Development eating away productive ground

As a resident citizen, taxpayer and property owner of 54 years in Bonner County, I have seen many changes. Some good, like the road system when Tim Elsea was our Bonner County road supervisor.

In the short seven years or so that he was here the black topping of main roads was absolutely beyond what I had ever seen before or since regardless of what the excuses were are are now. Then the improvements at the airport. Not exactly what everyone wants, but you can't move the mountains so we learn to live with the creation.

But what really does concern many citizens is the chopping up of our farm lands into hodge-podge developments. Some will say, "Well, I can't afford to farm or it's just a non-product able piece of ground. In 1954, when we purchased our farm, the gentleman took us around the piece of property to show us the areas that could be farmed, logged and the orchard over 50 years at the time and a fantastic vegetable garden, which they harvested for food and then served us bowls of raspberries from the garden and cream from their cows, which they milked daily. He also worked in a sawmill five days a week then.

Well, to make the story even better, we bought the farm and have had the pleasure of living on these acres for 54 years. Sure, it's work and planning, but to help, Tom Wilson came to set out areas to farm. Rotation of crops, what to grow, what to fertilize, where to fence, how many acres of yield to expect, how many animals per acre. The fruit trees, how to prune for better yield or even remove. Today, we have over 100 fruit trees with eight of the original fruit trees bearing. We had a student forester come and plan the management of the timber, which to this day has been very successful … but now our son manages the timber and the farming and, last year, took over the gardening, too.

The point to all of this is keep farm land farm and timber land timber. One can sell, but it has to remain farm land and timber land.

The rate that these kinds of lands are being developed, we will soon be depending on out-of-country food supplies and then who will gain. Same with timber. A managed forest is a productive forest. The same with farm land. One can sell, but must remain as farm land and timber land. The county assessor already has in the assessor's records these lands so it's not as though it will require extra work. Then the planning and zoning will have less because the developers and Realtors will not be cutting into our inheritance … where we can leave it to our children or sell and leave the money. It's a win-win.

Keep farm lands, farm, and timber lands, timber. It's a win-win for all.

MARJORIE KINNE

Kootenai