Updates from Tuesday October 22nd
Our story has been featured by local media outlets, including visuals and footage from camp. Visit these web pages to hear more:
Update as of 11:09pm on Saturday October 12th
Some of our staff were finally able to access our Lucky Peak camp on Friday, October 11th. We’re so thankful for the hard work of the firefighters and land managers who made it possible for us to return to our research station! We’re full of every mix of emotions after returning from our visit to the site.
Here’s a summary of what we saw:
The overall news is that the center of our camp escaped serious damage. Some of the large central trees near the main camping pad and kitchen tent are still standing with needles on them. Our yurt was not burned down and our wall tents are still standing, however we still need to evaluate these for smoke damage as they were remarkably close to some very intensely burned areas of the peak. It is a relief that at least some of our gear was spared and that part of this beautiful place still looks much like it once was.
The surrounding areas around camp did not fare so well. Tragically, a very intense burn moved through the treed hillside where most of our songbird and raptor crew camped, as well as the dispersed area where the owl team camped. The tents and field gear of our crew were completely destroyed, and the large douglas fir trees in this area were burned. We’re heartbroken for them and are working hard with the insurance folks. We want to make sure our crew are taken care of. We feel a deep sense of loss and sadness for our team and the personal belongings that just can’t be replaced.
The burn also encompassed a good portion of the shrubs around camp, but it was patchy with some areas completely scorched while others nearby were untouched. Of our mist nets, it seems that there will still be vegetation at about half of our songbird net lanes. Our owl camp station was only lightly burned, but our ridge station was intensely burned.
Our raptor trapping blind was completely burned to the ground along with all the equipment inside.
After 30 years of monitoring birds at this site, we’re not going to let this deter us from our mission of bird research, outreach, and education. We are currently working on plans as to how exactly we will be able to return to monitoring here and when it will be safe. Of course we are wondering what new research questions we can ask about bird population recovery after wildfire in this gigantic and forced natural experiment.
Whatever the timeline and whatever our action plan, it’s clear to us now more than ever that we are going to need you, our community, to help pull us through, and continue to support us as you always have.
If you haven’t already, please fill out our volunteer form if you might be interested in helping out. We have some immediate needs now, but expect as we learn more we’ll be reaching out with more volunteer opportunities.
Longer term, there will be a long road to habitat restoration ahead. We’ll be working with Idaho Department of Fish and Game and land management agencies to support their habitat restoration efforts in the broader area. But, Lucky Peak being Lucky Peak, you can be sure that we will want to give some extra TLC to any restoration needed around our research station. Whenever access is safe we will be ready to join our partners in whatever work needs to be done.
We’re incredibly grateful to have insurance to help replace much of the gear we lost, but so much of what makes Lucky Peak special goes beyond “stuff” you can buy. It’s the spirit of the place—the community, the history, the habitat—that makes it the beloved spot we all cherish.
Your donation today will help us regroup, restore, and even enhance our research and outreach efforts. It’s going to take all of us—your generosity and volunteer support included—to bring Lucky Peak back to life.
Can you help us today by supporting those priceless elements of the place we love? Your support will allow us to support any agency habitat restoration activities, bring together community partners, recruit and organize volunteers, hand-craft our specialized raptor trapping equipment, revive our educational programming, and sustain the trainee program that lies at the heart of Lucky Peak’s future.
Together, we can ensure that Lucky Peak comes back stronger than ever. If you’d like to help, please donate today.
As of 11:05pm, Tuesday October 8th
Firefighters continue the tough work of containing and controlling the Valley Fire. It is currently listed as 66% contained. We’ve been in contact with BLM dispatch and because the fire is still considered very active we will not be able to gain access to the site for a while yet. We will continue to check in with them daily as fire conditions change.
From what we could see from town, smaller areas of smoke continued to rise fairly close to the peak, but overall smoke was much less. We haven’t had any direct updates on the status of our research station today. Looking at the peak from the south it looks like there is a mix of burned and unburned trees right near camp.
We continue to appreciate you all, and your outpouring of care and kind messages. Right now we are in the tough position of being in a waiting game. Until we can access our site and truly know the extent of damages we’re finding it hard to know what to ask for in regards to support. For now, keep our team of technicians, staff, and Lucky Peak in your thoughts. This has been a rough week processing what’s happened, while still not being able to fully process the events of the fire because there’s so much still unknown about what we’ve actually lost.
You can donate to support us during these uncertain times by giving to our general fund.
As of 11:00 am, Monday October 7th
Firefighters continue to work to control the Valley Fire which is nearly 10,000 acres so far.
IBO staff and our team are in close communication with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Boise River WMA staff as well as BLM fire. We don’t expect that Highland Valley Road or our station will be re-opened any time soon. So this effectively means that our fall 2024 season has officially ended.
We hope to get access to our Lucky Peak station sometime this week to survey the damage. From what we can see on the ground we know that the fire reached some trees on the back side of the peak. We have heard that the yurt and wall tents may still be standing, but nothing is confirmed so far. We’ve also heard that area around the peak received a number of treatments with fire retardant.
We will update when we know more. Thank you for all your thoughts and kind wishes.
You can donate to support us during these uncertain times by giving to our general fund.
As of 10:40 pm, Friday October 4th
Our crews and a school group evacuated safely this morning. Everyone is off the peak. Our Diane Moore Nature Center station is safe.
Based on views we have from town we believe our Lucky Peak hawk trapping blind has been completely destroyed by the nearly 8,000 acre Valley Fire.
We’re waiting to find out the status of our main camp, banding equipment, the yurt, our crew’s belongings, or the habitat at the peak.
We’re not sure the full extent of what we will need to enable us to recover from the fire. Our staff, traineeship program, outreach work, and more could use your support. If you’d like to help please donate today.
Thank you for your thoughts and concern. We’re glad our crews are safe. This wasn’t how we wanted to mark our 30th year.