Parks director outlines deferred maintenance, new reservation system; committee approves outfitters rules and noise-test rule repeal

The Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation updated the committee on deferred maintenance, trail and campsite capacity, a new reservation system, and personnel needs; the committee also approved pending rule changes for outfitters and agreed to repeal a redundant noise-testing chapter.

Director Susan Buxton told the committee the department manages roughly 30 state parks, more than 65,000 acres and more than 600 facilities. She said the parks system handles tens of thousands of visitors and that the agency has about 190 full-time equivalent employees to manage those assets. Buxton said the department received legislative funding in recent years to address deferred maintenance across historic and operational facilities.

Buxton said the department maintains approximately 2,000 miles of trail on mostly federally managed lands each year and administers 5,500 miles of maintained snowmobile trails. She described a suite of deferred-maintenance projects — renovating historic lodges and park structures such as the Old Mission at Coeur d'Alene, reopening Rocky Point Lodge and updating facilities at Farragut and City of Rocks — and said recent appropriations allowed the agency to add capacity while…