Clear Creek Roadless Area

Clear Creek Roadless Area
Approximate Size: 10,000 acres

Clear Creek Roadless Area is surrounded by development. This 25,000 acre gem has escaped logging because fires early in this century replaced some of the forests with shrubs. Clear Creek RA serves as crucial wildlife winter range.

Dixie Summit/Nut Hill Roadless Area

A unique RNA is inside this area. Much of it has been excluded since the RARE II inventory though it appears development was not as extensive as the boundary adjustment would indicate. Also, land to the north of the formal IRA is roadless.

Goddard Creek Roadless Area

Size: <5,000 acres

This area occupies the central position between O'Hara Falls and Middle Fork Face. This area contains habitat for unique coastal disjunct species including the rare and declining Pacific Dogwood and anadromous fish. It was erroneously removed from the RARE II inventory. Logging has already damaged this area and it may no longer be 5,000 acres of undeveloped land.

John Day Roadless Area

John Day Roadless Area
John Day has two streams with anadromous fish- John Day and Allison Creeks. Whitebark pines are fairly common. Some of the area has been damaged by ORV use.

Kelly Mountain Roadless Area

Size: 5,000 acres

This area drains into the Salmon River, east of Riggins. It was studied during RARE II but ignored in the forest plan inventory. However, this steep area likely still contains 5,000 acres of land missed by the flawed forest plan inventory.

Lick Point Roadless Area

Lick Creek

This is the headwaters of the American River and it is crucial that this habitat be protected for TES fish species. It is important moose range and much of the area was burned in fires early in this century.

Little Slate Creek Roadless Area

Little Slate Creek Roadless AreaSize: 5,000 + acres

This area contains important tributaries to Slate Creek, an important anadromous fish stream. A unique lake in Nut Basin and a RNA in No Business Creek are important natural features. RARE II advised development and logging divided this area into two smaller roadless areas, though each appears to be over 5,000 acres in size.

Little Slate Creek Roadless Area (taken from Nut Basin)

Little Slate Creek Roadless Area (north view)

Logical additions to the Gospel Hump Wilderness: John's Creek, Boulder Creek, et al.

Approximate former size: 53,000 acres
Approximate post-logging size: 44,000 acres

This is one of the remaining potential additions to the Gospel Hump Wilderness on the South Fork Clearwater drainage. Large ponderosa pines and steep open grassy slopes characterize this roadless gem known for its important anadromous and inland fishery. Bull trout, chinook, and steelhead spawn here.

The Otter-Wing and Mackey Day timber sales, carried out in the late 1990s and early 2000s, ecologically devastated this portion of the Gospel Hump's northern boundary. This split into half the most intact and healthy steelhead and west-slope cutthroat trout producing tributaries on the South Fork Clearwater.

The South Fork Clearwater suffers from decades of strip mining, overgrazing, and road-building. It is imperative that healthy tributaries like John's Creek remain to benefit this imperiled water shed.

Mallard Roadless Area

Size: 77,000 acres

This area is the site of the infamous Cove/Mallard timber sales. These sales, which would have decimated two roadless areas totaling 77,000 acres, were canceled recently after intense public pressure and citizen monitoring proved that the sales were not following environmental laws. This area is important forested habitat, adjacent to the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, and a crucial wildlife corridor.

Meadow Creek Roadless Area (a logical Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Addition)

Meadow Creek (upper north fork) Roadless Area

Meadow Creek (East & West) Roadless Area

Size: 200,000 + acres

Meadow Creek is a spectacular drainage in the Nez Perce National Forest. This huge roadless area is a real gem, however, the over 200,000 acres encompassed in this area is under threat. satellite map

One of the most outstanding qualities of Meadow Creek is its clean, cold waters. Starting at its headwaters in the south, Meadow Creek flows first northeast through lush meadows which give the drainage its name. It then curves back west and north as it rushes down steep and narrow valleys, opening up before it joins the Selway river just above Selway Falls.

It is the most important tributary of the Selway not only because of the clear water it provides, but it also nourishes a healthy anadromous fish population of steelhead trout and Chinook salmon as exists in Idaho today. Bull and Westslope cutthroat trout find refuge in its waters. Many people return year after year to fish Meadow Creek's waters. The area is also home to huge cedars and firs, mixed with ponderosa and lodgepole pine. There are areas in the East Fork of the American River and Kirks Fork that need to be added. It includes some land managed by BLM. For decades it has been a priority in proposals for wilderness as an addition to the Selway-Bitterroot - though ignored by politicians.

Overwhelming citizen support for the area forced the Forest Service to recognize its natural values. However, there is currently no agency commitment to protect the area as it has long been a target for logging. Additionally, this large roadless area has been arbitrarily split into east and west sections by the Forest Service, along the creek bearing it's name. This was done in hopes of developing the west side and is one of many destructive changes the Bush administration's roadless rule repeal process has brought about.

Join Gary Macfarlane, FOC's forest watch director for a workshop dedicated to the ins and outs of timber sale monitoring from start to finish. Contact Gary at gary@wildrockies.org

Middle Fork Face Roadless Area

Size: <5,000 acres

This area contains steelhead and important winter range. Lawless logging under the infamous savage rider, which suspended laws, may have destroyed this area and it may no longer be 5,000 acres of undeveloped land.

North Fork Slate Roadless Area

Slate Creek is important anadromous fish habitat. Steep rim rock characterizes much of this country. It contains historically significant sites.

O'Hara Falls Creek Roadless Area

O'Hara Falls Creek Roadless AreaO'Hara Creek is a uniquely diverse drainage with an RNA and large ferns. A scenic waterfall and important anadromous fish habitat is within the unit. This area contains habitat for unique coastal disjunct species including the rare and declining Pacific dogwood.

Rackcliff-Gedney Roadless Area

Size: 90,000 acres

This large area occupies the divide between the Lochsa and Selway Rivers. It includes important historical sites, popular trails, scenic lakes, and winter range for ungulates.

Rapid River Roadless Area

Rapid River Roadless Area
Rapid River Canyon, seen here from Whitebird Ridge opposite the Seven Devils is a prime candidate for addition to the Hells Canyon Wilderness Area. Rapid River is designated as Wild & Scenic and contains crucial anadromous fish habitat for Chinook salmon. The area is unique in that it largely escaped fires early in this century.

Salmon Face Roadless Area

This area contains spectacular scenery adjacent to the Hells Canyon Wilderness. It also contains a significant, natural cave, which has created recent management controversy.

Silver Creek-Pilot Knob Roadless Area

Pilot Knob Roadless AreaThis area is of significance to the Nez Perce Tribe. Pilot Rock is a unique natural feature and several meadows are found below the peaks. The area was greatly reduced between RARE II and the forest plan, though the development was not as severe as the boundary deletions would indicate.

Upper Bear Creek Roadless Area

Size: 700,000 acres

This area has been in wilderness proposals though it was inadvertently neglected in the Nez Perce forest plan inventory. However, it appears to have been included in Bitterroot National Forest inventories as it is contiguous with the Selway Bitterroot additions on that forest (although it is in Idaho, on the Nez Perce National Forest).

West Fork Crooked River & Gospel Hump Additions

Most of this is roadless land that should be added to this inventory and was erroneously omitted from the forest plan though included in RARE II. This includes Johns Creek, Boulder Creek, Indian Creek, and other areas. Johns Creek is the best fish habitat in the South Fork Clearwater and should be protected. Indian Creek is rugged country along the Salmon River. The only area included is the upper West Fork Crooked River, which includes important high elevation watersheds and fishery habitat.