An Afternoon in Ashton

Reed Neilson and I attended the Teton View Regional Plan presentation in Ashton last Friday. I had received a personal invite from Cheryl Hill and it was obvious that there was some trepidation when I arrived.

The auditorium was ringed by a half dozen stations, each manned (actually womaned) by participants in the study group. We moved from station to station, we inquired if any proposals would further a national monument in any way. They all replied that the proposals contained in the Teton View Regional Plan would not promote any federal intervention in the caldera. Each proposal was voluntary and community specific or joint-county projects. 

The suggested projects included:

A greenbelt path for St Anthony

The continuation of a cycling path from Teton Pass to Island Park

Better information and signage for tourists

Efforts to establish a food processing plant in the upper valley to process local produce

And then there was the proposal that garnered so much attention last week, a proposal to review the water rights of the Snake River. 

I spoke with Pam Herdrich, the executive coordinator for the High Country Resource Conservation and Development Area, Inc. out of St Anthony. Pam spoke of a desire to improve and diversify agricultural products in the Upper Snake River Plain. One of the impediments is that most of the water rights for the Snake River are held by land owners between Burley and Twin Falls. In the event of a drought, those rights holders can shut off all water to upper valley farmers. The proposal is to allow for some baseline water access in the upper Snake River Plain. While I may not have a dog in that fight, I can’t blame the local farmers for not wanting to have their farms dry up as they watch the water flow through their land to the lower plain.

I walked to the back corner of the hall and there SHE was! Sitting there, in person, without armed guards! It was Jan Brown. I approached warily, concerned that I was unarmed and without bear spray. How would she react? Were we in danger? Reed and I sat down cautiously. She greeted us with a tentative “Hello”. I opened my notebook and began. “Let’s get to it. Is there anything that promotes a national monument in this plan?”  “No” she replied. I had to ask, “Well, what the hell were you thinking when you got involved in the national monument proposal?” “I had no idea that I’d be drawn into such a mess.” she replied. We then relaxed and spent the next hour talking about the Teton View Regional Plan and what it recommended for Island Park. I asked Jan, as I had of all the other station representatives what the three best ideas for the caldera were. 
She listed the following:     

A nature/tourist center for the caldera

Decks and stairs built in areas where appropriate, for visitors to watch wildlife (moose, swans, etc.) similar to those that surround Big Springs.

Safer crossings for game animals on Hwy 20

While some of these ideas may be essential, none of them offended my sensibilities. In fact, as I read the literature on Wonders and Wildlife that she gave me, the only issue that I found was a notation about addressing “Climate Change Adaptation”. I consider that theory a load of baloney. There has been climate change throughout the history of the earth. We currently call them “seasons”. Don’t get me started!

Back at the auditorium, Reed and I visited two more stations, had a couple more conversations and shared our message. The residents of Island Park don’t appreciate it when others plan our future! If there are changes that would be beneficial to the caldera, its visitors or the residents of the flat, please run it by us first before pushing ahead. By the time Reed and I finished, they were taking down the stations and putting away the treats. It was time to go.

I hope that we relayed how violated Island Park felt when it had the national monument thrust upon us. At the same time, many of the proposals weren’t unrealistic or without merit. I hope that despite the furor over the national monument inquiry, Island Park can look objectively at the proposals and select the ones that we can support. I do not want others to get the perception that we consider every action by neighboring communities a conspiracy or that we are part of the tin-foil hat crowd. That simply would not be true.