Funds For Tunnel Trail, Cda Lake Access Ok’d Senate Approves $1.95 Million For Idaho Lands Project

Money needed to reopen the Taft Tunnel recreation trail and to provide more public access to Lake Coeur d’Alene was approved late Thursday by the U.S. Senate.

Both provisions are included in the Interior Appropriations bill.

The bill provides $1.95 million for the Bureau of Land Management’s Idaho Lands Project, according to Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. Before becoming law, it must be approved by a Senate-House conference committee and signed by the president.

The lands project stems from a 1992 federal land exchange, in which the BLM lost land in North Idaho so the government could gain wildlife habitat in Arkansas.

In return, the agency received promises of annual appropriations to purchase other wildlife habitat and recreation sites.

Ted Graf, BLM spokesman in Coeur d’Alene, was surprised Thursday to learn about the appropriation.

“Yesterday, the word I had was that the Senate appropriation bill had axed all money for federal land purchases.”

Graf could not say where the money would be spent at Lake Coeur d’Alene, although the agency has identified a number of lakeshore properties it would like to acquire. Among them is land near Blue Creek, which was mentioned in a news release from Craig. It includes bald eagle roosting habitat.

The 46-mile Taft Tunnel trail is on national forest land. It follows the path of an abandoned railroad line crossing the Bitterroot Mountains from Idaho to Montana.

The appropriations bill instructs the U.S. Forest Service to install guardrails and make other safety improvements before reopening the trail to hikers, bicyclists and horse riders.

While Craig sought $450,000 for the project, the Senate didn’t provide that, according to Jim Fowler, a spokesman for the Taft Tunnel Preservation Society. Instead, senators directed that the money come from the Forest Service’s $25 million national trails budget.

Still, Fowler described the bill as a significant step in efforts to restore the trail.

“We couldn’t make this project happen without congressional help,” Fowler said. “In conjunction with other grants or separately, it can be done. And it’s our belief Craig won’t stop until it happens.”

, DataTimes