Monday, December 30, 2013

Humongous Megaload Turns 90 Degree Corner

A controversial Omega Morgan "Megaload" longer than a football field had to negotiate a 90 degree corner in the town of of Marsing Idaho about 11:PM December 28, 2013. The video shows the turning process and finally the load with one pull truck and two push trucks leaving the town heading down Idaho Highway 78 followed by several local vehicles. Helen Yost from Wild Idaho Rising Tide provides a narrated overview.

Humongous Megaload Turns 90 Degree Corner from Gary O. Grimm on Vimeo.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Riverstone School participates in Christmas Bird Count - Boise, Idaho 2012

A teacher, parent and two Riverstone school students participated in the Audubon's Golden Eagle Chapter Christmas Bird Count on the Boise River in Idaho in 2012. This sequence of clips follow them on their quest to see and count different bird species in the area near Barber park in East Boise.


Link to Audubon's Christmas Bird Count. http://birds.audubon.org/get-involved-christmas-bird-count-find-count-near-you

Link to Riverstone International School web site. http://www.riverstoneschool.org

Link to Golden Eagle Audubon Society web site: http://www.goldeneagleaudubon.org

Abandoned Minelands Restoration in Headwaters of Boise River in Idaho HD

This video is based on a 3D Google Earth tour showing several years of restoration work Trout Unlimited and many partners and volunteers have accomplished on abandoned mine lands in the headwaters of the Boise River Watershed in Idaho. The video and Google Earth projects were produced by Pam Harrington, Trout Unlimited, and Katy Flanagan and Gary O. Grimm, Mountain Visions.



Below is a link to the report about the Grimes Creek rehabilitation project by Pam Harrington, Trout Unlimited and Robert House, BiouHouse LLC. http://idahotrout.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Rehabilitation_of_Grimes_Creek.pdf

Also provided below is a link to a Google Earth Plug In Tour of selected demonstration sites on Mores Creek and Grimes Creek. The link below also provides a Google Earth KMZ file that provides information and tours to almost 100 map locations in these watersheds, including some near the city of Boise, Idaho. http://www.mountainvisions.com/getours/MoresWatershed_10_13.html

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Migration Route & Spring Chinook Salmon Jumping Dagger Falls in Idaho




Several years ago I tried to create a fly in from the Pacific Ocean to the mountains of Idaho showing the difficult migration route salmon have to navigate to get to spawning grounds in Idaho. Finally I have a better version of this Google Earth Fly in to Dagger Falls on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. On July 4, 2010 Spring Chinook Salmon were jumping up the waterfalls and I was able capture this rare event on video. This journey to this point is about 700 miles and over 6000 feet in elevation gain and they go on to the spawning grounds several miles and more elevation gain

This year more Sockeye Salmon migrated to Redfish Lake at the base of the Sawtooth Mountains than have for several years. This journey is about 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean and about 7000 feet in elevation gain. If I can find some footage or still photos of this event I could make another fly in to end at Redfish Lake.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Google Earth tour of Proposed and existing Molybdenum Mine Sites in Idaho

This is a Third experimental (draft) Google Earth Tour of the proposed open pit CUMO Molybdenum mine in the Mountains North East of Idaho City, close to the Payette River. The tour also flies around the Thompson Creek Molybdenum Mine near Stanley to show the landscape effects of this type of open pit mining.

Note! This tour does not start until you click the > (play) button in the Controller Bar. You can stop the tour at any time and examine the terrain for yourself. When you want to start again click the play button and the tour will resume from where you stopped it.

Idaho Rivers United has a web page with more information about the CUMO Mine project. IRU also provides
a Fact Sheet with more details.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Proposed CUMO Mine & Other Mine footprints in Idaho visible in Google Earth

This is an experimental draft Google Earth Tour showing the location of the proposed CUMO Molybdenum mine north on a forested ridge in the Boise Watershed North West of Idaho City.

Note! This tour does not start until you click the > (play) button in the Controller Bar. You can stop the tour at any time and examine the terrain for yourself. When you want to start again click the play button and the tour will resume from where you stopped it.

Idaho Rivers United has a web page with more information about the CUMO Mine project

This tour flies to the site of the proposed CUMO mine and continues on to a few other big mine sites in Idaho that have a visible footprint in Google Earth & Maps. The CUMO mine will potentially be larger than any of these other mines. Note that 1900's Dredge Mining Tailings are still visible on Grimes Creek downstream of the CUMO mine. (I placed a tan shaded overlay on these tailings, to highlight them as I started the project, but they are visible without the shading in Google Earth.)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

2nd Draft Google Earth Tour of Potential Dam Sites on Boise river

This newly revised version of the Google Earth tour of potential dam sites on the Boise River includes elevation level lines depicting water levels of each dam. The tour also includes one photo representative of the dam site area. In a next draft version of this tour we may also try to add narration and music.

Idaho Rivers United Boise River Web site is providing more information related to these potential dams and public meetings that are being held.