Preserving the Rathdrum Prairie: Past, Present and Future
Sunrise at the Rathdrum Prairie Wednesday morning.
Photo by RACHAEL FETTER
Photo courtesy Kootenai County Community Development Director David Callahan.
The city limits of Post Falls, green, Coeur d'Alene, yellow and Hayden have grown dramatically over the last two decades. Photo courtesy Kootenai County Community Development Director David Callahan.
The number of building permits issued by Kootenai County has increased by nearly 2,000 in the last decade. Photo courtesy Kootenai County Community Development Director David Callahan.
The Kootenai County Department of Community Development approved 1,920 acres of subdivisions lots in 2020. Photo courtesy David Callahan.
An image of the Rathdrum Prairie at the turn of the century shows a higher prevalence of agriculture land uses. Photo courtesy Kootenai County.
An image of the Rathdrum Prairie at the turn of the century shows a higher prevalence of agriculture land uses. Photo courtesy Kootenai County.
A 2002 Green Space Design on the Rathdrum Prairie was created with primary conservation areas, darkest green, secondary areas, slightly lighter, and aquifer protection areas on all undeveloped land. Photo courtesy Kootenai County.
First of three parts
A new initiative hopes to pick up where decades-old studies left off — preserving the Rathdrum Prairie before it's all gone.
Wes Hanson has served on the Kootenai County Planning and Zoning Commission for a decade, but his background in environmental activism goes back further.
Hanson is a member of the Inland Northwest Land Conservancy. In 1997, he and his late wife, Gertie, established one of the first Kootenai County conservation easements.
With Hanson's term as planning commissioner coming to a close Dec. 31, he requested a meeting with Kootenai County Commissioners to address the need to increase public land ownership by the county.
When Hanson moved to Kootenai County half a century ago, "It was a whole different world," he said in a meeting with commissioners last week.
"There was no Highway 95. It was farm fields," he said. "There was no growth north of Appleway until you reached Dalton Gardens and Hayden. It was all farms."
Though the county can never get those fields back, Hanson proposed a way to preserve some of what's left.
His proposal outlines three requests:
• Appoint a small citizen committee to investigate establishing a public land acquisition program through a sub-area Recreation District
• Appoint county staff to work with the citizen committee
• Form a local nonprofit group to work with the county to raise money to buy land
Kootenai County attorney Pat Braden pointed out that the last request already exists: It's called the Panhandle Parks Foundation. Created in 2003, PPF is a nonprofit established solely to acquire and hold property in trusts and garner funding for future parks projects.
The foundation has assisted projects like the K27 Memorial water feature at McEuen Park and Coeur d'Alene Skate Park.
Braden, 54, said he has lived in Kootenai County almost all his life.
"I've seen all the changes Wes described from when he first moved to Coeur d'Alene; it's what I remember as a kid," he said. "Any efforts of this that come to fruition, I would be very happy to see."
In 1970, the Idaho Legislature adopted a law that allows cities and counties to create recreation districts. Per Idaho Code Title 31 Chapter 43, a recreation district would be much like the PPF by acquiring, providing, maintaining, and operating public recreation centers.
Hanson noted to commissioners that the county would define the district's boundaries and establish a tax rate that would need to be approved by ballot measure.
Part 2 will be published on Tuesday.
