Idaho

Boise State team gathers critical snow data in Idaho mountains

Published

1 year ago

February 11, 2025

Boise State team gathers critical snow data in Idaho mountains

Researchers from Marshall’s CryoGARS lab snow trenches in the Idaho mountains.

Every winter, thousands of Idahoans wake up and check the snow levels at Bogus Basin. The ski resort, located 20 miles from downtown Boise, regularly posts photos of its snow marker, an upright measuring stick on top of a small platform. Every evening, staff come out and brush the platform clean so the tally can begin anew.

This rough measurement might be good enough for weekend warriors, but there’s more to snow levels than getting excited for the next powder day. Knowing how much snow and ice exists in Idaho’s mountains at a given moment is critical for farmers, rangeland administrators, water managers, flood and hydropower forecasters, anyone who lives along a river bank, and even the Department of Defense. These snow and ice measurements help anticipate growing seasons, make hydroelectric power forecasts and plan for deadly flooding.

But getting accurate snow measurements is difficult. Measuring sticks like the snow marker at Bogus Basin don’t account for snowpack density and seasonal changes thanks to melting and sublimation—the process of solid snow turning directly to vapor, which can happen below freezing.

What little information they do provide is limited to the immediate area around their platform, and snow levels can vary dramatically over the landscape. If a measurement is taken at one place in the Idaho wilderness, the snow levels could be very different just one football field’s length away.

Researchers measuring snow properties in Idaho, like Boise State’s HP Marshall and his Cryosphere Geophysics and Remote Sensing (CryoGARS) group, have to rely on more involved methods. During the winter, the team spends many days every week out in the Idaho mountains, digging blocks out of the snow and taking detailed measurements of depth and density to estimate overall water content.

But Idaho’s mountain ranges are vast, and the team has to cover a lot of ground to get a good idea of how much snow they contain.

“It’s a total workout!” said Lindsay Stark, a geophysics Ph.D. student who Marshall supervises. “It’s fun though. You definitely feel good at the end of the day. When you open up a snow pit, you basically dig a three to six foot deep hole and then try and make it big enough for two people to comfortably work inside. So it’s a pretty big hole.”

Even with all their hard work, there are limits to how much field researchers can learn with traditional snow measuring techniques.

“In general we’re always undersampling the snow,” Marshall said. “We don’t know exactly how much there is in the mountains, since snow is only measured at relatively few locations, given the variability that exists.”

Fortunately, Marshall is developing new methods to enhance and expand field researchers’ capabilities and improve accuracy. This year, his team is deploying radar and lidar sensors in the Idaho mountains. The radar beam travels differently through snow than air. It also travels faster or slower depending on snow density. Marshall’s team can use the radar beam’s behavior to estimate snow depth and density, in combination with measurements on the ground.

Field researchers can deploy radar sensors on towers to measure continuously, or carry it while traveling on skis or a snowmobile, or with drones when they go out to dig in the snowpack. The drone can travel anywhere within the pilot’s line of sight, taking measurements the whole way. This lets the team multiply their effectiveness, as they compare information from the drone with the snow samples they’re digging up.

Marshall and collaborators from the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab and University of Massachusetts Amherst are deploying radar and lidar sensors on planes that will make regular flights over the Idaho mountains this winter. Chartering a plane is more expensive than drones, but it offers much more spatial coverage in much less time.

These new tools are a huge step up from traditional snow measurement techniques, but Marshall has his eyes set on even higher goals. He is currently working on proposals for a satellite-based sensor.

“Right now, we don’t have the ideal sensor in space,” he said. Today, satellite-based imaging can only answer one question: is there snow or not? But if Marshall and the snow community’s work pans out, we could have satellite-deployed sensors that produce snow water resource measurements for entire regions in a fraction of the time it takes a drone or plane.

Marshall thinks that the efforts of on-the-ground researchers will always be meaningful. But each new innovation—be it drone, plane or satellite sensors—makes those efforts more effective, and delivers dividends each spring when the snow begins to melt.

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Idaho

Gov. Little signs bill ending license plate registration stickers in Idaho

Published

11 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Gov. Little signs bill ending license plate registration stickers in Idaho

Gov. Brad Little has signed House Bill 533, which would remove the need for license plate stickers on Idaho vehicles.

The legislation, introduced earlier this session by Rep. Jon Weber (R) of Boise, eliminates the requirement for registration stickers on Idaho license plates. Weber stated during the bills intorduction that officers can verify the status of license plates without the stickers, potentially saving the state around $300,000.

During the bill’s introduction, some lawmakers argued that it could increase the workload for law enforcement.

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The new law is set to take effect in July.

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Idaho

Idaho resolution opposing same-sex marriage advances

Published

1 day ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Idaho resolution opposing same-sex marriage advances

For the second year in a row, House lawmakers will consider urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

The nonbinding resolution, which carries no legal weight, says the decision in Obergefel v. Hodges violates the longstanding religious definition of marriage between one man and one woman.

“The current definition of marriage that allows for same-sex marriages is a defilement of the word marriage,” said Rep. Tony Wisniewski (R-Post Falls), who sponsors the measure.

The resolution further states that the Obergefel decision “arbitrarily and unjustly” rejects the historical definition of marriage.

Idaho voters passed a constitution amendment in 2006 that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, which was invalidated by the Obergefel ruling.

Wisniewski said regulating marriages should be a power left to the states.

Rep. Brent Crane (R-Nampa) agrees.

“If you want to get things … closer to the people with respect to some of these more complex social issues, I think the best place for those things to happen is in the states,” Crane said.

Doing so is a risk, he said.

“You may have states that choose to acknowledge [polyamorous relationships]. You may have states that choose to have relationships between adults and younger children,” Crane said.

Cities in neighboring Oregon and Washington, for example, are considering giving those in polyamorous relationships legal recognition.

But he said that risk is worth it to allow other states that choose to only recognize traditional marriages.

Four lawmakers on the House State Affairs Committee opposed the resolution.

Rep. Erin Bingham (R-Idaho Falls) said she’s tried to balance her own religious beliefs with those of others while considering the measure.

“I do feel like that it is important for us to work together, to find ways to compromise and to live together in peace and mutual respect,” Bingham said.

The resolution now goes to the House floor for consideration.

House lawmakers last year passed a similar measure, but it never received a hearing in a Senate committee.

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Idaho

University of Idaho professor awarded $10M after TikTok tarot influencer claimed she ‘ordered’ quadruple murders

Published

2 days ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

University of Idaho professor awarded M after TikTok tarot influencer claimed she ‘ordered’ quadruple murders

A University of Idaho professor won a $10 million judgment after a tarot TikTok influencer publicly pushed false claims that she was behind the savage quadruple slayings of four college students.

A Boise jury in US District Court ordered fortune-telling Texas TikToker Ashley Guillard on Friday to pay $10 million after concluding she falsely accused professor Rebecca Scofield of having a secret romance with one of the four victims and orchestrating their killings, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Following the verdict, Scofield thanked the jury and said she hopes the case sends a clear warning that making “false statements online have consequences in the real world.”

“The murders of the four students on November 13, 2022, were the darkest chapter in our university’s history,” Scofield told Fox News.

“Today’s decision shows that respect and care should always be granted to victims during these tragedies. I am hopeful that this difficult chapter in my life is over, and I can return to a more normal life with my family and the wonderful Moscow community.”

Scofield, the university’s history department chair, filed the lawsuit in December 2022 — just weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were brutally stabbed to death at an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.

Guillard began uploading videos to her more than 100,000 TikTok followers in late November 2022, accusing Scofield of a secret relationship with one of the students and claiming she had “ordered” the killings, garnering millions of views across the social media platform.

The complaint states that Scofield had never met the victims and was out of state when the murders occurred.

Even after being served with cease-and-desist letters and after police publicly confirmed Scofield had no connection to the murders, the Houston-based tarot reader continued posting videos, the history professor’s legal team argued.

Guillard doubled down on her accusations against Scofield after being sued, posting a defiant video saying, “I am not stopping,” and challenging why Scofield needed three lawyers to sue her “if she’s so innocent.”

The professor’s legal team argued the defamatory accusations painted her as a criminal and accused her of professional misconduct that could derail her career.

Bryan Kohberger, then studying criminology at Washington State University, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the quadruple murders in a deal that took the death penalty off the table. He is currently serving four consecutive life sentences in Idaho.

In June 2024, Chief US Magistrate Judge Raymond Patricco found Guillard’s statements legally defamatory, leaving damages to be decided by a jury.

During the damages trial, Scofield described the anguish of seeing her name tied to the murders online, the Idaho Statesman reported.

However, Guillard, acting as her own attorney, insisted her comments were simply beliefs based on tarot card readings.

She claimed to have psychic powers and testified that she relied on tarot cards to try to solve the shocking homicides that shook the rural college town and sparked global attention.

It took jurors less than two hours to return their verdict, the outlet reported.

The jury awarded Scofield $7.5 million in punitive damages in addition to $2.5 million in compensatory damages.

With Post wires

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