Dear public land owners,
We have three important updates to share with you concerning wild rivers, native species and designated Wilderness.
Idaho Rivers United and Friends of the Clearwater just filed a lawsuit to protect the Wild & Scenic Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater River corridors from massive clear-cutting recently approved by the Forest Service. The Johnson Bar Fire Salvage Project would entail over 100-miles of road work, log over 30-million board feet, and threaten water quality and critical habitat for federally protected bull trout, fall Chinook and steelhead. Read the news release. You can find the complaint filed in federal court here.
Attorneys have filed opening briefs in the collective lawsuit challenging the Forest Service’s approval of 120-helicopter landings in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. The unprecedented permitting of helicopter landings by the Idaho Department of Fish & Game to collar elk (and “accidentally” four wolves) is a grave threat to Wilderness and the National Wilderness Preservation System. Read the news release announcing the court challenge. You can read the complaint just filed in federal court here.
Conservation groups, including FOC, recently sent a letter (called a Notice of Intent) to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service asking them to extend the necessary monitoring of gray wolf populations in the northern Rockies. Research suggests the aggressive hunting and trapping of wolves in Idaho and Montana threatens delicate wolf populations in the region. When protections for gray wolves were stripped by an act of Congress in 2011, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service stated they would extend the monitoring of gray wolf populations beyond the required five years if state management significantly threatens wolf populations. The federally-mandated five year monitoring protocol is set to expire in May. Read the news release here. Learn more about gray wolves.
Look for the Friends of the Clearwater spring newsletter in the mail next week! If you would like to become a member and receive our quarterly newsletter go here.
Thank you!
For the wild,
Brett Haverstick Education & Outreach Director