BY KAREN BOSSICK
Learn what the future holds for America’s Wild and Scenic Rivers. And learn about efforts to keep animals and plants from going extinct on the world’s islands this week at Ketchum’s Community Library.
- On Wednesday, Aug. 29, at 6 p.m. Murray Feldman will discuss the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act signed into legislation by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968.
Today—50 years later—the National Wild and Scenic River System has grown to include 208 rivers or segments of rivers totaling more than 12,734 miles. In Idaho there are 891 miles of designated wild and scenic river segments, including portions of the Salmon River, Owyhee, Jarbidge, Bruneau and Snake rivers, among others.
In fact, the Middle Fork of the Clearwater, including the Lochsa and Selway rivers, and the Middle Fork of the Salmon were among the original eight rivers designated by the act. And earlier this year the Idaho Conservation League was asking for imput on additional stretches of river in Idaho that state residents believed should be included for designation.
Feldman is a partner with the Holland & Hart LLP law firm in Boise. He has worked on wild and scenic rivers research, conservation and litigation for 35 years.
- On Thursday, Aug. 30, at 6 p.m. Dr. Nick Holmes will offer a free presentation titled “Restoring Islands: A Bright Spot in Conservation.”
According to Holmes, director of science for Island Conservation, islands represent the greatest concentration of both biodiversity and species extinctions.
Island plants and animals are often evolutionarily distinctive. And they’re highly vulnerable to non-native invasive species, which have proven to be a leading cause of extinctions and biodiversity on islands.
Island Conservation, an international not-for-profit conservation organization, was designed to prevent extinctions by removing invasive species from islands.
Holmes earned his PhD from the University of Tasmania in Australia where he helped develop bet-practice guidelines for managing human impacts to seabirds in the sub-Antarctic. He also managed the Kauai Endangered Seabird Recovery Project for the University of Hawaii.