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As part of our Outdoor Idaho Twentieth Anniversary show, we invited a group of friends to join us one weekend in August of 2002, to discuss how Idaho has changed in the last twenty years.
The hike into the lake was a relatively short one of about 3 1/2 miles. Luckily, the fishing was excellent, the weather was perfect, and the food was great! We started the discussion around the campfire at dusk and continued well into the evening.
Watch the campfire discussion.
 Bill Studebaker |
Bill Studebaker, author, kayaker:
If I could summarize anything, it would be the experience of watching the national properties of the state change from Idaho’s "back yard" to America’s "outback." And being America’s outback is a phenomenal thing. That’s the most impressive thing in my lifetime. To feel I’m living in America’s outback.
Also, Idaho has become a haven for extreme sports, and there are persons coming from all over the country to participate. In the last twenty years, it's really, really grown.
 Norm Nelson |
Norm Nelson, film maker, backpacker:
There was not a single peregrine falcon here twenty years ago. The bald eagle has returned. Birds of prey generally speaking, are doing really well in Idaho. Their habitat is maintained because of areas like this.
So I think it’s possible to maintain and even improve our relationship with the environment in the future, if we have a good solid consideration for it, because we have some real successes to look at in twenty years.
Robin Jenkinson, graduate student, College of Natural Resources, U of I:
 Robin Jenkinson |
The year before last, we went to Boville for St. Patrick’s Day, the only Irish bar on the Palouse. And it sounds like a start of a bad joke, but we walked in there, and we were just embraced by the people there. Most of them were loggers. The country band was all loggers.
They said, a couple years ago, we would have kicked your asses out the door, but now we really understand where you’re coming from and we really agree, there needs to be wood in the streams and selective logging is the way to go. So I imagine that’s a change that has occurred in the last twenty years, and I’m really excited what that bodes for the future.
 Kimberly Brandel |
Kimberly Brandel, District Ranger, New Meadows, USFS
In the past ten years recreational use here on the Payette has tripled. And I think, you’ve been a show for twenty years, and we’ve been talking about the changes, well, think about what’s going to be happening in the next twenty years.
We’re just going to get more people, more and diverse uses. And as a manager I can’t provide everybody use on the same acres... and it’s real easy to ruin someone else’s experience and what they hold dear to them.
 Jay Rais |
Jay Rais, fly fisherman, outdoorsman:
I’d like to think that Outdoor Idaho, in a pretty effective way, counteracts all the millions and millions of dollars that are spent by the big corporations promoting motorized use, and that shows like this really show how you can enjoy the back country without the big flashy ads and all the glamour that’s attached to it.
 Tom Kovalicky |
Tom Kovalicky, former Forest Supervisor:
There’s no doubt about it that the last twenty years has been the waking-up period in Idaho. This has been the experimental era that has given Idaho a focus on its past and where it can possibly go in the future.
I predict the salmon will become the rallying point for hanging on to a cultural value that very few people, very few states can enjoy like Idaho. And that will be our hearthstone. That will be the bellwether for the future. And I predict Idaho will save that wild salmon run for many, many more generations.
 Ann Joslin |
Ann Joslin, llama packer:
I do sense that more and more people are appreciating what Idaho has to offer in terms of outdoors, even if they don’t get out to the extent we do. And a big part of that is the people who are younger than we are learning those values.
And if that happens, I think that twenty years from now, it will be a great experience to come back to this very same place.
 Kay Johnson |
Kay Johnson, businessman, outdoorsman:
I’m optimistic about the future. I do think in the next twenty years, we’re going to need to work better together. I think if we don’t, we’re going to find more restrictions.
I think we just need to recognize that all groups have a right to the wilderness and we need to work with them to preserve it.