Arboretum would dress up foothills
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A common comlpaint about Idaho Falls scenery is, well, the lack of much scenery. One area of blandness is our plain foothills. Nobody has ever laid out a large “IF” in white stones the way many cities do. The least we could to to increase our local beauty would be to create an arboretum in the foothills.
For those who have never visited an arboretum (or don’t know what it is), it’s essentially a park with lots of trees. (arbor=tree) The University of Idaho in Moscow boasts two arboretums. One is the old arboretum and is a dense forest in the middle of campus. The other is the new arboretum set in a mini-valley next to their golf course. The new arboretum features a nicer walking path, ponds, and plant species from around the world.
We could build a long arboretum that stretches along the crest of our foothills. The length would be a fitness incentive to walk a few miles. In addition to a dense forest, it could include a botanical garden, non-denominational spiritual spaces, and a war memorial or patriotic monument.
This would change our scenery forever for the better and give tourists more incentive to venture out from the greenbelt, which is good for everyone in Idaho Falls.
What would it take to do this project?
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Comments
Vote:
0 
0 I would like to see an arboretum or two in Idaho Falls city limits.
It doesn’t have to be a huge, Tautphaus Park-sized forest, but a forest setting would be nice in some places rather than a couple trees around a small, flat grassy area.
One arboretum would be nice somewhere off the greenbelt walk. Another might be nice between Broadway and the west-side walmart.
Where else?
Vote:
0 0 “What would it take to do this project?”
Money. And lots of it.
But for the price of a little gas money, here are a few natural arboretums you can visit:
Horseshoe Lake, Fremont County. HWY 47 out of Ashton, turn at Cave Falls Road, drive for about ten miles, follow the signs to Horseshoe Lake. Camp there in fall and you won’t want to sleep because of the elk bugling in your neighborhood all night long.
Wolverine Canyon, Bingham County. S. Yellowstone HWY out of IF, watch for Wolverine Canyon Road on left, between Shelley and Blackfoot.
Hells Half Acre. I-15, between IF and Blackfoot. Ther are no towering trees, but on the nature hike you can get up close to junipers, sage brush and look down in the lava cracks at ferns. Growing in a desert.
BYU-Idaho arboretum, Rexburg. Get over the fact its on an LDS university campus and it’s non-denominational. Nice flowers, trees, crawling with university students.
Menan Buttes, W. of Rexburg, Hwy 33, turn left after crossing Snake River onto road (follow signs toward MC landfill, but skip that part). Drive to the left around the buttes. In the saddle between the buttes, there’s a steep dirt road to a small parking lot, public access. Climb the butte, look for lizards, take in the natural flora and fauna, then look east to the winding Snake River.
Or just wander into the foothills east of IF. True, trees are lacking. But this is a desert, with its own beauty. Sometimes we get too knotted up in having a destination to go to that we forget to look at what we can see on the way there.
Vote:
0 0 I can think of a couple of undeveloped places here in town where this would be very nice.
Behind Boozers on Broadway next to I-15 and the UPS building. There is a lot of undeveloped land in that area and it would spruce up what visitors first see upon entering town.
Between Home Depot and Community Park. Right now its a patch of farm land in the middle of the city.
To the southwest of Woodruff and Lincoln roads. Get back behind all the businesses lining Woodruff and there is a large undeveloped area.
Up along the river where the old dog pound used to be.
I think it would be a great idea. One of the things I don’t like about Idaho Falls is that its not very green and too deserty. Having a mini forest would be nice.
Vote:
0 0 I agree, patches of grass are better than neglected fields, but a patch of land committed to be a naturalistic forest with a trail going through it and uneven land would be neat. All it takes is a buncha trees and a few seasons.
I remember the old arboretum in moscow was like that. It was so big it even had a clearing in the middle of it with a picnic table, and you couldn’t see out to the outside world from that point, pretty neat for a spot in the middle of all the campus and city hustle and bustle.
Plus a walk through an arboretum feels more like a hike through the wilderness, not like a walk through the park which you get at Idaho Falls’, well, parks and greenbelt.
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Vote:
you mean we would look less like a desert? is it legal?