Boise National Forest is a National Forest covering of the U.S. state of Idaho. Created on July 1, 1908, from part of Sawtooth National Forest, it is managed by the U.S. Forest Service as five units: the Cascade, Emmett, Idaho City, Lowman, and Mountain Home ranger districts.
The Idaho Batholith underlies most of Boise National Forest, forming the forest's Boise, Salmon River, and West mountain ranges; the forest reaches a maximum elevation of on Steel Mountain. Common land cover includes sagebrush steppe and spruce-fir forests; there are of streams and rivers and of lakes and reservoirs. Boise National Forest contains 75 percent of the known populations of Sacajawea's bitterroot, a flowering plant endemic to Idaho.
The Shoshone people occupied the forest before European settlers arrived in the early 19th century. Many of the early settlers were trappers and prospectors before gold was discovered in 1862. After the 1860s Boise Basin gold rush ended, mining of tungsten, silver, antimony, and gold continued in the forest until the mid-twentieth century. Recreation facilities include over 70 campgrounds, whitewater and flatwater boating, cabin rentals, and of trails for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and motorized off-road vehicle use. The Forest Service has an objective to maintain timber, range, water, recreation, and wildlife for multiple use and sustained yield of its resources.
History
Archaeological evidence indicates that human habitation in Idaho began towards the end of the last ice age: bone fragments about 10,000 years old have been found in Wilson Butte Cave, an inflationary cave on the Snake River Plain believed to have been occupied by indigenous people until as recently as the 17th century. A change of climate around 7000 years ago dried up much of the Great Basin, forcing the Shoshone people northward into the mountainous areas of central Idaho.Smith (1983) p. 3. Most of what is now Boise National Forest was sparsely inhabited by Native Americans, and several archaeological sites, including campsites, rock shelters, burial grounds, and pictographs have been found along rivers in the area.Smith (1983) p. 4. Trappers and fur traders of European descent first arrived in the area in the early 1800s, starting with John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company in October 1811. Donald Mackenzie and Francois Payette trapped in the area of Boise National Forest in 1819.Smith (1983) p. 7. By 1840, the fur trade was coming to an end, but the westward migration on the Oregon Trail, which passed south of the forest, was beginning.Smith (1983) p. 8. The first settlers moved into the mountains in the 1860s after gold was discovered in Idaho, which forced many of the Shoshone out and led to conflicts throughout the state, including the Bannock War in southern Idaho.
Prospectors George Grimes and Moses Splawn were the first to discover gold in the forest at the eponymous Grimes Creek on August 2, 1862. Subsequent gold discoveries at Rocky Bar in 1863 and Atlanta in 1864 increased the rush of people to Idaho, and in 1863 Idaho City, with a population of 6,267, surpassed Portland, Oregon as the largest city in the Pacific Northwest. The Idaho gold rush was largely over by 1870, and the population of the Boise Basin fell from 16,000 to 3,500.Smith (1983) p. 10. In 1898 the forest's first gold dredge was built in Placerville and followed by several others. By 1951, when the last dredges shut down, at least 2.3 million ounces (65.2 million grams) of gold had been produced from the Boise Basin area.Smith (1983) p. 12. Silver was mined along the Crooked River from 1882 until 1921, but a silver mine at Silver Mountain proved unsuccessful.Smith (1983) p. 13. Following a shortage of mercury during World War II, mines in the Stibnite area became the country's largest producer of tungsten and second largest source of mercury.Smith (1983) p. 16. The most important known placer deposit of niobium and tantalum in the United States is located in Bear Valley. From 1953 until 1959, dredges there produced $12.5 million ($ today) in niobium, tantalum, and uranium. Other minerals mined in the forest include antimony and molybdenum.
U.S. Forest Service
Boise National Forest was created on July 1, 1908, from part of Sawtooth National Forest, and originally covered . By the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, the U.S. Congress granted the U.S. President the authority to establish forest reserves out of Public Domain Lands that were subject to disposal (homesteads, sales, etc.) administered by the United States General Land Office, which had been placed under the authority of the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1849. With the passage of the Transfer Act of 1905, forest reserves were transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the newly created U.S. Forest Service. Present-day Boise National Forest was first protected as part of two forest reserves by proclamations issued by President Theodore Roosevelt: Sawtooth Forest Reserve (created on May 29, 1905, and expanded on November 6, 1906) and Payette Forest Reserve (created on June 3, 1905). After forest reserves were renamed national forests in 1908, Boise National Forest was split from Sawtooth National Forest into an independent national forest. Emile Grandjean was the forest's first supervisor, serving from 1908 to 1922. On April 1, 1944, the entirety of what was then Payette National Forest was transferred to Boise National Forest, and simultaneously Weiser and Idaho national forests were combined to reestablish the present-day Payette National Forest, which is to the north of Boise National Forest. In 1933 the Boise Basin Experimental Forest was created on of the forest near Idaho City to study the management of ponderosa pine. The Lucky Peak Nursery was established in 1959 to produce trees for planting on burned or logged lands on the national forests of the Intermountain region.Smith (1983) p. 66–67.
After the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933, nine camps and eight subcamps were set up in Boise National Forest, but the number of camps was reduced from 1934 until the program was closed in 1942. Work conducted by the CCC included fire suppression, fish habitat improvement, and construction of guard houses, fire lookouts, campgrounds, roads, and trails, among other facilities.Smith (1983) p. 55–56.
Management
Boise National Forest is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, an agency within the Department of Agriculture, as five units called ranger districts. The ranger districts are Cascade (), Emmett (), Idaho City (400,000 acres), Lowman (400,000 acres), and Mountain Home (); each has an office in their respective cities and is managed by a district ranger, while forest headquarters are located in the city of Boise. Congress proclaimed of Idaho part of Boise National Forest, but the forest manages only .2010 Boise National Forest Amended Forest Plan p. I-5 The proclaimed boundary is set and can only be changed by Congress whereas the administered boundary can be shifted among adjacent national forests without congressional approval. For management (and from the visitor's perspective) the forest's boundaries are its administered area.
+Land areas of Boise National Forest administered by or proclaimed part of another national forestNational forestLocationAdministered byProclaimed part ofBoisePayetteEast of Council2010 Boise National Forest Amended Forest Plan p. I-6BoiseSawtoothBetween Mountain Home and FairfieldBoise/Salmon-Challis (joint)BoiseSouthwest corner of the Frank Church–River of No Return WildernessPayetteBoiseStibnite region of the upper East Fork South Fork Salmon River drainageSalmon-ChallisBoiseIndian, Pistol, and Elkhorn creek drainages of the Frank Church–River of No Return WildernessSawtoothBoiseSawtooth Wilderness in Sawtooth National Recreation Area ()
Geography and geology
Elevations in the forest range from in the North Fork Payette River Canyon to at the top of Steel Mountain, a gain of . The forest contains several subranges of the Rocky Mountains, including the Boise, Salmon River, and West mountain ranges. Much of the forest is underlain by the Idaho Batholith, and the forest is dominated by granitic rock, but intrusions of basalt can be found to the west and other volcanic rocks to the south.2010 Boise National Forest Amended Forest Plan p. I-10
North of the South Fork Payette River and east of the North Fork Payette River, the forest is part of the Salmon River Mountains, which extend north and east outside the forest's boundaries. The South Fork Salmon River Range and the North Fork Range are subranges of the Salmon River Mountains within Boise National Forest. The Boise Mountains cover much of the southern portion of the forest and contain the forest's highest point, Steel Mountain, but the range's highest point, Two Point Mountain, lies outside of the forest's boundary. The Trinity Mountains are a subrange in southeastern part of the Boise Mountains that reach their peak at on Trinity Mountain. The westernmost portion of the forest south and west of Lake Cascade are part of the West Mountains, which reach their highest point at on Snowbank Mountain. The Danskin Mountains are a smaller range on the forest's southern border that run northwest to southeast.
Waterways
There are an estimated of perennial and intermittent streams and of lakes and reservoirs in the forest. The Forest Service provides access to and recreation opportunities at the seven reservoirs it borders, although it does not own or manage them. There are numerous natural lakes in the forest, most of which are tarns created by alpine glaciers during the Pleistocene. The largest, Warm Lake, is 26 miles (42 km) east of Cascade in Valley County; many of the smaller lakes are in the Trinity and West mountains. Annual water yield on the forest is estimated at . The southern portion of the forest is drained by the Boise River, the central and western portions by the Payette River, northeastern portion by the Salmon River, and far western portions of the Emmett Ranger District by the Weiser River. All four rivers are tributaries of the Snake River, which itself is a tributary of the Columbia River in the Pacific basin.
+Dams and reservoirs of Boise National ForestDamRiverTypeHeightReservoirVolumeGenerating capacityOwnerBuiltfeetmetersacre-feetkm3MWAnderson Ranch DamSouth Fork Boise RiverEarthfillAnderson Ranch Reservoir40U.S. Bureau of Reclamation1950Arrowrock DamBoise RiverConcrete archArrowrock Reservoir0U.S. Bureau of Reclamation1915Cascade DamNorth Fork Payette RiverEarthfillLake Cascade12.4U.S. Bureau of Reclamation1948Deadwood DamDeadwood RiverConcrete archDeadwood Reservoir0U.S. Bureau of Reclamation1931Little Camas DamLittle Camas CreekEarthfillLittle Camas Reservoir0Mountain Home Irrigation District1912Lucky Peak DamBoise RiverEarthfillLucky Peak Lake101U.S. Army Corps of Engineers1955Sage Hen DamSage Hen CreekEarthfillSage Hen Reservoir0Squaw Creek Irrigation Company1938
Climate