F&G gets even

JEERS ... to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission. Meeting in McCall last month, the commission unanimously broke off a two-decade relationship with the Wild Sheep Foundation and struck up a new one with Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife.

At issue was the bighorn sheep hunting tag Fish and Game has allowed the sheep foundation to auction at its conventions. Over the years, the auction raised $1.3 million for the state. The Wild Sheep Foundation has retained 5 percent to cover its costs.

But the Wild Sheep Foundation opposed the commercial sheep industry-backed law that compels Fish and Game to put domestic sheep interests first. Biologists believe wild sheep become infected with a virulent form of pneumonia when they come in contact with domestic herds.

When Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter signed the bill, wild sheep advocates - such as the sheep foundation and the Nez Perce Tribe - pulled out of the governor's collaborative effort to resolve disputes. (The foundation has since rejoined those talks.)

Meanwhile, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife is headed by a former member of retired Sen. Larry Craig's staff. It tends to a right-of-center view on wildlife issues.

Would you call that? Politics? Retaliation?

CHEERS ...to Emma Atchley of Ashton, Otter's latest pick for the State Board of Education.

Atchley replaces former state board President Blake Hall of Idaho Falls. He resigned earlier this year.

Atchley brings the right combinations of skills and experience to that still-evolving panel. She taught high school in the 1970s and served as president of the University of Idaho Foundation when that organization was struggling to recover from the University Place fiasco in Boise. Her family is a major seed potato producer and has been part of a progressive movement to preserve Idaho's rural heritage.

Credit Otter with making another solid appointment.

JEERS ...to the Obama administration. Remember when candidate Barack Obama pledged to put science ahead of politics? If ever an issue screamed out for such treatment, it would be restoring Idaho's salmon and steelhead runs.

U.S. District Judge James Redden has all but declared the George W. Bush administration's approach to fish recovery unsuitable. Obama's team asked Redden for time to review the issue. Whatever your views of the fish-versus-dams debate, any decision based on politics is certain to get tied up in the courts. Moreover, it may undermine attempts by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and others to resolve the dispute through collaboration.

So a government willing to review all the options was headed down the right path.

Then a disturbing pattern emerged. Federal officials met only briefly with conservationists and other groups suing the government on behalf of the fish. Relying on the federal Freedom of Information Act, those plaintiffs obtained documents that suggest the new White House may stand by its predecessor's policies.

Nothing's certain until the administration responds to Redden. That's set for mid-September. But the clues hardly warrant confidence.

CHEERS ... to former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus, former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and former Washington Gov. Mike Lowry. Earlier this month, they signed a letter urging the Obama administration to abandon its predecessor's salmon recovery plan. Redden is likely to reject the Bush strategy, they said.

"Instead, we believe the time has come, and is propitious, for settlement talks under the court's aegis on law and science, and under your leadership for related economic and political issues," the former governors wrote. "Bringing people together to find lawful, science-based solutions that help people, create jobs and build the green economy of tomorrow is a priority for you, and it is exactly what is needed in this case."

CHEERS ... to Marty Peterson. Former state budget director and special assistant to University of Idaho President M. Duane Nellis, Peterson this week challenged the four-decade-old embargo of Cuba.

Peterson has made several trips to Cuba, most recently with a trade delegation Otter led. Here's the question Peterson raised in the Idaho Statesman this week: If the U.S. can trade with totalitarian states such as China and Saudi Arabia, why does it exclude a dictatorship just 90 miles off its shores?

(Short answer: Florida's electoral votes.)

"The last time I came into the United States from Cuba, I overheard one customs official saying to another, 'Isn't this great? Here we are concerned about terrorists coming into the U.S. and causing another 9/11-type incident and they have us in Miami making sure nobody brings any cigars in from Cuba,' " Peterson wrote.

CHEERS ... to Kevin J. Bernatz. Superintendant of the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections Center at Lewiston, Bernatz seems to have found a connection with youthful offenders. He wants victims of crime to explain their experiences in a way that's personal, not abstract and not corporate. It means showing an offender how his actions caused pain in someone's life, possibly leaving scars behind.

Putting faces to deeds is the way Bernatz hopes to instill young people with a newfound sense of empathy.

"We've had kids tell us before, 'I had no idea what I did with five beers in me on a Friday night was going to change somebody's life,' '' Bernatz told the Tribune's Sandra Lee.

Volunteers are needed. Contact program coordinator Melinda Sonnen at (208) 799-3332, ext. 116. - M.T.