Release Date: 5/22/2026
City of Boise Celebrates 25 Years of Conservation
Boise – This year marks the 25th anniversary of Boise's first Foothills Levy passed by 59% of Boise voters on May 22, 2001. With a two-year, $10 million dollar commitment, Boiseans showed tremendous support for protecting open space in the Boise Foothills. To celebrate this landmark vote, the City of Boise invites the public to explore Boise’s Open Space: Celebrating 25 Years of Boise's First Foothills Levy, a digital exhibit of historic photographs and stories unlocking the origins, conditions, and events surrounding the foothill’s environment, as well as the impact of the levy on Boise’s open space over the last two decades.
Later this year, the city is planning a guided tour and native plant stewardship opportunity in the foothills on Saturday, September 26 — National Public Lands Day — as well as a panel discussion in early October, featuring conservation advocates who historically led and continue to lead the charge on open space protection. Both events will be held at the Jim Halls Foothills Learning Center. Event details will be released this summer.
“As we mark this historic anniversary, I remember it like it was yesterday — hundreds of volunteers making phone calls and knocking on doors in the final days of a community-centered effort to pass our first open space levy,” said Mayor Lauren McLean. “As the campaign manager for the first Foothills Levy, I saw firsthand the power of Boiseans, committed to coming together under common cause, to protect the place we call home. That first levy 25 years ago launched Boise’s legacy of protecting open space and clean water for our kids and theirs and I’m grateful that Boiseans continue to say yes to protecting more for generations to come.”
Origins and Brief History of the Boise Foothills and Levy
For thousands of years, Indigenous people inhabited their ancestral lands of the Boise Valley and Snake River Plain in southern Idaho prior to the arrival of Euro-American settlers. Bands of Shoshone, Bannock, and Northern Paiute people lived in these areas, migrating with the seasons, spending summers in the foothills and winters in the valley. After the U.S. Cavalry forcibly removed them, the foothills were used for ranching, agriculture, and recreation. As recreational activities in the foothills increased, tensions began to mount between private landowners and recreationists. The Boise Front Coalition, which formed in the late 1980s, worked with citizens, foothill users, and government agencies to build a shared vision of the foothills. This was followed by the establishment of the Ridge to Rivers partnership in 1992. This work helped pave the way for the foothills levy.
Beginning in November 2001, the City of Boise included the levy in property taxes for commercial, residential, and industrial property. The Foothills Conservation Advisory Committee was established to make recommendations to Boise City Mayor and Council to ensure that the levy funds were spent wisely. Only the Mayor and City Council could approve expenditures from the levy. Funds were used to protect and provide long-term strategies for open space lands, such as Table Rock, Eagle Rock Park and Chief Eagle Eye Reserve, Hulls Gulch Reserve, Military Reserve, and Polecat Gulch Reserve, among other conserved properties. The levy ended in 2003 following the collection of $10 million dollars.
In 2015, a second levy passed with 74% support, which provided an additional $10 million dollars for clean water, open space protection, wildlife habitat, and improvement projects, followed 10 years later by a third and historic Clean Water and Open Space Levy in 2025 approved by more than 80% of Boise voters and generating $11 million to continue the work of protecting wildlife habitat, providing recreational opportunities, improving access to open space, park sites and pathways for everyone, and enhancing clean water for the enjoyment of future generations. To date, levy funds have been used to protect more than 12,500 acres in the Boise Foothills, as well as to preserve park property across the city.
The city owns and manages 15 reserves totaling more than 5,000 acres. For more information about the impact of Boise’s levy purchases and projects, visit the City of Boise website.
