The Courier
NEWS
News from the Heart of Idaho Camas • Lincoln • Gooding
March 17, 2021
Vol 45 Num 11
Library Grant Provides New Picnic Tables Landowners/Managers Conference Last August, the Gooding Public Library March 29-31, 2021 Foundation received a AARP Community Challenge grant from AARP Livable Communities. Gooding PLF was one of 184 awardees chosen for 2020. The plan was to use these funds to creating an outdoor common area on the shared green space of the Gooding municipal building. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for social distancing was important, and the outdoor space would provide an area for patrons to read, eat, relax, and participate in library programs when visiting the library. Due to delays in receiving the mattirials, the improvements had to wait until this spring. With the snow gone, city crew memebers chipped in to help install two uncovered picnic tables and two covered picnic tables, two of which will be handicapped accessible. There will also be two lidded trash cans. With the library’s wifi extending out to this area, it is a great new place to enjoy the upcoming summer. The Gooding PLF thanks the ARRP for the generous support that made these picnic tables possible, and for helping make the Gooding community a great place for all ages. If you have been to the library recently, you might have noticed a collection of gift items made at the library with a 3D laser Glowforge printer. This printer was made possible by a grant from Union Pacific last year. They can make craft items like cutting boards, earrings, bracelets, leather badges for clothing, and ornaments. Watch for upcoming classes.
The Gooding library is also reaching outside their building. Thanks to a grant from the Idaho Commission for Libraries, a Literacy space was created at the Laundromat on Main a table and chairs, posters, book shelves, books, and chalkboard for children to use while their parents do their laundry! Thank you to Tami Becker-Anderson for making this space available and to Frank Allbritton for installing it all.
All family forest, farm, and ranch landowners and managers are invited to the 32nd annual Family Forest Landowners & Managers Conference on March 29-31, 2021. This will be their first ever virtual conference on the Zoom platform so you can attend from the comfort of your own home. To register for the conference, go to www.uidaho.edu/fflmc. The 2021 Conference will focus on the ways in which Idaho’s forest landowners and managers can work together to meet the challenges of good forest management in the next decade. The theme of this year’s conference is... THE ROARING 20s: A CALL TO ACTION Managing Idaho’s Forests in the New Decade Bruce Vincent from Environomics will discuss forest action and activity from a management perspective; Tamara Cushing, president of the Society of American Foresters will talk about the direction of SAF in this new decade; and Jim Peterson from the Evergreen Foundation will talk about the importance of first putting out the fires. The Local Level Action session will feature advice on making forest collaboratives work by Michael Peterson of the Lands Council; communicating for action by Nadine Bailey of the Family Water Alliance; and a panel discussion of forest action across landscapes with representatives from the Idaho Department of Lands, the US Forest Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. The final sessions on Monday will feature sessions on your forest as a business. This track will feature information on setting up your forest as a business, making sure you are properly insured, and understanding the essentials of good contracts. On Tuesday morning the “Industry and Me” panel forum will explore the relationship between private forest landowners and industrial landowners while the “Circle of Stewards” panel will give private forest landowners a chance to share projects they’ve implemented in their forests. These panels will be followed by several sessions on prescribed fire and its impact on forest health beginning with an update from Mark Boyle of the Department of Environmental Quality continued on page 3... on Smoke Management Practices...