Montana environmentalists and the timber industry have worked long and hard on a compromise bill to protect wilderness, help the timber industry and help restore national forests.

Democratic Sen. Jon Tester introduced the plan to Montanans Friday called the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act of 2009. The bill would designate more than 660,000 acres of new wilderness in Montana and mandate logging 100,000 acres of national forest over 10 years.

Today I watched as many of the best in the journalism business honored Walter Cronkite upon the news of his death.

I can’t say any more than they did expect to remind readers how he flew bombing missions over Germany and parachuted into Holland during World War II to get the story. Even though people cite his fairness and objectivity as the strength of his voice, it was clearly his integrity that brought him to question publicly the Johnson administration and the Vietnam War in 1968. His commentary, not just his reporting, is highlighted as the defining moment of his career.

The Boise National Forest got its wake up call on fires 20 years ago this month.

Sebastian Junger captured in his book “Fire” the drama of that July 26, 1989 lightning storm. It touched off the Lowman Fire that blackened 47,000 acres and burned up much of the tiny forest hamlet including the well-known Haven Lodge.

Gary Lunn, a Cabinet minister for Canadian Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, isn’t worried that China and India aren’t moving fast on climate change issues.

The United States is deep in a debate about how to address climate change as people from five U.S. states and three Canadian provinces and the Yukon are in town for the 19th annual summit of the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region, a public-private partnership chartered by the legislative bodies of the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan and the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

If someone doesn’t come along and buy Hoku Scientific, Inc. the company might not survive to finish its polysilicon plant for solar panels in Pocatello.

The Hawaii-based company said Friday it needs at least $106 million to complete the plant despite $243 million in prepayments by customers.

It was such a Sun Valley moment.

Microsoft’s Bill Gates walks out of the Thursday morning session of the annual Allen and Co. confab at the Sun Valley Lodge with Google CEO Eric Schmidt on his tail. Gates tells the media “no comment” when they ask about Google’s new Chrome operating system.

“It would be better if you don’t make that comment,” Schmidt said laughing according to the Wall Street Journal’s Julie Angwin .

The Idaho Woolgrowers have had their way in the Idaho Legislature but have rarely done well in federal court.

Earlier this month U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill gave them a victory by shooting down two advisory committees that had linked disease in bighorn sheep to domestic sheep. His decision has no impact in past Forest Service decisions forcing ranchers to move their sheep off of federal lands.

Photo courtesy of Brian Niva

Former First Lady Laura Bush is floating down the Rogue River in Oregon.

We’ve seen it over and over again.

A wild fire moves into a community and some houses burn and others survive. We in Boise watched it happen last year in the Oregon Trail Fire.

Now a new study by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology tells us how it happens. For those of you who read this blog and the Idaho Statesman the answer is not new.