Farm to Table to support Trailing of the Sheep
The Trailing of the Sheep Festival will host a Farm to Table Dinner fundraiser at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26, at the Wood River Sustainability Center in Hailey.
Chef Jim Roberts will present a four-course meal paired with wines from Sawtooth Estate Winery. Dinner will feature an Idaho Garden Salad, Curried Coconut Shepherd’s Pie, Smoked Lamb Chops and Chilled Peach Soup for dessert.
Space is limited and filling up, so register early.
The five-day Festival, Oct. 5-9, includes nonstop activities in multiple venues – history, folk and traditional arts, a Sheep Folklife Fair, a Wool Festival with classes and workshops, culinary events, music, dance, storytelling, the Championship Sheepdog Trials and the Big Sheep Parade on Main Street in Ketchum. This Festival honors the colorful history, heritage and cultures of Idaho and the West.
For information and a detailed schedule of ever-changing events, visit www.trailingofthesheep.org.
Wild Gift Fellows to present at Ketchum Town Square
The Ketchum-based nonprofit Wild Gift provides unconventional support to individuals with entrepreneurial ideas that are geared at creating positive change. The latest class of fellows is part of the inaugural Climate Change Collective.
Working on four continents, each one of the fellows is in the early stage of launching social ventures aimed at tackling a critical impact. The fellows are Bryce Andrews, whose Montana-based The Ranch Project is an educational program that teaches sustainable ranching practices with a curriculum that includes land stewardship, writing, ecology and ethics; and Tsechu Dolma, whose Mountain Resiliency Project in her native Nepal seeks to strengthen mountain communities with a holistic approach.
Arun Gupta’s Texas-based Skyven Technologies develops solar thermal projects; and Sam Teicher is co-founder of Coral Vita that works to restore the world’s dying and damaged coral reefs.
Alexander Wankel of Pachakuti Foods, in Peru,sources rare Andean superfoods directly from farmers to create unique products for a healthier life and a better world.
Raj Vable, a Wild Gift alumni and founder of Young Mountain Tea, and Sun Valley Trekking co-owner Joe St. Onge, are guiding the group through the Smoky, Boulder and White Cloud ranges, across seven mountain passes.
When they return from their 20 days in the wilderness, Wild Gift will host a gathering from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 24 in Ketchum Town Square. From 3-5 p.m. they will meet with local students and nonprofits; from 5-6 p.m. mingle with the fellows and enjoy the live music of Doublewide; and from 6-7 p.m. hear the fellows pitch their social ventures.
For more information, visit www.wildgift.org.
Ketchum chooses poster artist
Ketchum photographer Nina Fox has been selected as the poster artist for Wagon Days 2016, Ketchum’s annual Labor Day celebration, for the second time. Her photograph of the late historian, Ivan Swaner, was selected as the 2011 Wagon Days poster.
The 2016 Wagon Days poster is a “collage” of colorful and vibrant images from Ketchum and earlier Wagon Days parades, including the iconic ore wagons, the Sun Valley red barn and the horse with the painted hand, an Eh-Capa bareback rider’s horse, that are typically painted with traditional Native American symbols.
“By submitting artwork for the Wagon Days poster, I am hoping to give back a little something to the community,” Fox said. “I am honored to have been chosen. Along with the lifestyle, friendly people and beautiful landscapes, Ketchum continuously surprises and inspires. There is a feeling you are someplace very special. Those who live and vacation here are active individuals and families who enjoy and appreciate the great outdoors and the many activities, such as Wagon Days, that Ketchum has to offer.”
Copies of this year’s poster will be on sale at the Wagon Days headquarters in the Ore Wagon Museum, 500 East Avenue, starting Aug. 22. Posters signed by the artist will be available for $30 and unsigned for $25.
Fox’s art is also part of the city’s Cover Art project – vinyl images of original art wrapped around utility boxes – and can be seen at the corner of Warm Springs Road and Lewis Street, in Ketchum.
Groups challenge EPA to act on heat-driven salmon kills
In response to rising water temperatures and inaction by federal agencies, Pacific Northwest groups are filing to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action and prevent massive, heat-driven fish kills.
“For over 15 years the federal government sat on its hands instead of meeting its obligations to protect Idaho’s endangered salmon and steelhead,” Kevin Lewis, Idaho Rivers United executive director, said. “We’re giving them 60 days to start the process, or we’re going to take them to court.”
Last year scientists recorded the warmest year on record, and hot water killed 250,000 adult sockeye salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers. The groups, including Columbia Riverkeeper, Snake River Waterkeeper, Idaho Rivers United, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association and the Institute for Fisheries Resources, said that can’t happen again.
They filed a notice of intent to sue the EPA on Monday, Aug. 15. If the agency doesn’t finalize a pollution budget – called a Total Maximum Daily Load, under the Clean Water Act – within 60 days or agree to a settlement, the groups will seek a court order compelling the agency to issue the pollution budget in order to protect salmon from hot water.
In 2003, the EPA was nearing completion of a plan when dam operators pressured the agency to abandon the effort.
“Our members’ livelihoods depend on healthy salmon runs,” said Glen Spain, Northwest regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources. “It’s simply unacceptable to let hot water kill otherwise-healthy adult salmon before they can spawn.”
The public interest law firm Advocates for the West (www.advocateswest.org) represents these groups pro bono. Advocates for the West litigates to protect Western public lands, waters, and wildlife.
For more information visit www.columbiariverkeeper.org, www.snakeriverwaterkeeper.org, www.idahorivers.org, www.pcffa.org, and www.ifrfish.org.
Grant application deadline approaches
The Little Black Dress Club of the Wood River Valley seeks applications from nonprofit organizations located in and serving Blaine County for the upcoming 2016 grant cycle. The grant application form, qualifying criteria and guidance can be found on the organization’s website www.lbdcwr.org. The application deadline is Sept.15.
Any qualifying nonprofit with a budget of $1 million or less can apply even if it received a grant in the past 12-month cycle. Finalists in the grant application process will be invited to make a five-minute presentation to an Oct. 6 membership meeting. Final grant decisions will be made in the next two weeks by a vote of the membership, and final award winners will be celebrated at the Grant Awards Presentation on Nov. 3.
Officially organized in 2009, the Little Black Dress Club is a women’s philanthropic giving circle created to support nonprofits. LBDC-WR is a Donor Advised Fund of the Idaho Community Foundation, and since its inception has provided $94,806 to organizations as diverse as the Blaine County Education Foundation, Kiwanis Club, Swiftsure Ranch Therapeutic Equestrian Center, Girls on the Run, and Kids Mountain Fund.
See salmon spawning at Festival
Join Idaho Rivers United and the Sawtooth Interpretive & Historical Association for the annual Sawtooth Salmon Festival in Stanley, beginning 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26, at the Stanley Community Center. There will also be a presentation by Outdoor Idaho Executive Producer Bruce Reichert who last summer helped produce an hour-long program featuring the headwaters of Idaho’s amazing rivers.
The main festival will ensue at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27, at the Stanley Museum (between Upper and Lower Stanley, on Idaho Hwy. 75) with vendor booths, kids’ games and tours to see wild salmon spawning throughout the day. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes cultural dancers will perform from 4 to 6 p.m. with dances honoring the annual return of the salmon to the lakes and rivers of the Sawtooth Valley.
“This year the Salmon Festival will be bigger and better than ever,” said Terry Clark, executive director of the Sawtooth Interpretive & Historical Association. “It will be capped off by the return of the popular wild salmon dinner on Saturday.”
Lunchtime pizza will be available from Papa Brunee’s, and the day will culminate with a wild salmon dinner catered by Chef Doug Plass of Stanley’s Redd Restaurant with live music by Scott Knickerbocker from the Hokum Hi-Flyers. Dinner is at 6 p.m.
Advance tickets for the wild salmon dinner are required and are available in person at the Stanley Museum and Redfish Lake Visitor Center in Stanley or at www.idahorivers.org by clicking on “Events” and then “Sawtooth Salmon Festival.”