The Idaho State Department of Agriculture is planning a second round of treatment in the Snake River in November to target invasive quagga mussels. 

This second round of treatment comes just one month after the department treated 8.5 miles of the river between Oct. 8-19 with Natrix, a copper-based pesticide registered by the Environmental Protection Agency used to kill invasive aquatic species. 

The treatments are a part of an effort to eradicate quagga mussels that were first discovered in the Snake River in September 2023, and again on Sept. 24 this year, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.

Idaho officials are finding fewer invasive quagga mussels – and dead fish – in Snake River

Officials have said the invasive mussels pose a major threat to Idaho as they can spread and clog pipes that deliver water for drinking, energy, agriculture and recreation. The mussels are a highly competitive species that can also disrupt fish populations and wildlife habitat.

The second round of this year’s Natrix treatment is focused on eradicating the mussels in still water and deep pool sections of the river. Exact dates for the November treatment will be determined at a later time, according to a press release from the department.

The copper levels are dissolving as anticipated, and the river is expected to return to normal levels by early November, the department said in the release. 

The current river access closure from Hansen Bridge to Yingst Grade will remain in place until further notice. 

On Oct. 8, Idaho State Department of Agriculture staff and partners applied Natrix to the river at a rate of one part per million copper concentration for a total of 200 consecutive hours, according to the release from the department.

This year’s treatment area was extended up-river, just downriver of Hansen Bridge to Centennial Waterfront Park. The dissipation area of the treatment is from Hansen Bridge to the Kanaka Rapids.  

The copper concentration applied to the river is the maximum rate provided for on the product label to kill mussels, while it is also below the drinking water standard for humans. 

Department staff and partners monitored copper levels at 51 sampling sites in the river throughout the dissipation area 24 hours a day for the entirety of the treatment. Deep pools, waterfalls and hydropower facilities caused challenges for the treatment. 

Staff also monitored for mussel presence in water entering the river from irrigation returns and spring systems through traditional mussel sampling, as well as eDNA. This included extensive sampling upriver above the treatment area.  

The river experienced color and clarity changes from the impact the copper levels had on organic matter, algae and aquatic plants in the river. 

The department reported limited fish mortality. Sentinel species, including non-native Asian clams, were planted in strategic locations throughout the treatment to assess the effectiveness of the treatment. The department continues to evaluate the impact of the treatment to the sentinel species.

By James Gordon For Dailymail.com

Published: 02:09 GMT, 28 October 2024 | Updated: 02:09 GMT, 28 October 2024

A male cross-dressing child sexual predator is on the run from police in Oregon after managing to dodge authorities in neighboring Idaho.

Christian Bert Fischer, 42, is wanted in Florida after he allegedly traveled to meet a child he had met online and convinced them to meet up with him.

Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon detailed how they believed Fischer, who has ties to Southern Oregon, is dressed as a woman and is now on the run after evading capture by the police in Coeur D’alene, Idaho, last week. 

Fischer had been on trial in Hernando County, Florida, when he failed to appear in court for the second day of court.

Christian Bert Fischer, 42, who is known to dress up as a woman is wanted in Florida after he allegedly traveled to meet a child he had met online and convinced them to meet up with him

Fischer, who has ties to Southern Oregon, is now on the run after evading capture by the police in Coeur D’alene, Idaho, last week

The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) say Fischer fled Florida the same day and that he had condoms, lube, rope, narcotics, and other sexual items on him at the time. 

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Investigators found he first headed to California then moved up the coast to Portland, Oregon and then onto northern Idaho. 

It’s believed Fischer has been traveling under fictitious name and is using cash to pay for expenses in order to prevent from using his credit cards giving away his location.

It also appears that he is trying his luck with families in the North Idaho area as he has attempted to befriend a number of people in the region who all have children. 

Fischer was last seen in Athol, Idaho carving pumpkins with an unknown family.

Fischer is described as a 5-foot-10, 200-pound white man with blonde hair and blue-eyes,

Fischer was last seen in Athol, Idaho carving pumpkins with an unknown family.

So far, the family he was with has not been identified, but anyone who may have interacted with Fischer is urged to contact the police. 

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Fischer is described as a 5-foot-10, 200-pound white man with blonde hair and blue-eyes.

The Hernando County Crime Stoppers in Florida is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads directly to Fischer’s arrest. 

After skipping out on his trial, a warrant charging him with Failure to Appear was issued and Fischer was ultimately convicted in absentia for Traveling to Meet a Child.

The court in Florida is now awaiting his capture and return for formal sentencing. 

• Jodi Wright, 56, moved from California to Idaho in 2020 in search of a quiet place to retire.
• Wright and her family built a custom home outside Boise.
• But the family moved back to California earlier this year because of rising prices.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jodi Wright, a 56-year-old stay-at-home mother whose family moved from Sacramento, California, to Caldwell, Idaho, a small town about 30 minutes west of Boise, in 2020.

Idaho’s housing market has exploded in the last half-decade, with the median home price jumping from $360,700 in September 2020 to $481,100 in September 2024, according to data from Redfin. Meanwhile, median home prices in Boise specifically jumped from $389,500 in September 2020 to $525,000 in September 2024, according to Redfin data.

The following has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

I was born in Washington State. When I graduated high school, I wanted a change of scenery, so I packed up my car and moved to California.

I met my husband here, and he’s a police officer. We were blessed with triplets, but one of our sons passed away soon after being born. It was terrible, but it definitely clarified life.

We’ve always been outdoorsy people. Any vacations we take are usually geared around the beach or Disney. You can pretty much do that year-round here in California, which we love.

But the cost of living is so high, and our political affiliation is Republican. That became a problem when COVID hit, and they shut down the schools. Our kids were in second grade and struggling.

We had already purchased land in Idaho back in 2018. We were planning to move once my husband retired, but COVID sped up our plans.

We moved to Idaho in December 2020

We listed our house in California, and it sold in one day. We sold it for $699,000. On Zillow, it’s now worth over $900,000.

My husband wasn’t old enough to retire yet, so he stayed in California to keep working. We figured we would just make do for a few years until my husband could join us full-time.

We were a little nervous about how that would work. But he traveled back and forth to Idaho two or three times a month. Plus, we would FaceTime.

We started building our Idaho house in a town called Caldwell, which is part of the Treasure Valley on the outskirts of the Boise area. It was still affordable at that time. If we were to move there now, we could not afford the house we built, which cost us about $750,000.

It would probably cost twice as much to build it there today.

It was a big house, almost 4,000 square feet, with four bedrooms and five bathrooms. We had a fabulous view of the river and the mountains on two and a half acres out in the country in a small subdivision.

We wanted to live in the country, have a little more space between neighbors, and less of the hustle and bustle we were used to here in California. Our favorite part of Idaho was how quiet it was where we lived.

One of the major differences we noticed between California and Idaho is how clean Idaho is. You don’t see a bunch of graffiti or trash everywhere.

But we only stayed in Idaho for four years

We definitely thought our money was going to go farther in Idaho. Certain things are cheaper, like power and gas. So, we thought the overall cost of living would be less.

But it felt like prices really started to increase in 2021. Part of that was life in general becoming more expensive with inflation. But a lot of things in Idaho felt comparable to California.

When we first got to Idaho, my husband used to fly back and forth for less than $150. But over time, round trips got up to $300 or more.

Our auto insurance and homeowner’s insurance were cheaper than they had been in California at first. But in our last two years living there, both almost doubled.

The weather in Idaho turned out to be not conducive to our lifestyle either. You can’t really know a place until you live here. The wind blows really badly there for six or seven months a year. Plus, Idaho gets a lot of the fire smoke from California and Oregon. The first two summers we were there, we barely went outside because the air quality was so bad. The wind there just made it so much worse.

By the end of 2022, we started thinking Idaho was maybe not the place for us.

We talked a lot about maybe moving somewhere else. But the more we talked, the more we realized that California is home. Despite the politics and cost of living, it’s home.

We moved back to California in June.

I’m glad we went to Idaho. We don’t regret it at all. My kids got a great education there. We made the best of it and enjoyed it.

It took us a year to sell our house in Idaho because the housing market is flooded at the higher end. We still managed to make a couple hundred thousand.

Now that we’re back in California, we’re also paying less for car insurance than we were in Idaho.

We recently bought a house in Dixon, California, for $760,000, which we’ll be moving into in the next few months.

We’re just going to carve our little piece of happiness here in California.