Group donates to caribou delisting fight

BONNERS FERRY — The outgoing Boundary County Republican Central Committee has donated $2,000 to the Pacific Legal Foundation to support Bonner County’s efforts to delist the woodland caribou.  

The Pacific Legal Foundation is providing pro-bono legal services for Bonner County, but the county is tasked with funding the PLF’s travel and court filing expenses.  

Bonner County needed at least an additional $2,000 to cover their litigation expenses to keep the taxpayers from having to provide this funding.  At a special meeting held May 17, a motion was made to provide the $2,000 from the BCRCC available funds to assist in the delisting efforts.  

Ten of the 12 board members were in attendance and the motion was carried unanimously.  

“Most of the 375,562 acres that the US Fish and Wildlife Service want to close down for the four caribou in the Selkirk Mountain Range for caribou critical habitat are in Boundary County which would be devastating to what is left of our economy here,” said chairwoman Donna Capurso.

“Unfortunately, our current county commissioners have refused to invoke coordination or to take an active role in keeping the federal government from abusing the Endangered Species Act and keeping the citizens of Boundary County off of what should be public land with public access,” she said.

Bonner County commissioners have held three coordination meetings at Priest Lake since January with the USFWS.  

Although Bonner County has just a small percentage of the affected caribou acreage, Priest Lake would be the hardest hit if the USFWS and U.S. Forest Service are able to shut down most, if not all, of the Priest Lake recreational areas.  

“Caribou aren’t endangered, when you look at North America as a whole, and the federal government can’t legally single out this single herd in isolation,” said Brandon Middleton, a Pacific Legal Foundation attorney who is representing Bonner County and the Idaho State Snowmobile Association in the case.

The Pacific Legal Foundation is based in Sacramento and focuses on property rights issues.  Mike and Chantell Sackett were successfully represented by the PLF in their dispute with the Environmental Protection Agency over wetlands issues on their property in Priest Lake.  

That case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court where the Sacketts prevailed, making it possible for the Sacketts to continue with their litigation against the EPA.