STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

In the mood for a Sunday drive? Or, are you going down to today’s free BBQ at Silver Creek Preserve?

Let Mariel Hemingway guide you through the Silver Creek Preserve.

Hemingway—actress, author and granddaughter of Ernest—has narrated a new auto tour of Silver Creek Preserve on behalf of The Nature Conservancy.

Released this week, the audio tour is free and it can be downloaded on app. The tour covers a variety of subjects from mayflies to Ernest Hemingway, who loved to hunt in the area. Double tapping on story sites brings up images and narration text.

“We launched it in time for Memorial Day,” said Clark Shafer of The Nature Conservancy’s Hailey office. “It’s got a great piece on the history of Sun Valley, along with fun stories and information about the wildlife, birds and conservation aspects of Silver Creek.

The auto tour takes listeners on a four-mile drive to the beautiful high desert landscape that Hemingway notes supports an ecosystem unlike any other in the world.

The feeder springs that merge to form three prime tributary creeks there create the ideal habitat for birds, insects, fish and mammals, including 150 species of birds that have been identified along the self-guided nature trail and mountain lions, moose and bobcats that have been spotted throughout the rest of the preserve.

The property at the base of the Picabo Hills south of Bellevue and Gannett was a780-acre cattle ranch called the Sun Valley Ranch that was owned by Sun Valley Company until the mid-1970s. But fishermen enlisted the aid of The Nature Conservancy to purchase 479 acres in 1976 after erosion created by the thousand head of cattle grazing upstream jeopardized the quality of the fishery.

Today the preserve has grown to 880 acres and the stream is again a thriving fishery, thanks to The Nature Conservancy’s restoration work

And dozens of private landowners have taken advantage of conservation easements to preserve 12,500 acres surrounding the preserve from future development.

One of the Nature Conservancy’s newest projects is that of the Pollinator Garden, which was planted to attract and support hummingbirds, butterflies, bats and bees that help flowering plants reproduce. Students at Wood River Middle School funded the construction of the garden with the help of a local foundation and another donor.

The pollinators who frequent the garden include the dusky wing, woodland skipper, giant sulphur, spring azure, blue copper and mourning cloak.

While well known in the West, The Nature Conservancy works globally on a variety of projects from supplying clean drinking water in many countries to helping island communities adapt to rising sea levels.

TO LISTEN TO THE AUDIO TOUR:

Download the free TravelStorys app to your smartphone or tablet. Open it on your device and search for Silver Creek Preserve. Download the tour to your device.

Once at the preserve, enable your device’s GPS/location function and open the app on your device. The audio will automatically play at selected points along the way. Be sure to pause to let each story play fully.

Learn more at www.nature.org/silvercreek.

FREE BBQ TODAY

Silver Creek will launch the 2018 summer fishing season today--Saturday, May 26. The Nature Conservancy will provide barbequed goodies, soft drinks and lemonade at the Silver Creek Preserve Visitor Center at 11:30 a.m.