TWIN FALLS, Idaho — A three-year emergency recreational shooting closure near the Indian Springs Trailhead has brought relief to neighbors who spent years dealing with stray bullets and property damage — but with the closure set to lift in 2027, some residents worry the problems will return.
Ellie Blick lives about a quarter mile from a gravel pit in the Indian Springs BLM area that was once a popular recreational shooting spot. She said the noise and danger were relentless before the closure.
WATCH | Indian Springs shooting closure ends in 2027 – what comes next?
"I mean, it was just constant, just pop pop pop pop pop over the hill all the time," Blick said.
Blick said stray bullets ricocheted across her property for years, causing significant damage.
"And then what they do is hit these rocks and then go to ricochet and ricochet across the hill just all over my place," Blick said.
The damage went beyond noise. Blick said bullets struck her home, vehicles, and other property.
"We lost a lot of windshields and my air conditioner unit and they shot holes in the house that we finally remodeled all my house so it would be real sad if they started shooting it up again," Blick said.
In 2024, then-Twin Falls BLM District Manager Mike Courtney issued the three-year emergency closure. For Blick, the change was immediate.
"It was a night-and-day difference; it really was," Blick said.
With one year remaining on the closure, the Bureau of Land Management says rehabilitation work already underway should help discourage people from returning to the old shooting area. Codie Martin, the acting Twin Falls District Manager for the BLM, said a road leading to the gravel pit has been decommissioned.
"We're gonna re-seed that this fall so that'll eventually grow in and then it won't be used as a 2 track road anymore to go to that area," Martin said.
The BLM is also planning trailhead improvements as the Indian Springs area grows in popularity with ATV riders, dirt bikers, horseback riders, cyclists, and hikers. Martin said the goal is to balance access for all users while steering recreational shooters toward safer, less congested areas farther south.
Blick is not convinced a landscaping effort will be enough to change behavior. She and others in the area have long hoped Twin Falls County would establish a dedicated shooting range, similar to what is available in Jerome County.
"I think people are just gonna park up here and go right back to it because there is nowhere else, and that was the county's main promise... that they were going to find somewhere else for people to shoot and there's just not, you know," Blick said.
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