The opportunity for a quiet and stress-free outdoor experience found its way into the sights of many shooters at the local fishing hole outside Troy, Idaho.
Spring Valley Reservoir is located minutes from the small town, and hosts many outdoor experiences including year-round fishing, bird watching, archery competitions and an annual ice-fishing derby.
Spring Valley is busy enough that there are maintained facilities and a full-time caretaker present. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game also maintains an annual fish stocking program to maintain the quality of fishing for people who enjoy the reservoir. But the reservoir is in danger.
Private land adjacent to the reservoir has become a popular firearm shooting location for dozens o, and it’s causing conflict.
“There’s trash everywhere. Not just right there, but all the way back … It’s everywhere,” Dusty Cummings said.
Cummings, who has been the caretaker of Spring Valley for about four years, said there are several issues with the allowance of shooting so close to the reservoir, but trash is the biggest concern.
“No one cleans up after themselves,” Cummings said.
Cummings said her duties as caretaker include facility maintenance, trash pick-up, answering questions and dealing with problems at the reservoir. Unruly parties and overnight campers create a steady stream of trouble, but sometimes her duties encompass stopping the use of firearms and fireworks.
Spring Valley has a strict no fireworks or firearms policy to protect the reservoir’s ecosystem and those using it. Cummings said even with signs stating the policy, she has several instances each year of people shooting at the reservoir.
Cummings and Idaho Fish and Game have the power to restrict use of firearms on state property around the reservoir, but they have no jurisdiction over the shooting that happens a few hundred feet from the water’s edge.
“It would be like asking your neighbor to stop doing something,” Cummings said. “We just don’t have the right.”
Cummings said the land shooters are using belongs to the Bennett Lumber Company. So, while Bennett has no issue with how the land is being used, there isn’t anything to be done about the shooting or trash. Cummings’ frustration was evident as gunshots could be heard cracking in the background.
“People are shooting out here daily,” Cummings said. “But we can’t do anything about it.”
According to D.W. Duff’s 1965 thesis, “Some limnological aspects of Spring Valley Reservoir,” the reservoir was constructed in 1961 as a recreational site. The site was originally a shallow meadow. It was later dammed, flooded and stocked with fish. This reservoir has been used by thousands of individuals and is known by several bird watching groups as a premier site to observe raptors and waterfowl. At no point was the reservoir intended to be used as a firearms range.
Easy access allows locals to enjoy another aspect of the Idaho outdoors.
“Gosh, we’re out here three or four days a week,” Spring Valley shooter Sue Earls said.
Earls and her husband were shooting a small caliber rifle 100 feet from Spring Valley Road. Earls was on the private land by only feet and yet was perfectly happy about the opportunity for shooters.
“It’s close to home, its beautiful, it’s very serene,” Earls said.
Earls is only one of many who use the area for shooting, and is a special case because of her diligence toward cleaning up after herself.
“I clean up everything,” Earls said. “Mostly it looks like people just come out here and drop lead.”
Earls was quick to reiterate the benefits of the shooting area.
“Coming from Washington state, it’s absolutely fantastic how many places you can just pull off the road and do something like this,” Earls said. “What’s the big deal? I think that more lands should be used like this.”
Michael French can be reached at [email protected]