Idaho’s largest wilderness area just got a tiny bit bigger. Here’s how that happens

Gabe Barnard
·2 min read

The largest contiguous wilderness area in the Lower 48 states just grew by 38 acres.

A nonprofit that converts private land in wilderness areas for public use last week turned over a mining claim called the Surprise Lode property within the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness to public ownership, according to a news release.

That nonprofit, The Wilderness Land Trust, purchased Surprise Lode, located 25 miles upstream from the Vinegar Creek Launch, in 2021. It became the seventh property in Idaho converted by the group and the second property the nonprofit has merged with the Frank Church wilderness since 2017, the release said.

The nonprofit previously transferred Painter Mine, a 37-acre parcel connected to Surprise Lode, in 2017.

The Wilderness Land Trust, a non-profit that purchases private land in wilderness areas to convert to public use, announced Tuesday that it had transferred the 38-acre Surprise Lode property, which it purchased in 2021, to public ownership in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The property is 25 miles upriver from the Vinegar Creek launch. It also added the 37-acre Painter Mine property to the wilderness area in 2017, and it’s the 7th property protected by the Trust in Idaho.

Margosia Jadkowski, director of marketing and communications for the trust, said in a call with the Idaho Statesman that the nonprofit often serves as a go-between for owners of these properties and federal agencies. The owners often don’t have time to wait the years it can take to make their property part of a wilderness area.

The nonprofit buys the land and holds it for as long as needed while agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service assess the parcel, which can include habitat restoration, removing buildings and studying indigenous structures or artifacts.

At Painter Mine, the trust removed mining buildings and equipment from the property before it was transferred to public ownership, Jadkowski said.

“We’re able to kind of speak their terms and work on their timeline, and then we’ll hold the property for as long as it takes for the agency to be able to go through their process,” she said.

An old Jeep had to be removed from the Painter Mine property, 25 miles upriver from the Vinegar Creek Launch in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, before The Wildnerness Land Trust could turn it over to public ownership in 2017. The Trust announced on August 15 that it had also added the 38-acre Surprise Lode property, connected to Painter Mine, to the wilderness area.

Jenni Blake, a recreation, lands and information resources officer for the U.S. Forest Service, which leads management of the wilderness area, told the Statesman that the agency performed an environmental analysis and compiled a minerals report on the Surprise Lode site. If the mineral rights and surface rights had been severed at some point, with the mineral rights still held privately, the agency wouldn’t accept the land, she said.

The agency also checked for hazardous materials, such as mining tailings, she said.

“We don’t want to take something that we’re going to end up having to clean up, spend a lot of taxpayer money for cleaning up,” Blake said.

Land turned over by the nonprofit Wilderness Land Trust also completed the Hells Canyon Wilderness and the North Fork Owyhee Wilderness, the release said. There are roughly 70 patches of private land left over within Idaho’s nearly 5 million acres of wilderness, according to the group.