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Blackwell Island Recreation Area adding garden

| August 12, 2014 9:00 PM

The Bureau of Land Management's Coeur d'Alene Field Office will soon begin development of an interpretive, native plant garden along 1/3 acre in the southwest end of the Blackwell Island Recreation Area.

All shrubs and plants established in the garden will be representative of North Idaho native species. The garden is intended to be educational and help visitors better understand the connections between people, plants and pollinators.

Construction equipment will be operating at Blackwell Island this week, so picnickers and boat launchers may experience some congestion in the area.

This initial activity involves site preparation, weed control and construction of access trails for the gardens.

Planting of native North Idaho species will occur next spring. Volunteer groups and local youth will assist with the planting effort.

Info: www.blm.gov/id/st/en/Districts-Idaho/CDA.html or call 208-769-5036.

Firefighters across the Northwest brace for lightning

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - Firefighters battling 26 large fires across Oregon, Washington and Idaho braced Monday for dozens more as another round of lightning storms crosses the Northwest this week.

The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland reports that intense lightning was expected Monday from the coast, across the Cascades and into Idaho. The storms start out mostly as dry lightning, and by Wednesday or Thursday should have some rain with them.

Red flag warnings for hot weather and lightning stretched from northern California, across Oregon and Washington state, into Idaho and western Montana.

By midmorning Monday, there had already been 1,600 lightning strikes, most of them in south-central Oregon on the eastern side of the Cascades.