Wildlife Issues
The Cliffs, Naturally Idaho -
What Does a Real Biologist Really Think of The Cliffs?
Answer, Ask The Cliffs

Once upon a time, The Cliffs hired a big game wildlife biologist named Jerry Scholten.  As the manager of the Boise River Wildlife Management Area for about 30 years Mr. Scholten has a great deal of credibility when talking about big game such as deer and elk, and the manner in which they interact with Hammer Flat.  He has the sort of credibility that an ornithologist like Greg Kaltenecker, a bird guy, will never have. 

When STP heard that Scholten was retiring in 2005, our hopes soared at the thought that he might be open to helping our cause.  Unfortunately, our hopes were dashed when we subsequently learned that Skyline / Accipiter Consulting had retained his services.   It seemed that he had gone to the dark side.

Still, at meeting after meeting, after careful scrutiny of The Cliffs’ application, after public hearing after public hearing, Mr. Scholten’s tracks were and are conspicuously absent.  He is listed in The Cliffs’ application as an Accipiter Consulting employee but beyond that there is no evidence that he has, or ever has had, any connection with The Cliffs.  The question that looms larger and larger with each passing day is, if a person with that much credibility is on your team, why isn’t his contribution more evident?

Could it be that he has been disappeared, or voluntarily distanced himself, from The Cliffs? And, if so, why?

STP is not sure what the situation is, but we have an idea why Mr. Scholten is never seen in Skyline's presence.

STP has obtained a document authored by Mr. Scholten that sheds some light on the situation.  Mr. Scholten wrote at least one report to Skyline detailing his perception of how a residential development on Hammer Flat would impact wildlife, and what the developer should do if they were sincere in their efforts to minimize the development’s adverse effects.

The document differs from Skyline’s current wildlife plan is many substantial ways, ways that are not flattering to Skyline’s claim that they are doing the right thing.  In short, their own employee’s report lays waste to the claim that Skyline’s currently proposed wildlife mitigation plan uses “best practices”.

One of Mr. Scholten’s more salient statements is;

 “Ideally, from the wildlife's perspective, leaving the land in its natural state would be most desirable. No mitigation measures can offset the negative impacts of development, but can only lessen them!”

A complete overview of Mr. Schoelten’s document presents a picture much closer to the Foothills Policy Plan than does The Cliffs’ current wildlife proposal.

The summary to his document follows.

“SUMMARY

1.    Hammer Flat is a critical wildlife area serving both as a destination and migration corridor.
2.    Human development will change and fragment the natural habitats.
3.    Development will harass the wildlife and create situations for human and wildlife depredation problems.
4.   The Development needs to retain 75% as open space (Skyline is proposing less than 50%. tj), cluster home sites, use building envelopes, impose domestic animals restrictions, and realize that living in a wildlife area will create depredation problems.
5.   Mitigation cannot offset negative wildlife impacts, but can only lessen them
6.   Wildlife mitigations will be a long term commitments.
7.   Additional people near the BRWMA will increase the potential for wildfires.
8.   The BRWMA is not the developments private recreation area.
9.   People have a greater chance of becoming prey species for the large predators.”

The complete document, verified by 4 independent sources, can be reviewed at the following link. Sholten Wildlife Draft for The Cliffs  (Note to Skyline and ACDS, none of the four are EL. tj)

The Cliffs, Naturally Idaho -
Secret Wildlife Mitigation Plan
or
More Public Disservice on the Part of Ada County

Dear friends of the Boise Foothills and Hammer Flat. This is your chance to see the Wildlife Mitigation Plan that Ada County Development Services doesn't want you to know about. Yes, from the same Ada County that is so fond of secret meetings, comes the secret Wildlife Management Plan.

For reasons best answered by the Ada County Commissioners, and Gerry Armstrong and Mark Pecchenino of Ada County Development Services, Development Services arranged a secret meeting between Skyline Development and Idaho Fish and Game in an effort to con Fish and Game into signing off on Skyline's (secret) latest version of a mitigation plan for The Cliffs. Matter of fact, the story is that Development Services is so interested in keeping the document secret that they purposely didn't keep a copy for themselves. Their thinking seems to be that if they don't have a copy, they can plausibly deny knowledge of the document in the event of Freedom Of Information Act requests by persons and groups such as STP.

That is the same sort of flawed thinking that got the Idaho Department of Agriculture slapped by the Idaho Suppreme Court for not keeping copies of dairy farmer's waste treatment plans.

In any event, if I were Ada County, I would want to keep the new mitigation plan a secret as well. The bulk of the document is simply a rehash of the same old drivel Skyline presented earlier. It is unreasonable, unworkable and, even to non-technical readers, totally fails the no-net-loss standard.

To download your copy, click this link. Note, to dial up netsters, it is about 5 meg.

The Cliffs' Wildlife Plan is, well, non-existent.

The Cliffs' application to Ada County, for all intents and purposes, did not originally have a wildlife mitigation plan beyond the concept of "Trust Me."

Idaho Department of Fish and Game did not like the original proposal and said so in their comments. Click this link to read a copy of what they found so egregious about The Cliffs' short comings. Fish and Game Comments on Hammer Flat Wildlife Mitigation Plan.

Not to be deterred, the applicant reformatted their wildlife proposal and fired it past Fish and Game's bow a second time. To see a copy of their most recent reformatted plan, click this link. I use the word reformatted rather than revised because there is precious little about it that is new or different. The Cliffs final effort appears to be saying to Fish and Game, "If you would have just been paying attention, you would surely have seen wonderful merits of our mitigation plan."

The truth is, The Cliffs' wildlife mitigation plan is a stinker. They take roughly 350 of the highest value habitat in the state out of existence and justify it by saying, as mitigation, they will refrain from paving over the remaining 350 acres. It is the functional eqivalent of a thief stealing one of your two cars and, when caught, as repayment, promising to not steal your other car.

Ada County residents derserve better.