Fall Color

The fall color is stunning and the weather is fine. For those of you who have already closed up and headed south, I thought I'd send you a little look at what you may have missed. I love Island Park in the fall - no crowds, no bugs, fires in the fireplace and lots of perfect weather (most of the time).

No Donuts Road Signs!

Hi Henderson Pines Homeowners,
We have had a wonderful summer in Henderson Pines. It has been an unusally cooler summer than normal. As we write this blog this morning it is 37 degrees and will hit near 80 this afternoon. This is why we stay and enjoy September and part of October every year.

The primary reason for this post is to report we have had some vandalism that occured the past week (9/20-25/2010}. The commissioners installed this summer two 4 wheeler "No Donuts signs" near the approaches to Henderson Pines off of Fish Creek road. We found the signs did have an impact because we didn't observe any donuts on our Mag Chloride section of Fish Creek road. However, we found the signs were missing this week. It is our guess that thieves thought they would make nice signs for their bedroom walls or resented that they can't be told what to do with their 4 wheelers.

Please, if you know of any person or person involved let us know. The cost of the signs was $60. I am sure we will replace them, but, will have to figure out how to attach the signs in a way that would make it more difficult to steal or remove.

If you have any thoughts on this subject please let us know.

Larry & Dorothy Hill

Greater Yellowstone Coalition Credits Island Park

Island Park earned a nice blurb in the last publication of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. Many of our homeowners took advantage of their program to purchase Bear-proof bins last year. Here's what the article had to say. Kudos to us!

Bear-proof bins prevent grizzly conflicts in Island Park

The grizzly bear's place in Greater Yellowstone became a little more secure in mid-July. That's when more than three-dozen people turned out in Island Park, Idaho, to help GYC celebrate the purchase and distribution of 40 bear-proof garbage containers throughout the community.

Thanks in great part to your support in subsidizing these $200 residential containers, Island Park ~ which doesn't have a formal garbage-disposal program but does have a lot of bears ~ now has 104 bins in key locations. And there is already a waiting list for next year's crop of containers.

How do bear bins correlate with grizzly security? You've heard the old axiom "a fed bear is a dead bear"? Island Park has been ground zero for bear/human conflicts in recent years because of improperly stored garbage. Island Park ~ which hugs U.S. Highway 20 for 33 miles just west of Yellowstone National Park, boasting "The Longest Main Street in America" ~ is at the crossroads of a critical wildlife migration corridor between Yellowstone and the wild Centennial Mountains along the Montana-Idaho border.

Several grizzlies have been killed or removed from the area because their instinctive migration habits drew them past easily accessed residential garbage cans. Once a bear becomes habituated to domestic food, it is unlikely to return to its natural food sources. The result is sometimes bad for humans and almost always bad for the bear.

The timing of this bear-proof bin program is especially critical. A primary food source for the grizzly, the whitebark pin, has been decimated by a warming climate. The loss of pine nuts at high elevations in Greater Yellowstone is forcing more bears to search for food closer to where people live, work and play. Bear/human conflicts are increasing all too frequently ~ and tragically.

Distribution of these bear-proof bins in Island Park in the past three years has already helped reduce the number of grizzlies enticed into residential areas. This important project is just one more way humans and Greater Yellowstone's iconic creatures can coexist on this incomparable landscape. At our Island Park event, two bear experts with the U.S. Forest Service and Idaho Fish & Game Department also showed guests how to operate bear-spray canisters while showing how to be more "bear aware."

Learn more about our grizzly bear work at http://www.greateryellowstone.org/bears.

2010 Update

Fall is here, the color is beautiful, and it's getting cold at night but warm during the day. In other words, life in Henderson Pines is perfect. It came to my attention at our annual meeting that many homeowners weren't even aware that we had a blog, so I thought I'd re-invite everyone to come and visit our blog and make a post if you'd like. Anyone can visit and read the blog but only invited members can post. All homeowners who have provided us with their email address have been invited to be members. If you know someone who would like to contribute but whose email address we don't have, just contact me and I'll send them an invitation.

Sadly, we received the news that long-time resident, John Dawson, passed away five weeks ago. John was a wonderful member of our community and will be very missed here. We send his family our condolences and hope that the many fond memories made here will be a comfort to them at this time.

Our annual meeting was held on September 5 at Jeff Livingston's cabin. In addition to other business, there was a change in the association leadership. George Hill is now the head commissioner with Larry Hill and Jeff Livingston serving as co-commisioners. If you would like a copy of the minutes from that meeting, please contact me and I'll email them to you.

The season may be coming to a close and there may not be much to report over the winter, but we hope you'll visit often and share your thoughts and ideas for next summer.