Sheep fete ranks among world's best fall festivals
The popular Web site msn.com has given top 10 honors to the Trailing of the Sheep Festival in Ketchum as one of the top fall festivals in the world. A listing compiled by World Wide Events guide includes Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, the Festival d'Automne in Paris, France and the October Scarecrow Festival in Atlanta, Ga. among the ranking.
Msn.com highlights the Trailing of the Sheep Festival as a unique seasonal experience featuring shepherds herding their flocks through downtown Ketchum. Making a slight comparison to the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain but only tamer, msn.com reveals how the festival reminds Wood River Valley residents of the past and preserves the rural history of the valley.
This year the Trailing of the Sheep Festival takes place Oct. 12 through 14. For a complete schedule of events and more information, visit trailingofthesheep.org.
Castle Rock Fire travel rules revised
Officials with the Sawtooth National Forest have put special travel restrictions into effect for the 48,520-acre Castle Rock Fire area. The special travel restrictions cover the area west of state Highway 75 between the Greenhorn drainage on the south and the Fox Creek drainage on the north. Within that area, the closure order limits cross-country travel to foot traffic from May 1 to Nov. 30.
"This closure is necessary to protect the soil and vegetative resources within the burned area and to allow time for vegetation to be re-established. The first year or two post-fire is especially critical to reduce impacts," Ketchum District Ranger Kurt Nelson said. Cross-country travel across these sensitive areas by motorized and mechanized vehicles and horses can cause erosion problems and introduce invasive plants before the native vegetation can get established."
Officials are also requesting that everyone, including those on foot, stay off bulldozer and hand-constructed fire lines to allow the burned areas to heal more quickly.
Nelson said that trails in the Greenhorn, Warm Springs, Adams Gulch and Fox Creek drainages were impacted to varying degrees by the Castle Rock fire.
"Some drainages burned very hot, such as the Lodgepole, Mahoney, Red Warrior, Warfield, and Rooks Creek drainages. These trails will remain closed until trail crews are able to reconstruct new trail sections, restore drainage to the trails and remove trees that have fallen over as a result of the fire," he said.
Trails in other areas will be opened on a case-by-case basis, Nelson said.
Gas rates cut
Natural gas prices for Intermountain Gas customers will drop about 8 percent effective Monday, Oct. 3, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission said in a news release.
For residential customers who use natural gas for both space and water, heating rates should drop about $6 monthly while the decrease should average about $4 for natural gas used just for space heating.
The PUC approved the rate cuts after "downward pressure on natural gas prices," the release said.
Help Operation 'Letters to Sarah'
Sun Valley resident and 2006 graduate of The Community School, Sarah Adicoff, spent the summer working as a junior counselor at Camp Rainbow Gold. She was one of the campers just the year before, when she was suffering from sinus rhabdomyosarcoma.
Sadly, the cancer returned earlier this summer. She is now in Seattle being treated. Friends are collecting letters and cards to send to Adicoff in a program they're calling "Letters to Sarah" at drop boxes on school campuses in the Wood River Valley.
Attorney named to PEO Foundation
Sun Valley resident Patricia Brolin-Ribi was named to the board of trustees of the PEO Foundation, a non- profit corporation founded in 1869. PEO encourages tax-deductible gifts to the educational and charitable programs of the 250,000-member PEO.
Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation opens registration for new athletes
The Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation has opened registration to snowboarding and alpine, cross-country and freestyle skiing and will remain open until Monday, Oct. 15. Some $200,000 in travel and tuition scholarships is available with programs in both Ketchum and Hailey on Bald Mountain, Dollar Mountain, Lake Creek Trailhead, Rotarun Mountain and Quigley Canyon.
For registration and scholarship information, call Julie Moses at 726-4129 or visit www.svsef.org/registration.html.
Valley girl to work in orphanage
Orphanage Support Services Organization, a non-profit charitable organization based in Rexburg, Idaho, provides service to a world of abandoned and disadvantaged children. Lisa Nilsen, of Hailey, left on Friday, Oct. 5, to spend eight months as a volunteer in orphanages in Quito, Ecuador.
Nilsen, a daughter of Marilyn and Kim Nilsen, graduated from Wood River High School in 2006. She currently attends Brigham Young University in Utah.
