BREAKING: Army Corps Decides "No Action" on Lucky Peak Trail

The Army Corps of Engineers has just issued a “No Action” decision for the proposed Lake View Trail in critical big game wintering habitat near Boise. The No Action alternative decision is a tremendous win in the eyes of sportsmen and women who have fought for generations to protect Idaho’s largest migrating mule deer herd from encroachment of development. 

The Army Corps’ proposed Lake View Trail was a 15-mile multi-use trail near the shores of Lucky Peak Lake and in the Boise River Wildlife Management Area. Idaho Wildlife Federation opposed the trail and expressed significant concerns over the trail proposal’s location, lack of enforceable seasonal closures, fire risk, and direct conflicts with Boise River Wildlife Management Plan’s management directions. IWF, along with our conservation partners, including the Upper Snake River Tribes Foundation, Idaho Department of Fish & Game, and the Idaho Fish & Game Commission raised these points to the Corps over several months- and the Corps’ Lt. Col. Childers listened. The Corps cited that the decision to take no action at this time was due to “the very high value some stakeholders place on the ecosystem outputs provided by the existing habitat conditions and traditional significance of the area.”

“Idaho Wildlife Federation welcomes the Corps’ decision to forgo plans to construct the Lake View Trail. The trail, as proposed, brought significant risks to the landscape utilized by our state’s largest migrating mule deer herd and would have undermined generations of conservation efforts dating back to the 1940s” said Brian Brooks, Executive Director of Idaho Wildlife Federation. “We will continue leading efforts to address the needs of wildlife amidst a rapidly expanding population in Idaho.”

The hills just beyond Boise to the East make up the Boise River Wildlife Management Area; highlighted in this USGS report of major ungulate migrations of the Western US. From as early as 1943, this landscape has been set aside specifically to protect the last remaining wintering grounds for mule deer and elk that migrate upwards of 100 miles to summer feeding grounds near the Sawtooths. This data is critical to showcase the value of conserving winter range at the terminal end of these annual migrations.

“IWF owes a huge thank you to the sportsmen and women who spoke up in opposition during the public comment period,” said Garret Visser, IWF’s Conservation Program Coordinator. “Conservation wins don’t come easy. It takes a lot of work to educate folks on an issue and organize them to take action, but it’s all for nothing if no one takes the step to voice their values. This decision was made possible by our voices echoing all the way to the Army Corps’ desks in Walla Walla.”

92% of submitted public comments opposed the construction of the trail. “Those numbers are remarkable,” concluded Visser. “Wildlife conservation is still such a uniting issue.”

Check out the Army Corps’ decision here.