Meadow Creek Roadless Area

Meadow Creek Roadless Area Size: Approximately 220,000 acres

Meadow Creek, a logical Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Addition

Meadow Creek (East & West) Roadless Area

Size: 200,000 + acres

Meadow Creek is a spectacular drainage in the Nez Perce National Forest and a logical Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Addition. This huge roadless area is a real gem, however, the over 200,000 acres encompassed in this area is under threat.

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.

Click Images for Full Sized Versions

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.