Huckleberries: Coeur d’Alene tree trim reveals open vista

Coeur d’Alene no longer has the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers demanding a clear-cut of trees along its waterfront Dike Road. But the city is busy removing dozens of pines that adorn the dike anyway, for flood control purposes.

The Dike Road (aka Rosenberry Drive) separates Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Spokane River from the historic Fortgrounds area, which includes North Idaho College.

As you may recall, the corps went bonkers after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans and ordered cities, like Coeur d’Alene, to remove trees that destabilize dikes. Coeur d’Alene officials dug in their heels to protect the viewtiful treed area.

Now, Coeur d’Alene, a Tree City USA town, is compromising by removing weak and diseased trees, as well as underbrush. I counted 50 newly cut stumps, including one that had a diameter of 4 to 5 feet, during a walk Thursday along the north shore.

What does this mean for you sun worshippers this summer? You’ll find an open vista of the water when you visit. I like the new look. But I would urge tree huggers planning to check out the Dike Road work to take a Xanax first.

I needed that

It isn’t often that you encounter a person arrested for a crime thanking the arresting cop and his department. But that’s what happened last week. A man busted in connection with a controlled substance Dec. 3 by a Post Falls officer left a comment on the PFPD Facebook page, thanking the gendarme for making him think about his life: “I sat in booking for about 20 hours before bonding out just … thinking about how stupid my recent decision-making had been. And later realized that the police that brought me in on the alleged charges SAVED MY LIFE.” (His capital letters.) Mr. Scared Straight fears he has jail time ahead. But he’s looking for a new way of life on the other side. Good luck to him.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: When readers of Huckleberries Online learned that The Bard of Sherman Avenue was fighting cancer, they posted rhymes on my blog to cheer him up. It did. It also inspired this poem: “These lively verses help us find/a truth perhaps to keep in mind:/Although sometimes they may not know it,/in every person lives a poet” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Reader’s Poetry”) … Near noon Friday, a Coeur d’Alene officer gave up his attempt to catch two playful dogs at Honeysuckle and Lunceford. Winded, he contacted an animal control officer, telling her: “They run faster than me, but you probably run faster than them” … In response to Dike Road tree removal, Linda Lewis Facebooks: “I hope that I will never see, the Coeur d’Alene dike without a tree” … Props to that Spirit Lake Elementary staffer who confronted a scraggly haired man with unzipped pants and a rifle over his shoulder while he was walking up and down a nearby road Thursday. Nothing happened. But you never know nowadays … In an editorial, the conservative Twin Falls Times-News took pouting Republican political leaders to task for dissing President Barack Obama during his Wednesday visit to Idaho: “Lawmakers were too busy impersonating junior high kids and spewing venom on social media.”

Parting shot

Every time a Kootenai County legislator does something nutty, that old Buffalo Springfield tune plays in my head: “Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid.” Reps. Kathy Sims, Don Cheatham and Vito Barbieri put the dime in the jukebox when they voted against 14-year-old Ilah Hickman’s crusade to designate the giant salamander as Idaho’s amphibian. Their reasoning? They were afraid – “it starts when you’re always afraid” – that the feds would use the salamander to overreach someday. Who dresses these people in the morning?