Outdoors: Colorful splotches, aftermath of simulated conflict mar nature at Boise River access point

By Lane Bettencourt - Idaho Press-Tribune

MIDDLETON -- When David and Sylvia Carcich walked into a sportsmen's access along the Boise River, they expected to take in a scenic respite.

Instead, they found the aftermath of a paintball battle.

Weekend warriors had put up an elaborate system of handmade barricades to shoot behind. Paint remained splattered all over trees, shrubbery and the ground. But the battle's participants were long gone.

"The place was just a mess," David Carcich said, estimating that paintball remnants were scattered over a 100- to 200-foot area. "I like wildlife, and it was upsetting for us to walk through this. This is not appropriate for a place where families come. We found hundreds of (unexploded) paintballs."

Previous visitors also left plenty of other trash behind.

The sportsmen's access is off Middleton Road, just south of the town of Middleton.

Jerry Deal of the Nampa regional office of the Idaho Fish and Game Department said that because the paint used in paintball guns is water-soluble, it doesn't pose a long-term hazard.

"It's more of an aesthetic issue than an environmental one," Deal said.

Deal said his office has received at least four complaints about paintball activity at this location.

Researching records, he found that the property used for the paintball battlefield is privately owned by someone who does not live in the area. But he said it is unclear who has responsibility for supervision because the state has a public-access easement through the riverside land.

As a potential solution, he hopes to get the state and the landowner together to at least put up a sign prohibiting paintball activity.

"From the looks of it," he said, "they use it frequently."

Given the complexity of private ownership and a public easement, Deal said trespassing might be the most serious offense the paintball warriors could face under the law.

Sgt. Tonia Ballard of the Canyon County Sheriff's Office said the agency, which has jurisdiction of the area, had not received any complaints of paintball activity there.

Hearing a description, Ballard said it's possible a littering violation might have been committed, but a vandalism charge would be unlikely because paintball paint dissolves with weathering.

Archie Lomax, co-owner of Idaho Paintball Supplies in Caldwell, said he is aware of problems at the Boise River location and has even helped clean it up from time to time.

"There's a few bad players out there that don't care where or what they shoot at -- they'll even shoot paintballs at people's animals," Lomax said. "I have not been happy with the goings-on down there. No on can ever seem to catch them."

Source: http://www.idahopress.com/articles/2...news/news1.txt