Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge Floodplain Reconnection Project-Environmental Assessment
The following comments were submitted in response to the open comment period described below.
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Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is requesting comments on the draft Environmental Assessment for the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge Floodplain Reconnection Project. BPA proposes to provide funding to the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho (KTOI) to restore floodplain connectivity to the Kootenai River historical floodplains within the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge (KNWR) in Boundary County, Idaho near Bonners Ferry, Idaho. The KNWR is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The USFWS and the KTOI are the project sponsors.
For More Information:
http://www.bpa.gov/nepa/kootenai-natl-wildlife-refuge
Close of comment: 10/17/2024
- KNWR24240001 -
SjoquistState endowment lands managed by the Idaho Department of Lands are adjacent to the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge. Stream restoration along segments of Deep Creek occurred on this endowment land in 2022. The Idaho Department of Lands has no objection to the proposed project on the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge.
- KNWR24240002 -
AwbreyGood morning!
I am writing today to urge you to choose the "no action alternative" for the proposed refuge project and not fund the proposal. Kootenai NWR in its current form is extremely valued and valuable for the local community, for recreation, tourism, hunting, exercise and education. This proposal fits a local Tribal agenda that is out of step with the needs of the larger community which supports the Refuge. Tearing down the levees to flood the refuge would decimate the valued recreation, hunting and fitness access for large portions of the year. Furthermore, it would endanger a major county road which is the primary means of access for numerous homes north of the wildlife refuge as well as the access route for a large portion of the Kaniksu NF. If BPA funds this project, it will be participating in destroying a local gem in the Kootenai NWR and stripping away most of the value that the refuge currently provides to the people and communities of north Idaho.
- KNWR24240003 -
Ernst/IDPR, Recreation Bureau
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