[Boise] Several events are planned throughout Idaho this month to celebrate a special year for National Public Lands Day.
The events are aimed at getting Idahoans out on public lands to participate in volunteer projects. This year’s National Public Lands Day is especially significant for the BLM. We are celebrating our 70th anniversary, plus 2016 is a milestone marking the 40th year since the BLM’s bedrock legislation was passed. (See additional information below.)
The media is invited to attend and cover the following events. Visuals and newsworthy angles for each event are described below.
Boise District
Sept. 17 Poison Creek Recreation Site
Tasks include replacing pole fencing, planting native vegetation, and doing trail work. A guest speaker will present a talk about “Owls of the Owyhees" and children will help build bird houses.
Location: 25 miles SW of Grandview
Time: 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Sept. 23 Blacks Creek Bird Preserve
BLM employees from the Boise District and the Idaho State Office will be joining the Golden Eagle Audubon Society and Sage International School for an informal NPLD work day. BLM employees and partners will be repairing and maintaining fences and signs, cleaning up trash, watering plantings, and monitoring vegetation recovery.
Location: Blacks Creek reservoir, 3 miles west of Exit 64 off I-84
Time: 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM
For more information on Boise District NPLD events, contact Seth Flanigan (208) 384-3450
Idaho Falls District
Sept. 24 North Menan Butte
Volunteers will help clean up trash.
Location: 10 miles west of Rexburg
Time: Starts at 10:00. End time TBD
Sept. 24 St. Anthony Sand Dunes
Volunteers will install vehicle barriers and information signs and clean up trash. BLM staff will do some educational activities at the Sand Dunes as well.
Location: Call ahead for event location.
Time: 9:00 AM to Noon
Sept. 24 Civil Defense Cave
Volunteers (including a Boy Scout troop) will be bagging and hauling trash out of the cave.
Location: 23 miles north of Rexburg
Time: Start time TBD. Call ahead for event times.
Sept. 24 Goodenough Creek campground
Volunteers will upgrade campground facilities and plant trees and native vegetation. This event will include several educational presentations, including how the BLM is working to improve native fish habitat.
Location: 5 miles west of McCammon
Time: 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Sept. 24 City of Challis
Volunteers and BLM employees will be creating a mountain bike trail behind the town to enhance access to public lands.
Location: One-quarter mile south of Challis, at the end of Dump Road
Time: 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
For more information on Idaho Falls NPLD events, contact: Sarah Wheeler (208) 524-7550
Coeur d’Alene District
Sept. 22 Wallace L. Forest Conservation Area
Work will include trail maintenance, trash cleanup, repairing and updating information kiosks, and tree planting.
Location: Conservation Area trailhead, 2 miles NW of the Wolf Lodge exit off I-90
Time: 9:00 to Noon
For more information on Coeur d’Alene District events, contact Suzanne Endsley (208) 769-5004
One NPLD event has already occurred on the Twin Falls District. On Sept. 10, a group of volunteers braved the first frost of the year to assist the BLM's Salmon Field Office with a Salmon River clean-up. Volunteers split up and tackled various sections of the river from Shoup Bridge Campground to Morgan Bar Campground. See photos of this event at https://www.flickr.com/photos/blmidaho
About the BLM’s twin anniversaries…
The BLM was formed in 1946 when the General Land Office (whose mission was the disposal of federal lands in the western U.S.) and the Grazing Service (whose mission was the regulation of grazing lands and the retention of federal lands) were combined. The1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) gave the BLM a clear identity and gave the agency new statutory authority to manage millions of acres of public lands across the country.
Today, the BLM is the Department of Interior’s only true multiple-use land management agency, and it has the largest federal land management mandate in the nation.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
