Boise State University researchers have published a detailed study and online maps that lay out possible scenarios for urban growth in Idaho's Treasure Valley in one of the fastest-growing states in the Union.
Currently home to 885,000 people the Southwest region of Idaho could grow to 1.25 million to 1.75 million by the year 2100. That rate of growth and development could lead to a loss of between 190,000 and 220,000 acres to low-density development, about four times the size of Boise. "That would cut farm loss more or less in half, the researchers predict, with just 31 percent of the region’s current agricultural land turning into urban space in the next 80 or so years. An estimated 110,000 acres would be lost," reports Maria L. La Ganga.
Read the full story: See how half of the Treasure Valley’s farmland could disappear by 2100
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