Seattle Times spotlights Idaho's roadless rule • Saving the sturgeon • Lawn mower racing gaining traction • Scott back on track with a new cycling team • R.I.P. mighty liger • Float plane angst on Lake Pend Oreille

Seattle Times spotlights Idaho's roadless rule

The Seattle Times says Idaho's agreement with the federal government on the Clinton-era roadless rules may provide a template for other states.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule was one of the last actions of the Clinton administration, and setting it aside was one of the first acts of the Bush administration. The original intent was to close 58 million acres of roadless forests to logging, mining and drilling.

The paper's editorial refers to Idaho's homegrown plan as "a triumph of pragmatism."

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Saving the sturgeon

A deal reached to help the endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon spawn for the first time since the 1970s will end six years of litigation over efforts to save the largest freshwater fish in North America.

The sturgeon, which can grow to a whopping 19 feet long, are found only in northern Idaho, northwest Montana and southeast British Columbia.

Kootenai sturgeon have not successfully spawned since the mid-1970s, when the Libby Dam was completed in Montana. The sturgeon were listed as endangered in 1994 because of operations of the dam, plus water quality degradation and loss of habitat.

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Lawn mower racing gaining traction

The Centralia (Washington) Chronicle profiles a group of lawn mower racing enthusiasts from Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

The paper says members of the fledgling racing association trick out their riding mowers — to the tune of $3,000 of extras — so they can reach top speeds of 40 miles per hour.

"We don't want any tension like somebody running someone off into a hay field or nothing," Longview, Washington, resident Bill Claycamp told the paper. "There is tension. But other than that, it's just 'run what you brung.'"

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Scott back on track with a new cycling team

The Mtn. Express reports it took just two days for Ketchum-based bicycle manufacturer Scott to get pro tour riders back on its product after dumping it's pro cycling squad.

On Friday, the company announced that it had signed a deal with the U.S.-based Team Columbia for next year's season.

The Columbia team, formerly known as High Road, has made one of the most public commitments of all 20 pro tour teams against blood doping, largely by implementing internal controls and tests.

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R.I.P. mighty liger

Kimber, a liger who lived in Spokane's Cat Tales Zoological Park and had her 15 minutes of fame after the movie "Napoleon Dynamite," died Monday.

The Spokesman-Review says that the movie's success made the female lion-tiger mix the most photographed animal at the zoo for a while.

Kimber was 18 in human years, or 126 in cat years.

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Float plane angst on Lake Pend Oreille

The Bonner County Daily Bee reports that upscale waterfront development on Lake Pend Oreille is bringing more float plane traffic "to shuttle in well-heeled real estate buyers."

The increase in float plane traffic is ticking off local landowners, who are suggesting flights should be regulated.

The regulation question "reached new heights" when Pend Oreille Bonner Development recently began flying in people into Trestle Creek to view the company's properties.

Lt. Cary Kelly, supervisor of the Bonner County Sheriff's marine patrol, said there have been no reports of float planes conflicting with boats in the past decade. The last incident involved a large Albatross float plane which took off from City Beach and capsized sailboats being used by a sailing class.