Social Sciences » Environmental History
Tale of Two Communities
The ATF recently designated 5.62 million acres of Idaho as the Snake River American Viticultural Area. Caldwell, Idaho's "Sunny Slope" region already has a small, but established wine country, and Eagle, ID thinks it can be the next great wine area in the state. But while Caldwell semms to be doing everything right, Eagle residents and leadership are split among what to do.
Caldwell is building small scale developments among the grapes, and economic development staff in the region recently got approval of a "scenic byway" that runs through the area.
Meanwhile, the debate in Eagle is whether to permit upward of 12,000 homes in what could be Eagle's prime new grape growing region.
What's been the history of such debates in other regions? Oregonians? New Yorkers? Californians?
Comments
I was so intrigued by my own question that I went and wrote a paper on it: "Idaho Wine Country: A Devil's Bargain?"
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