Weighing environmental concerns against the need for a new cell tower, county officials in Washington State’s Whitman County have reached a compromise that will allow both. As the Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports, a new 120-foot cell tower on Bald Butte will improve communications in the area, and preserve the Palouse Prairie, a protected habitat and home of the Ferruginous Hawk and Sharp-tailed Grouse.
Unlike the original proposal, the new tower will repurpose an old location, eliminating the need to build a road to the proposed facility. Construction will require the removal of some plants, but the Palouse Prairie Foundation will replant them to restore and maintain the delicate ecosystem. Whitman County Planners enlisted the aid of the foundation when evaluating site options. The final plan met with the approval of the Palouse Prairie Foundation.
“We don’t have any issues with this application,” stated the foundation’s president, David Hall. The organization is committed to the preservation of the native plants and the range of creatures that live there from cougars, to grouse to the giant Palouse earthworm.
The Phoenix Conservancy will assist with the removal and relocation of the plants when construction begins later this spring. The selected site south of Pullman will sit on Bald Butte and will cost the county approximately $800,000 to build. Whitman County Planner Alan Thomson said that the new cell tower would improve communications for emergency services and law enforcement, noting, “This is a necessary tower for public service.”
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