Take Action! Protect the Wild & Scenic Selway River corridor

Friends of the Clearwater and Idaho Rivers United, with legal representation from Advocates for the West, were forced to litigate a 2016 salvage logging proposal in the Wild & Scenic Selway River corridor on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. A federal judge ruled that the Forest Service, indeed, broke multiple laws.

But now the Forest Service is back, and proposing essentially the same sale as before, with only minor modifications! The acreage reduction in logging is mostly due to economic factors, but the project would still occur in sensitive post-fire habitat and build the same amount of roads as first proposed. The agency is accepting public comments until Monday January 30.

Talking points for you to consider:

• The proposed action would build another 7-miles of new roads and “swing trails” (essentially the same as a road) on the National Forests. We need less damaging roads (think sediment) on the forests, not more.

• The proposal calls for logging 1,349-acres in ecologically important post-fire habitat. The worst time to log, according to several scientific studies, is after a fire. Learn more about post-fire logging.

• Road building and logging would occur in the Selway drainage and be visible with the naked eye from the river. Yet, the Forest Service claims that since it would occur ¼ mile above the river, it would have no physical impact on the river, nor a visual impact to the scenic river corridor.

• In the previous environmental impact statement, the agency claimed that past management actions have negatively affected the Selway drainage but the new assessment makes no mention of it.

• The Forest Service has failed to demonstrate that if this proposal was to move forward, it would meet current forest plan fish habitat and water quality objectives. The limited data available suggests that the project won’t meet those standards. Further, it violates a 1998 agreement with the National Marine Fisheries Service intended to protect wild steelhead populations in the Selway River.

• This is a massive timber sale, not far from the even bigger proposed Clear Creek Timber Sale. The Forest Service must honestly assess the cumulative impacts to the watershed and important fish and wildlife habitat.