Start By Heeding Citizens’ Findings

Tue., March 23, 1999

D.F. Oliveria For The Editorial

Anyone who has stayed at the national forest campgrounds above Murray, jumped into the deep pool at Big Rock or floated past granite cliffs downstream knows the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River is special.

Those who live in the North Fork country year round know something else: The river is being loved to death. RVs have replaced hay fields, spoiling mountain vistas. Raw sewage is dumped into the river. Litter is a problem. The river and its banks have become a 70-mile-long Porta-Potty for floaters, swimmers, fishermen and other recreationalists.

Last year, North Fork native Jo Babin predicted, “If something isn’t done, I would give it maybe five years before it’s so polluted we can’t swim in it, can’t tube in it.” Afterward, her daughter, Claudia Childress of Murray, prompted formation of a 17-member committee by urging various agencies to protect the river. The committee met for three months to identify and draft solutions for 19 North Fork problems.

Now, Shoshone County commissioners have two options. They can allow the committee’s good work to go for naught by waiting to see if Babin’s prediction comes true. Or they can sanction the findings, authorizing the Panhandle Health District to work with other agencies to address problems on the North Fork.

We urge the latter approach.

It’d be a shame if the committee’s 17-page report ended up collecting dust, like the 1983 Coeur d’Alene River Master Plan, which was created by another citizens group. Its recommendations make sense, from adding dump stations and trash boxes along the river to strict sanitation rules for RVs parked in the flood plain, to limits on personal watercraft.

To their credit, committee members emphasized public education about responsible river use over strict law enforcement. Also, they broke down their recommendations into bite-size chunks and paired them with the agency that has authority to act. The U.S. Forest Service, for example, would be urged to find money to keep campgrounds open during hunting season, to limit the amount of human waste being left at undeveloped sites.

At Kit Price, the largest of the North Fork Forest Service campgrounds, the number of July visits jumped from 2,964 in 1995 to 5,326 last year. Last Memorial Day weekend, Childress counted 48 trailers along a half-mile stretch of river bank. According to some, the amount of algae on North Fork rocks has grown considerably in a few years - a sign of more nutrients from human waste.

It’s a sign that time is running out on this beautiful stretch of river.

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