Overwhelming Sportsman Opposition To Lucky Peak Trail

This summer, sportsmen and women rallied together to oppose the Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to construct the Lake View Trail near Lucky Peak Reservoir and within the Boise River Wildlife Management Area. IWF led the charge the organize our community push back on a project that punches through critical mule deer wintering habitat. Of the total comments received, 92% voiced opposition to the construction of the 15-mile multi-use trail.

IWF and many of our affiliate organizations expressed substantial concern about the trail proposal, including the lack of analysis of impacts to the largest migrating mule deer herd in the state and their winter habitat, increased fire risk, and the lack of enforcement during seasonal closures.

The Idaho Department of Fish & Game and the Idaho Fish & Game Commission also strongly voiced these concerns and deserve our continued support. This landscape was set aside decades prior specifically for wintering ungulates and is managed under a specific Wildlife Management Area Plan. Sportsmen and women, the Department, and the Commission are standing together to protect these investments, and the future viability of the land, wildlife, and sporting opportunities.

Last week, IWF staff welcomed the release of additional scientific data that further validates these positions. The map below was published by the USGS as part of their Ungulate Migrations of the Western United States report and outlines migration routes and stopovers of Idaho’s Blacks Creek-Danskin mule deer herd, the largest migrating herd of mule deer in the state. The Army Corps’ proposed Lake View Trail would bisect the western edge of this critical habitat.

To further highlight the importance of the greater landscape, tack on this additional migration identified just on the other side Lucky Peak Reservoir, as seen in the map below.

Hunters have shown that we turn heads if we unify and speak as one voice - often it is uncomfortable and unfamiliar, but this is what determines the future of our wildlife and sporting heritage. While reports like the newly released USGS publication should impact land management decisions, it is still essential that we, as hunters, raise our voices of the value of these landscapes to decision makers. As the Army Corps inches closer to a decision, IWF will continue to closely monitor this process.

To read our original blog on this issue, click here. Be sure to check out the full USGS Report to view more of Idaho’s important migrations!

Above photo by Hagerty, Ryan, USFWS.