Final Travel Management Plan Released for Southeastern Idaho BLM Lands

Jul 30

Networks of roads, trails, and routes crisscross the nation’s public lands, offering high-quality recreation opportunities and providing access to remarkable places. These routes impact the wildlife that call these lands home and the resources and plant life they sustain, dividing crucial habitat and bringing people, noise, and disturbance deep into those areas.

In Greater Yellowstone, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Upper Snake Field Office recently released a plan that defines and manages travel and recreation on its lands in southeast Idaho. This area includes critical winter range for deer and moose, along with the Sand Creek Elk Herd, which migrates to eastern Idaho from as far away as Yellowstone National Park.

*Idaho’s Centennial Mountains mark the northern border of the BLM’s Upper Snake Travel Management Planning Area. (Photo © Christine Page with aerial support provided by LightHawk)*

After proposing four alternatives that ranged from no action to lower levels of motorized use opportunities, to increased routes, and a fourth alternative somewhere in between, the BLM developed alternative themes rather than selecting one of the proposed alternatives.

From the alternative themes, the BLM selected a route network – essentially combining the themes to create one identified route network and a final management plan.

The Upper Snake East Travel Management Plan is the first of its kind in this corner of Idaho. GYC advocated for an alternative that ensured the continued protection of critical wildlife habitat, especially winter range, while balancing recreation opportunities. We also asked for improvements to the alternative that would reduce route density and implement more seasonal closures for wildlife in the winter months to protect migrations and calving.

In a news release from the BLM, Acting Upper Snake Field Manager Bret Herres said, “The Upper Snake East Travel Management Plan provides a long-term and sustainable transportation system that maintains access to public lands, while addressing private property conflicts and natural resource considerations.”

Because the BLM chose pieces of the alternative themes, rather than a previously proposed network, each route must be evaluated individually. The GYC team will continue to evaluate what this plan means for BLM lands in southeast Idaho and the wildlife and natural resources they support.

The final Upper Snake East Travel Management Plan is available to view here.

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