Boise Heights Neighborhood Association Spring News

May 2026

Dark Skies

Have you thought about how your outdoor lighting affects your neighbor, the environment, and wildlife?

We’re all familiar with air, water, and land pollution, but artificial light at night can also be a pollutant. Protecting our dark sky by minimizing artificial light is one of the initiatives of BHNA for 2026. As a neighborhood we would like to come together to reduce light coming from our homes and yards.

Our mission is to inspire our neighborhood to protect and preserve our night sky for the benefit of all living things. The insert in this newsletter has information from International Dark Sky on ways to assess and improve your outdoor lighting.

So please join in and take some steps, big or small, to make sure your outdoor lighting does what you want while minimizing waste and disruption to others.

Neighborhood Weed Warriors

A team of about 12 volunteered last summer to remove goat heads from select "high value" areas of our neighborhood. Those areas include the former Crestline parking lot, the area at the top of the Powderhouse trail, the Merz Trail, Boise Hills Park, "Morley's Canyon", Claremont Rd, and "Desolation Flat" (vacant lot across from the condos). These areas are important because people often travel through them and can easily pick up and spread the goathead seed pods to other areas.

Our collective gratitude goes out to Jane Buckthal, Don and Maria Essig, Kay Hummel, Jeff Fereday, Ax Yewer, David Howell, Bruce Harrold, Susan Abdo, and Jolene Schow. If you are interested in making a small contribution to improving our neighborhood please consider joining us. Contact Adrian Pfisterer at 208-484-2302 or adrian@pfamily.org to get involved.

Boise Heights Firewise Information

Watch for our Firewise tips coming to your inbox later this May or go to https://www.adafireadapted.org for info on how to make your home more firesafe. Under the homeowner tab you can also sign up for a free wildfire home safety evaluation. Let’s all do what we can to make our neighborhood more fire safe!

Free Neighborhood City Chipper is coming on Monday June 8. Mark your calendar and please email Susan at susangabdo@gmail.com to get on the chipper list.

No Fireworks in the Foothills

Speaking of being fire safe - fireworks, of any kind, are NOT allowed in "the foothills", as defined by Boise City Code. Additionally, it is unlawful for any person to ignite any open flame in this same area. Our Neighborhood is in the city foothills, as is the open space in the Military Reserve (to the south) and Hulls Gulch (to the north)

Entryway to Boise Heights

BHNA’s Entryway Project at West Crestline at Summit Ridge was spearheaded by residents Jean Guiffre and Kay Hummel. The parcel, thick with weeds and junipers, was an eyesore and not at all Firewise. It also contained a user-created pathway between Crestline and Summit Ridge that was eroding badly and—being straight up—difficult to walk.

Jean and Kay organized neighbors in 2023 to remove unwanted vegetation and plant native grasses, forbs, shrubs, and a couple of hackberry trees. They installed drip irrigation, cooperating with Summit Ridge neighbors to tie into the system that waters the flowering pear trees along that street. They oversaw the construction of a gentler, non-erosive trail. We also worked to extend the structural block retaining wall along the sidewalk.

Over the course of several months, all these tasks were accomplished, with some 45 neighbors pitching in with a total of 675 hours of work. We consulted local plant experts on species selection and were supported by a $1,500 grant from the City of Boise. When project costs exceeded our funds (largely due to the price of blocks), several BHNA families donated funds to get us over the top.

Now what you see when traveling uphill is a showcase of mostly native vegetation and a fine example of the public spirit of your neighbors. Thanks to all who helped! But weeds continue to pop up, and we still need volunteers for periodic weeding and pruning.

Power Poles

If you notice any of the new power poles leaning call Sean Hawk at Idaho Power, 208-388-2885. The removal of the old, cutoff poles is at the discretion of communication companies such as Century Link. They've provided no timeline for this.

Annual Meeting Announcement

The Annual Meeting will be held on September 13th, at 4:00 p.m. in Boise Hills Park. We will have refreshments along with live music entertainment from our neighbor Lane Bune and fellow musician Mike Rutledge. We are also arranging to have a speaker from the Ada County Noxious Weeds regarding services and information on noxious weeds that may be in our neighborhood. It is anticipated that more information on Dark Skies will also be available. Mark your calendar!