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.

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

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.

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.

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.)

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.

Rough Draft Tour of Potential Dam Sites on Boise River in Idaho

Six sites for a new water storage dam are being studied by the Army Corps of Engineers and Idaho Water Resources Board.  We helped Idaho Rivers United create a 2D Google Map showing these sites.  They are initiating a campaign to prevent any of these dams being built.  Here is a link to the IRU web page where information is available about this project.


This is just a first concept draft of this Google Earth Tour to demonstrate the 3D Guided tour possibilities to IRU and the ability to embed the tour to run on a Blog site.


Please note the "Controller Bar" in the bottom left of the tour window.  You can pause, the tour at any time.  Also note the Google Earth navigation tools in the upper right corner of the window.  When paused you can zoom in and out and move around the  map at your leisure.  When you start to play the tour again it will return to the place where it was paused.  (You can also move the controller bar slider back and forward when paused)

Salmon migration from Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho to Pacific Ocean

Anadromous Salmon smolts born in the Salmon River high in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho have to navigate the warm slack water and several Hydroelectric Dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers. This tour travels the route they have to travel to the mouth of the Columbia and the Pacific Ocean, an elevation loss of 7000 feet and more than 900 river miles.

Note! Using the controller bar in the left bottom of the tour window you can pause the Tour at any time and explore photos and text related to each of the dams (Click once on any Dam Icon). You can click twice on a Dam Icon to fly down to a close 3D view of the Dam site &/or use the Google Earth navigation tools to zoom in, move around or tilt the view. When you want to return to the programmed tour click the play button in the controller bar again.

Google Earth Tour Mouth of Columbia River to Sawtooth Mountains

This is an experimental demonstration of a Google Earth Tour embedded in my Video Blog.  This is the long route that some anadromous salmon swim from the Pacific Ocean, up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon Rivers to the Sawtooth mountains in Idaho.  The elevation gain is about 7000 feet and the river distance is over 900 miles.

Northwest Environmental Data Base video ( 1993 )

1993 Northwest Environmental Data Base - The Rivers Information Systems of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, & Washington from Gary O. Grimm on Vimeo.
This archival 17.5 minute multimedia production was originally created by Mountain Visions in 1993 and transferred to video tape. Now we have recovered it from the archives, digitized and uploaded as a historical record of one of many similar productions we produced in the late 1980's and early 90s, before we started producing CD-ROMs and web sites.

NED was a result of the Northwest Power Planning Council started in 1980 and the Pacific Northwest River Study in 1984. More than ten years of valuable data was gathered by agencies, tribes, communities, businesses and individuals and put into this Data Base that provided detailed information about 34,000 distinct river segments in 135,000 miles of streams in the Columbia River System and four Northwest States.

Categories of Data included Anadromous Fish, Resident Fish, Wildlife, Natural Features, Cultural Resources, Recreation, Institutional Constraints, Hydrosite Data Base, River Reach File, and Protected Areas.

This outreach educational multimedia project was used in Town Hall and other meetings throughout the Northwest to describe the Data Base, GIS technology and how to use the Rivers Information Systems. These presentations encouraged and invited everyone to use NED and to continue to participate in its future development.

The data contained in NED still exists in various data bases and has been improved over the years. I believe that the current trend toward Open.Gov, making data more available to the public and inviting participation in gathering and analyzing data, and being more involved in decision making is the wave of the future, promised by NED even in 1993.

Heart Of Idaho - The Wild White Clouds

Uploaded repurposed 1991 multimedia show "Heart of Idaho - The Wild White Clouds"

Produced for the Boulder-White Clouds Council in 1991, originally as an 18 + minute 3 projector multi-image traveling road show, then transferred to video in 1992. Produced by Katy Flanagan and Gary O. Grimm Mountain Visions, Boise, Idaho. Digitized for archival and historical purposes for the Internet in 2010. Script by Pat Ford. Music courtesy of Steve Eaton and Wayne Millward, Seagate Productions. Photography and narration credits at the end of the program.

Visions of Wilderness - 1994 National Wilderness Conference

Click to Play

Mountain Visions (Katy Flanagan & Gary O. Grimm) produced and presented this repurposed version of "Visions of Wilderness" at the 1994 National Wilderness Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Produced originally as a 3 projector multi-image show, with music, but no narration, we also transferred it to video. Only a few copies were made and it has not been available for viewing for many years. This is a digital copy of the entire show. Another version has been uploaded to YouTube divided into 2 parts both about 9 minutes long to fit the uploading requirements for YouTube. Production Credits are available in Part 2. Music provided by Bill Miller, Steve Eaton, and Walkin' Jim Stoltz.

Image Dance

Click to Play

Produced in 1987 as a 3 projector multi-image show transferred to video, by Mountain Visions (Katy Flanagan & Gary O. Grimm). Music by Steve Eaton

Visions Of Wilderness - Ecosystem Protection in the Northern Rockies

Click to Play

Originally produced in 1993 by Gary O. Grimm and Katy Flanagan, this 3 projector multi-image/video presents slowly dissolving natural images shapes and colors in a "painting with light" format. Produced by Mountain Visions with support from the Idaho Conservation League, Recreational Equipment Inc., The Wilderness Society. Music by Bill Miller, Steve Eaton and Walkin' Jim Stoltz.

Experimental Gigapan interactive photo of Downtown Boise, Idaho

I have created an experimental Gigapan photo comprised of approximately 200 telephoto images stitched together. This single photo allows you to zoom in to see magniified close up images that are not evident in the original view. The snapshot thumbnail images are examples of details that can be found.

The same image is also available on my gigapan site, where you can add thumbnails of your own, and also view the panorama in Google Earth.

 You can also view a  3D Photo Tour kmz file of several buildings I photogaphed in March 2009, in downtown Boise that can be viewed in Google Earth. 

Hint! Turn on the 3D buildings layer in Google Earth to see several downtown Boise 3D buildings while you view the photos.  These 3D buildings and the foothills skyline are also aligned almost perfectly with the Gigapan image when viewed in Google Earth.

HD Google Earth 3D Fly-in to Moapa Valley, Nevada

Note that the video above uses the "embed code" provided by YouTube. There is a little difference in quality between the normal and HD views. The HD view does not play as smoothly as the normal view.

The video below includes a third party code that provides the High Definition video in the provided window size. This video provides a much higher visual quality, but stutters more on older slower computers and slower download speeds.

YouTube High Definition Video

HD Google Earth Fly-in to Sal Creek Restoration, Tongass National Forest Alaska

On my You Tube page you can play this video in a much larger "High Definition" window. (You also want to select the High Quality option.) The video below will play in high quality in the window size you see.




This is another High Definition video I recently posted to You Tube. It is a
Google Earth Fly-in to Sal Creek, Tongass National Forest, Prince of Wales Island where river restoration work is being planned. Aaron Prussion narrates the video showing one location on Sal Creek.

You can find a Google Earth KMZ file showing several High definition 360 degree panorama views and videos from this same area on our Mountain Visions Google Earth Tour Gallery page.

Mule Deer Browsing / YouTube HiDefinition test

I just discovered that my YouTube videos can now be see in a much higher resolution when embedded on an external site or blog. This is a test to try this out. Note! the video looks very good, but a newer faster computer is useful to see the video play in near real time. (I will continue to test this out and report my findings as they become available.)

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All of my YouTube videos are also showing up on the Google Earth YouTube layer. Because of this and the new Hi Definition capability I plan to start uploading more videos in the future and will post embed them on this blog as well.

Killdeer - Broken-Wing Display

This is one of the most dramatic broken-wing displays I have seen exhibited by a Killdeer.

Click on the image to the right to see a HD QuickTime Video in a 720p format.

This video (and others) are hosted on my blip.tv space where you can see it also in a Flash format.

I was riding my bike in an industrial area on the outskirts of Boise when a family of Killdeer, including a few chicks ran out in the road. There was grass nearby and I tried to herd them that towards it to prevent the chicks from getting run over by trucks and cars passing by. I had my HDV camcorder available so I captured a little hand held footage of one of the adults displaying the "broken-wing" behavior and a chick running on the road. The chicks were eventually led to the grass where they were quite well hidden and safer unless they run out into the road again.

Birdwatching.com has a good description of Killdeer behavior and the ability of the chicks to start running as soon as their feathers dry after hatching.