Narrative:

Aircraft X flew about 40-50 miles out of his way because I was sector and task saturated and thought he was going to roarr intersection versus his actual route over hyval leading to this situation. I was very busy with VFR traffic in the practice area; IFR arrivals and departures; IFR practice approaches; active military airspace and lots of coordination for unusual situations on both the north and south side. We were operating under one runway conditions with runway 10R closed necessitating extra space on final for runway exiting at the end. Around this time aircraft X departed off runway 10L straight out on the boise-3 departure. North radar had traffic very close to the climbout course at 11000 descending to 10000 so I stopped aircraft X at 9000. I had traffic all around aircraft X on the south side and above him as well so I projected him out of my airspace; tunneling under the problem then climbing towards roarr. When I got to where I could cut aircraft X loose and climb him; I looked at the strip in the printer tray for the first time and cleared him to climb to 16000 and proceed direct hyval. Oh no; not roarr but hyval? Only after un-keying did I realize my whole plan was flawed and him turning to hyval 25 NM east of boi would conflict with traffic I had on the SPUD2 arrival; two VFR aircraft in the flash to ZLC heading towards gng and twf and finally; he was not going to clear R-3203A; B; C; D active to FL220 with aircraft! I had to quickly stop the descending SPUD2 arrival; turn aircraft X all the way around to heading 280 and put a 3 NM bubble on him to ensure I missed the range. Then I had to coordinate with ZLC sector 30 for higher as aircraft X was out of 14500 for 16000 and I wanted to keep him climbing and on his way. I had calls on the shout line with fast moving F15s; I had north radar verbally coordinating a business jet that wanted to wander all over our airspace at 10000 and come in to land eventually (the plane I stopped aircraft X at 9000 for); VFR aircraft calling out of the blue and over-keying one another; a turboprop from the south inbound near hyval I had to miss wanting an RNAV-Y IFR practice approach with missed approach instructions looking to pick up his IFR with me on the go back somewhere. During this event; the pbx line rings loudly and incessantly and no one is getting it. I don't know what bozeman was doing. North was busy with his traffic so I answered the call. It could be a pilot closing his IFR flight plan; a pilot looking to get his clearance off the ground at nampa; caldwell; ennis; who knows? Nope; it was some lady at blm complaining that a fax she's sending won't go through and she called the tower who gave her this number. Was the tower too busy to handle this call and passed it off on the busy TRACON? I don't understand why she got that number but there it is; she was the last thing I wanted at that moment. I told her I don't have time for it; call the same number with last four digits 5800 or 5801 to reach the front office. Less than a minute later the pbx line rang and this time I told bozeman to pick it up. Turns out the blm caller was back and he had to tell her the same thing; she's calling air traffic controllers on position working live traffic who cannot handle her problem or request and stop calling. During all this; a cpc-it was sitting at a satellite scope doing nothing but observe bozeman. We should have a supervisor in the TRACON. When I whittled down my traffic I paged for the atm; GA or supervisor to come to the TRACON. A supervisor showed up and we described the issue to him and that these pbx calls not related to our traffic is becoming a bad trend we need to stop; it is a dangerous distraction. Later a supervisor arrived to say that one call isn't a trend; after we told him we are getting a lot of calls day and night on that line that have nothing to do with ATC and it needs to stop. He was not receptive so I'm filing this report. This needs to end. I missed a crucial piece of information in aircraft X that caused him to be delayed; fly way out of his way and put him in conflict with a half dozen aircraft that would have been no issue if I wasn't distracted by nuisance calls and turned him to hyval sooner. It rattled me and caused me undo stress and a lot of extra work. We are in an era where we are trying to reduce distractions in the work place and nothing is more distracting than having to answer phone calls or these annoyance calls on the pbx line when we are busy with traffic. They are distracting during light traffic conditions but downright dangerous when it is this busy. The airport needs to stop closing 50% of our runways all day! This is ridiculous. It reduces our capacity; it creates delays and increases complexity. I don't want any more calls on the pbx (recorded) line we use to take IFR cancellations and issue IFR clearances to aircraft on the ground at satellite airports in both bozeman and boise areas. Why are we; mainly in the past 6 months; fielding these nuisance calls; pre-coordinating some maintenance on a scope or equipment? I don't know what they're even talking about with their acronyms? Is it even in my authority to approve or deny these requests? That pbx line is very loud; with an urgent tone that; if you don't answer it; you can't hear your traffic any way! I don't want any more calls from blm for the above mentioned reasons! It is not ATC related! I don't care about some prescribed burn somewhere; nor the fact that the fax won't go through; and when they called the tower they told them to call the pbx number! Why didn't they deal with it? Tower has someone at clearance; ground; and local with a controller in charge to take these kind of nuisance calls. That recorded line is for issuance of IFR clearances and to receive IFR cancellations in places we have no frequency coverage. This is a major misuse of the recorded line. In the name of aviation safety; stop calling air traffic controllers working live traffic with this stuff. Call someone who cares because we don't.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Boise TRACON Controller reported an airborne conflict during heavy traffic period; which he quickly separated. Reporter stated airspace complexity and traffic volume related distractions contributed to the event.

Narrative: Aircraft X flew about 40-50 miles out of his way because I was sector and task saturated and thought he was going to ROARR intersection versus his actual route over HYVAL leading to this situation. I was very busy with VFR traffic in the practice area; IFR arrivals and departures; IFR practice approaches; active military airspace and lots of coordination for unusual situations on both the north and south side. We were operating under one runway conditions with runway 10R closed necessitating extra space on final for runway exiting at the end. Around this time Aircraft X departed off runway 10L straight out on the Boise-3 departure. North radar had traffic very close to the climbout course at 11000 descending to 10000 so I stopped Aircraft X at 9000. I had traffic all around Aircraft X on the south side and above him as well so I projected him out of my airspace; tunneling under the problem then climbing towards ROARR. When I got to where I could cut Aircraft X loose and climb him; I looked at the strip in the printer tray for the first time and cleared him to climb to 16000 and proceed direct HYVAL. Oh no; not ROARR but HYVAL? Only after un-keying did I realize my whole plan was flawed and him turning to HYVAL 25 NM east of BOI would conflict with traffic I had on the SPUD2 Arrival; two VFR aircraft in the flash to ZLC heading towards GNG and TWF and finally; he was not going to clear R-3203A; B; C; D active to FL220 with aircraft! I had to quickly stop the descending SPUD2 arrival; turn Aircraft X all the way around to heading 280 and put a 3 NM bubble on him to ensure I missed the range. Then I had to coordinate with ZLC sector 30 for higher as Aircraft X was out of 14500 for 16000 and I wanted to keep him climbing and on his way. I had calls on the shout line with fast moving F15s; I had north radar verbally coordinating a business jet that wanted to wander all over our airspace at 10000 and come in to land eventually (the plane I stopped Aircraft X at 9000 for); VFR aircraft calling out of the blue and over-keying one another; a turboprop from the south inbound near HYVAL I had to miss wanting an RNAV-Y IFR practice approach with missed approach instructions looking to pick up his IFR with me on the go back somewhere. During this event; the PBX line rings loudly and incessantly and no one is getting it. I don't know what Bozeman was doing. North was busy with his traffic so I answered the call. It could be a pilot closing his IFR flight plan; a pilot looking to get his clearance off the ground at Nampa; Caldwell; Ennis; who knows? Nope; it was some lady at BLM complaining that a fax she's sending won't go through and she called the tower who gave her this number. Was the tower too busy to handle this call and passed it off on the busy TRACON? I don't understand why she got that number but there it is; she was the last thing I wanted at that moment. I told her I don't have time for it; call the same number with last four digits 5800 or 5801 to reach the front office. Less than a minute later the PBX line rang and this time I told Bozeman to pick it up. Turns out the BLM caller was back and he had to tell her the same thing; she's calling air traffic controllers on position working live traffic who cannot handle her problem or request and stop calling. During all this; a CPC-IT was sitting at a satellite scope doing nothing but observe Bozeman. We should have a supervisor in the TRACON. When I whittled down my traffic I paged for the ATM; GA or Supervisor to come to the TRACON. A Supervisor showed up and we described the issue to him and that these PBX calls not related to our traffic is becoming a bad trend we need to stop; it is a dangerous distraction. Later a supervisor arrived to say that one call isn't a trend; after we told him we are getting a lot of calls day and night on that line that have nothing to do with ATC and it needs to stop. He was not receptive so I'm filing this report. This needs to end. I missed a crucial piece of information in Aircraft X that caused him to be delayed; fly way out of his way and put him in conflict with a half dozen aircraft that would have been no issue if I wasn't distracted by nuisance calls and turned him to HYVAL sooner. It rattled me and caused me undo stress and a lot of extra work. We are in an era where we are trying to reduce distractions in the work place and nothing is more distracting than having to answer phone calls or these annoyance calls on the PBX line when we are busy with traffic. They are distracting during light traffic conditions but downright dangerous when it is this busy. The airport needs to stop closing 50% of our runways all day! This is ridiculous. It reduces our capacity; it creates delays and increases complexity. I don't want any more calls on the PBX (recorded) line we use to take IFR cancellations and issue IFR clearances to aircraft on the ground at satellite airports in both Bozeman and Boise areas. Why are we; mainly in the past 6 months; fielding these nuisance calls; pre-coordinating some maintenance on a scope or equipment? I don't know what they're even talking about with their acronyms? Is it even in my authority to approve or deny these requests? That PBX line is very loud; with an urgent tone that; if you don't answer it; you can't hear your traffic any way! I don't want any more calls from BLM for the above mentioned reasons! It is not ATC related! I don't care about some prescribed burn somewhere; nor the fact that the fax won't go through; and when they called the tower they told them to call the PBX number! Why didn't they deal with it? Tower has someone at clearance; ground; and local with a controller in charge to take these kind of nuisance calls. That recorded line is for issuance of IFR clearances and to receive IFR cancellations in places we have no frequency coverage. This is a major misuse of the recorded line. In the name of aviation safety; stop calling air traffic controllers working live traffic with this stuff. Call someone who cares because we don't.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.