the Wild Idaho conference at Redfish Lodge on Saturday, the speaker would have appeared to be like many of the young professional conservationists making presentations on a cause they loved. As Ilah Rose Hickman addressed the annual Idaho Conservation League’s annual retreat, she stood tall and poised, and spoke with the wisdom gained from the five years it took for her to get her bill through the Idaho Legislature. Only when she revealed that she began her personal quest at the age of 9 was the remarkable strength of the 14-year-old Les Bois Junior High eighth-grader so mind-boggling. Hickman succeeded in making the giant Idaho salamander the state amphibian in the closing hours of the 2015 Legislature, when the House State Affairs Committee revived the bill it had killed early in the session. It quickly flew through both houses and was signed into law by Idaho Gov. Butch Otter/Rocky Barker, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Am I the only one who think Ilah Hickman is going places -- and much sharper than your below average North Idaho legislator?