West End, Life 1950-1975
By Trace Blackstone
A lot had changed in the last fifty years, for example this area was no longer on the outskirts of the city because Boise had grown to cover more than half of the area. Also with the river moved out of the area more land was available for use, most of which was used in making neighborhoods. In 1950, most of the families that were living in the neighborhood were likely families with young children. This was because of the fact that there was an elementary school called Whittier that was built fairly recently right next to the area.
The tremendous enrollment growth created a need for new school buildings, and the late 1940’s saw the beginning of a large scale building program. The District’s second junior high, South, was built in 1947-48. Jefferson, Lincoln and Whittier Elementary Schools were built in 1949. … (boiseschools.org)
It was a time of great expansion for the city of Boise. As more and more people started to move into the city from the surrounding countryside Boise was being expanded out over the surrounding area, like in my land parcel and many other places in the city. In fact at the time Boise rated eighth among major north west cities in 1950 building activities, according to the Construction News Bulletin.(Idaho Statesman March 3, 1950) It also lists the building permits issued in Boise at the time, which I find to be a good indication of what was happening in city. In February, 1950 the building permits issued were: commercial 3; dwellings 14; private buildings 8; additions 51; electrical work 39; and plumbing 32. (Idaho Statesman March 3, 1950)
The increase in development caused some problems that greatly impacted the local wildlife. For as the human population of Boise steadily grew and the whole city expanded this pushed the local wildlife out of their usual habitats. The very limited available space and resources that was left for the wildlife led to the animals competing with each other which caused some of the animal populations to take a large negative impact. “Ada county Fish and Game league is on record, urging control of elk which are invading deer ranges along the lower Boise River drainage.” (Idaho Statesman March 3, 1950).
The Boise River itself had been greatly changed from 1900. It was now only half the size and depth that it once was, not to mention the river was now flowing into a different area altogether. The reason for this is mostly because of the four dams that had been built upstream, such as Lucky Peak Dam which was finished in 1955.
The dam was first built with only one outlet and the potential for hydropower. The power output from the single outlet proved to be inadequate, so a second hydropower outlet was built. Construction of the second outlet was completed in August of 1986. As the outlet was finished modifications were started on the first outlet, which were finished in January of 1987. Construction of the powerhouse was done from 1984 to 1988 when it went online. (idahoptv.org)
Lucky Peak 1953. (facebook/time lines)
It was around this time that people were beginning to be affected by all of the environmental impacts the humans had caused. For example, the air was thick and highly toxic to breathe due to all the coal that the city was burning and the water was too polluted to drink because of the city dumping into the Boise River. Now that it was starting to have advisers affects on them, people began to take notice that when they mistreat the environment it could lead to negative impacts on them and the wildlife.
This realization is what started the United States’ “Environmental Acts”. The first Act was the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948, which created a comprehensive set of water quality programs that also provided some financing for state and local governments. Enforcement was limited to interstate waters. The Public Health Service provided financial and technical assistance. There was also the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955. This was “an act to provide research and technical assistance relating to air pollution control.” The act declared that air pollution was a danger to public health and welfare, but preserved the “primary responsibilities and rights of the states and local government in controlling air pollution.”(epa.gov) While both of these acts were good ideas they did have some problems. The biggest one was the fact that the acts left states principally in charge of prevention and control of air pollution at the source. This wouldn’t have been much of a problem if the states had just done what they were supposed to do, but since the acts were more or less open to interpretation some people just ignored them.
So in order to make the acts work the government amended both of them. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act after being amended became known as the Clean Water Act of 1972. The objective of this is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters by preventing point and non-point pollution sources, providing assistance to publicly owned treatment works for the improvement of waste-water treatment, and maintaining the integrity of wetlands.(epa.gov) As well as the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, which sets standards for drinking water quality and oversee all states, localities, and water suppliers who implement these standards. The Air Pollution Control Act of 1955 after it was amended became known the Clean Air Act of 1970, which authorized the development of comprehensive federal and state regulations to limit emissions from both stationary (industrial) sources and mobile sources.(epa.gov) This was joined with the Air Quality Act of 1967 that was enacted in order to expand federal government activities. In accordance with this law, enforcement proceedings were initiated in areas subject to interstate air pollution transport.(epa.gov) As part of these proceedings, the federal government for the first time conducted extensive ambient monitoring studies and stationary source inspections.
EPA Map of Idaho. (www2.epa.gov)
Now that the environmental laws were clear, the only thing the government needed was a way to enforce these laws. In order to do this the U.S. Government created the United States Environmental Protection Agency also known as the EPA. The EPA is an agency of the U.S. Federal government which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education. It has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with state, tribal, and local governments. Idaho became part of EPA’s Region 10.
Now with all of this going on it is easy to see way people were really starting to recognize the importance of having the environment around. This led the people Boise in 1967 to start creating the Greenbelt, which had a very positive impact on the area I am surveying. The Boise River Greenbelt is a recreational and alternate transportation trail along the banks of the Boise River through Boise, Idaho. It extends more than 20 miles beginning at Lucky Peak Dam in the east to a short distance beyond Eagle Road in the west in Eagle, Idaho. Taking into account both sides of the river and other parallel trails and spurs, the total Greenbelt trail system measures more than 30 miles. The Greenbelt connects Boise’s riverside parks and connects Boise with neighboring municipalities.(cityofboise) With the clean up of the river bank and the planting of trees that came with the making of the greenbelt the wildlife of the area started to return because now they had a small area to live in. Another positive environmental impact to my survey area would be the creation of an artificial pond around 1969, where the Boise River use to be that would come to be known later as Quinn’s Pond which also became a good habit to the returning wildlife. So by this time in Boise, with the help of the people the wildlife is staring to recover from the damage that was done to them from development and pollution.
Boise over head, 1969. BSU Historical Achieves.
Citations
The Idaho Statesman. Boise Public Library Historical Archives. 03/03/1950. Print.
http://www.boiseschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=270864 Web.
http://www.epa.gov/ Web.
https://www.facebook.com/LuckyPeakLake/photos_stream Web.
https://parks.cityofboise.org/parks-locations/parks/greenbelt/ Web.
http://www2.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-air-act Web.
http://www2.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-water-act Web.
Urban Environmental Boise 