On-Line Flora, Recommended Wildflower Walks, and Other Natural History Tidbits

Welcome to Treasures of the Boise Front!  If you want to:

• find out more about that flower you saw on a recent hike in the Boise foothills
• see options for good trails for wildflowers at a particular time of year
• just learn more about the unique natural history of the Boise Front

you’ve come to the right place!  The purpose of this site is to help foster a general appreciation of what’s special about an area that an increasing number of us are calling home. 

Please enjoy the trails and wildflowers, and leave them for others to enjoy. Stay on the trails, and also realize that the cumulative effect of off-leash dogs can damage particularly sensitive habitats. Our unique native flora is already under pressure from invasive weeds and habitat loss, so please resist the urge to pick flowers or harvest native plants in the Boise Front; information on possible uses of native plants are not included on this site for this reason.

Non-native species are an entirely different matter, with harvest subject to regulations and/or permission from the landowner or land management agency. Even better, become a Weed Warrior and learn to identify and help control the invasive plant species that are shoving aside our local “treasures”. The City of Boise’s Open Space and Foothills division works hard to promote native plant growth and restoration in the Foothills year-round.

WHAT IS THE BOISE FRONT?

As used here, the Boise Front covers public open space from the Greenbelt to the forested ridgeline, including Mores Mountain and Robie Creek Road, between Highway 55 and Blacks Creek Road.  To increase the floristic diversity available on public land within a relatively short drive from downtown Boise, the lands around Lucky Peak Lake are also included, as is the area south of Boise as far as the Kuna-Mora Road.  Within this area, we are fortunate to have an expanding network of excellent trails that provide access to a rich diversity of botanical “treasures”, some of which occur only in this part of Idaho and nowhere else in the entire world.