Blessed by Boundary County

At this time, more than 62,000 acres are dedicated to some form of agriculture for profit in Boundary County. The question addressed here is, “What is the economic impact of this diverse collection of crops ranging from hops grown for beer and trees grown for landscaping to hay for cattle and canola oil for the market?” We are blessed in that the rich soils of the Kootenai River farmland consistently yield a wide variety of bumper crops.

One farmer said, in essence, "all you need is good dirt and water," implying that a person could grow anything in Boundary County if you had enough farmland and owned the water rights. One of the reasons is that the Kootenai River valley is a banana belt of sorts with mean temperatures above the norm due primarily to the fact that the Selkirk Mountain range holds most of the eastbound cloud moisture on its west side, namely the greater Priest Lake area.

The Selkirks are after all the first primary mountain range of any significant height (bearing several 10,000-foot peaks) that eastbound clouds meet as they skate across Eastern Washington picking up moisture as they sail. By the time they reach the Selkirks, those clouds are pretty heavy. They back up because they haven't had to climb heights like that since being born, and consequently they are forced to dump great quantities of water before they drift over the top to pass across the Kootenai River like cotton balls or bands of sheep on some days.

That's nice for the farmers on the east side. The phenomenon translates to more sunlight. And plants need that, especially the agricultural type because they grow faster and yield more (both attributes of which the farmers like) through somewhat longer sunlit seasons.

It's nice for the people too, and I suppose for the animals as well. It seems we all enjoy the bright attitudes born from the experience of adequate sunlight. Not to say the sun never shines on the west side of the mountains, because it certainly does. We just enjoy a tad bit more of it in the Kootenai River area because the cloud cover has been nicely pruned by hard rock mountain tops.

Certainly there are other factors that play into the economic formula for which I don't have a numerical answer. Couldn't find one. Sorry. Maybe we can just "feel" the warmth of a better economy. I don't mean to be sarcastic, but I honestly could not find a statistic that said the agricultural impact on Boundary County is "such and such."

If anyone knows, please call or write. I'm not hard to find. Give me the facts and I'll get them into print somehow.

Meanwhile, let me point out that one of the other reasons besides the banana belt weather and abundance of water contributing to rich farmland is the residual geologic history of the Purcell Trench. You've heard of it. It's the great glacial trench carved thousands of geologic years ago through which the Kootenai River meanders, carved out during the last ice age when no one was around with a way to record the damage. All we can see now in the evidence is the subsequent benefit of glacial silt and sandy loam, aggregate rocky soils (good for trees) and river bottom rich in nutrients laid down from a thousand years or more of periodic flooding.

Hey, the formula for "good dirt and water" is really pretty simple. Just takes a long time. And that's what defines Boundary County's rich agricultural setting, along with the sunshine of course.

Economic impact? I don't rightly know for sure, but I can attest to the attitudinal impact. Everyone around here is generally pretty darn happy, all the time, even in winter!

And who can calculate how much revenue flows readily, easily from happy hands into the markets of a diverse variety found in this region. Want a dozen eggs? I can give you homegrown organic browns or the best and biggest whites you'll find anywhere...that kind of attitude. There has to be some measurable economic impact on that note.

How about this? How do you put a number to the bountiful game herds we have here? Deer and elk abound in numbers reasonable enough to bring plenty of meat to home tables, not to mention racking up a few walls here and there with trophies of sorts. Behind the trophies and the meat lockers is a happy body of hunters who dedicate certain months of each year to hunting. And they are not all gun-toting rednecks because a good number of them now sport sophisticated ultra tech archery equipment and each can hit a dime at a hundred yards. Not to mention the growing number of honest appreciators of wildlife, from bird-watching enthusiasts to countryside drivers who just love to stop and watch a band of elk or a whitetail doe with her two fawns cross the road. And they'll stop for turkeys too, especially if those big birds have a following of oddly shaped chicks pecking around behind them as they go.

Tell me the agriculture of Boundary County does not factor into its healthy abundance of wildlife. It does. The great vast ecosystem of agriculture is a community en toto as it involves every living being including the insects. And yes, I have to mention the river life, like the white sturgeon and the rainbow trout of the river, dancers that they both are. Have you ever seen a sturgeon jump just for play – I mean clear out of the water, six feet high? I have, but you have to be looking in just the right area at precisely the right time to witness such an event, and for that to happen you have to be a zen-master totally tuned into the whole environment of the great life-bearing valley.

I don't mean to sound too funny here. I am actually telling you the truth and I'd include the indigenous wonderful people of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho in that truth, because they are the sure masters of stewardship for the river and all its diverse populations of natural beings from the tiniest insects born in the mud to the prettiest swans that occasionally grace the quiet waters of cattail ponds and back eddies.

So that's my editorial comment regarding the agricultural impact on the economy of Boundary County. No fooling. It is an absolutely great place to live and even better if you spend money while living here. Now that's economic impact! We all benefit from that, and I've just barely tapped into the multitude of reasons why it is so.

Dwayne Parsons is a Realtor for Century 21 Beutler & Associates of Coeur d'Alene working primarily in Boundary County. He can be reach for scolding and or comment by email at dparsons@21goldchoice.com.

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