As you walk along the Boise River Greenbelt, with its towering trees, lush growth and abundant wildlife, you may get a sense that this beautiful setting has always been here for us to enjoy. However, up until the 1960s, the river and its banks served as a convenient dumping ground for trash, industrial waste and raw sewage, and was severely degraded by years of neglect.
In 1964 the city hired a consultant to write a comprehensive plan and update the city's zoning ordinance. He suggested that the city acquire land along the Boise River to create a continuous "green belt" of public lands stretching the entire length of the community. Soon, a local grassroots effort to clean up the waterway and create public access to the river corridor began to take hold. This vision caught on and in 1966 and 1967 three small parcels of land were donated to the city to launch this "green belt."
In 1968, with public interest and support growing, the first Greenbelt Plan and Guidelines were adopted by the Board of Parks Commissioners. A Greenbelt and Pathways Committee was appointed in 1969 to guide the City of Boise as it worked to develop the Greenbelt, and in 1971 the first Greenbelt Ordinance was adopted which required a minimum setback of 70 feet for all structures and parking areas. The City of Boise continued to slowly piece together a patchwork of land along the corridor using several methods of acquisition including purchase, exchange, leasing and receiving donations of property by individuals, civic groups and corporations.
Today, the Greenbelt is maintained by the Boise Parks & Recreation Department. They work closely with land owners and other public agencies to expand and improve the existing pathway.
This cache is one in a series of caches along the entire length of the Greenbelt. I will start at one end of it and continue to fill in all of the gaps that other cachers have left on the Greenbelt. This I'm sure will take me several months to complete as I'm one man. But stay tuned and watch this project of mine unfold. Enjoy the beauty of the area and all of the other caches along here. Oh and you better be having fun too.