HELP PROTECT WEITAS CREEK AND POT MOUNTAIN FROM MOTORIZED MADNESS

Comments Needed on Forest Service Vehicle Plan

The Clearwater National Forest just released its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) designating routes open to off-road vehicles (ORVs) and snowmobiles. This “Travel Plan” is supposed to address the problem of unmanaged and unregulated motorized recreation, which has increased dramatically throughout the West in the past decade. The deliberate failure of the Forest Service to close sensitive wildlife habitat, as is required in the 1987 Clearwater forest plan, threatens Weitas Creek, Pot Mountain, Fish and Hungery Creeks and other wild places in the Clearwater National Forest. Friends of the Clearwater has notified the Forest Service many times during the past decade that it must close sensitive areas to ORVs as directed in the forest plan. Nevertheless, places once intended for quiet recreation (horse and foot traffic) are now being used by ORVs.

The Weitas Creek roadless area/proposed wilderness is perhaps the most important wildland in the Clearwater National Forest. This 260,000 acre roadless area is under tremendous pressure from organized motorized vehicle groups that would like every trail be open for motorized abuse. To make matters worse, almost every acre in the entire forest is open to winter snowmobile use, threatening rare species like wolverine and lynx.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement

The Forest Service is analyzing 4 alternatives, none of which close all of the Weitas Creek roadless area or other roadless areas to motorized abuse. Each alternative would eliminate the wildlife protections promised in the 1987 forest plan. The Forest Service is reneging on its written promises to the public and breaking the law.

The Wild Clearwater

The Weitas Creek roadless area includes three major stream systems--Weitas, Cayuse and Fourth of July Creeks, all
tributaries to the North Fork Clearwater. Wilderness studies in the late 70’s and early 80’s concluded Weitas Creek was the most important unroaded area on the Clearwater for wildlife habitat. The lower elevations around Weitas Creek provide important habitat diversity which compliments the higher ridges that separate the major stream systems. Hemlock Creek, a tributary of Weitas Creek, is a proposed research/natural area. In one of the few, upper-elevation areas--near Weitas Butte- -there is a unique higher-elevation stand of ancient cedars.

Visitors to Weitas Creek have traditionally been those interested in non-motorized recreation: hikers, hunters, anglers, photographers, backpackers, and bird watchers. The explosion of the ORV industry and the intentional failure of the Forest Service to implement its own plan, have allowed for the incremental loss of places for quiet, primitive recreation to take place.

The Pot Mountain roadless area contains important mountain goat habitat and may be the wildest unprotected area on the Clearwater. It has dramatic changes in elevation and is prone to severe erosion from motorcycles and snowmobiles. Fish and Hungery Creeks are the most important steelhead streams in all of Idaho. This roadless area should be closed to motorized recreation in order to protect spawning grounds and other watershed values.
Certain areas adjacent to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness are closed to ORV’s and motorcycles, but open to snowmobiles.

When Bob Marshall first gained protection for this area in the 1930s, the old primitive area went all the way
down to the present-day trailheads. Illegal snowmobile use is taking place in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness because it is allowed to occur in the adjacent roadless areas.

Clearwater National Forest roadless areas are crucial recovery habitat for wolves, grizzlies and wolverines. In order for grizzlies to recover, these areas must be closed to motor vehicles. Already, the Clearwater National Forest has dedicated areas such as Deception Saddle, Clarke Mountain, Sheep Mountain and almost all of the Palouse Ranger District to offroad vehicle access. The roadless areas must be closed to motor vehicles to give rare species the chance to recover.

Take Action!

Your voice is critical in this issue because the Forest Service has the misperception its proposal is widely accepted. An inexperienced representative from a conservation organization in Boise, who is apparently ignorant of the wild values of Weitas Creek, Fourth of July Creek, Fish Creek, and Elizabeth Lakes told the newspapers, “Certainly the plan does well to protect wilderness values and non-motorized recreation values . . .” The damage from that uniformed misstep needs to be countered by your voice.

There will be a letter writing-potluck party on Tuesday September 29th at 6:30 pm in Moscow. Call the FOC office at (208) 882-9755 for details.

Points To Consider

• Motorized/mechanized vehicles should not be allowed in any roadless areas on the Clearwater National Forest, including Weitas Creek, Pot Mountain, Kelly Creek, Mallard-Larkins, the Upper North Fork and the areas adjacent to the Selway- Bitterroot Wilderness.

• Weitas Creek is the largest roadless area on the Clearwater National Forest and arguably the most important potential wilderness. It contains unmatched lower elevation wildlife habitat.
• The unmaintained 555 route in the Weitas Creek drainage should be closed at the Weitas Guard station (the bridge). It bisects crucial elk calving and wolverine habitat.

• The trail to Scurvy Mountain should also be closed.

• The Elizabeth Lakes area in Mallard-Larkins proposed wilderness, the Fish Lake area in the Kelly Creek (Great Burn) proposed wilderness, and the trails in Fish Creek—the most important steelhead stream in Idaho--must all be closed to motors.

Send comments by October 2 to:

Kamiah Ranger Station
ATTN: Lois Foster, Travel Planning IDT Leader
Attn: Designated Route and Area for Motor Vehicle Use Planning
Route 2 Box 191
Kamiah, ID 83536

or by email to: comments-northern-clearwater@fs.fed.us