Resource management planning efforts on the Bureau of Land Management's Snake River birds of prey national conservation area
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In 1993, Congress passed Public Law 103-64, which established the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (NCA) for the purpose of conserving, protecting, and enhancing raptor populations and habitats. The NCA encompasses over 485,000 acres of public land along 130 km of the Snake River in southwest Idaho, and is located within a 30-minute drive of Boise and about half of Idaho's population. The area supports one of the highest densities of non-colonial nesting raptors in the world (USDI 1979b, Olendorff et al. 1989), and has been popular with raptor enthusiasts since the 1940s. Over 700 raptor pairs representing 16 species nest in the NCA each spring, with an additional eight species migrating through the area during various seasons. The increasing human population in the area has caused a number of recreation-related impacts to the NCA. The greatest impacts, however, have been caused by natural and human-caused wildfires.