Lochsa Area Streams Need Your Help

Photo credit: Kevin Colburn

Post by Kevin Colburn, American Whitewater. You can also view American Whitewater’s article on this issue on their website here.

I know what I am missing right now in self-isolation. I am missing the sound of snowmelt dripping from cedar boughs, the steamy view from a hot spring, and the feeling of lively river waves tossing me around in my kayak. In other words, I am missing Northern Idaho, where the good kind of solitude abounds. I don’t live there anymore, but in a typical year, I head out to explore rivers and streams there each spring because it is so damn special. The Clearwater River area is an outdoor recreation paradise, and is also a treasure trove of salmon and steelhead habitat. That’s why the Lochsa, Selway, Clearwater, and Salmon rivers were among the first ever protected as Wild and Scenic Rivers, and more protections are needed for tributaries to these great rivers today. 

Yet right now, the Forest Service is proposing to eliminate potential protections for almost 900 miles of spectacular rivers and streams in the Nez Perce and Clearwater National Forest. The Forest is undergoing forest planning and the local Forest Service has deemed 89 outstanding streams “eligible” for Wild and Scenic designation, which seemed like great news for the streams’ future. In most forest plans, these eligible streams receive protections.

Further, in the public comment period, 99% of the almost 800 public comments asked that the new forthcoming Forest Plan protect all these streams, and normally, the Forest Plan would do that. But these are not normal times. 

Instead, the Forest Service ignored these comments, and are proposing to eliminate protections for most or all of these streams in their Forest Plan. Backing away from these standard river protections would be a terrible precedent, bad for the recreation economy, and would fail to adequately protect these streams.

Those of us that are champions of wild rivers are deeply concerned by the Forest Service’s mistreatment of these rivers. We worry it could become the new normal nationwide, and we will do whatever we can to improve the fates of these streams. But, we need your help. Every public comment that asks for protection of all 89 of these streams is valuable, and stories and evidence on why these streams merit protection are even more important. The comment deadline ends this Monday, 4/20/20, so if you are home like me and can’t get to Idaho, please give a little back to the grand wild rivers of this region and send in a letter.   

You can do so easily using the form below: