FOC 2006 Annual Report

Friends of the Clearwater 2006 Annual Report This past year may have been a turning point for wildlands in the Clearwater region and the wild Rockies. Despite the efforts of a hostile administration and misguided conservation proposals from the State of Idaho to undo environmental policy and destroy the integrity of this region, salmon and steelhead still run up the South Fork Clearwater, the Selway still runs cold and clear, wolves still howl, and the wolverines still pad over avalanche fields. The events of this November have changed the political climate in Congress. This may bode well for efforts to protect the Clearwater region through visionary legislation like the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. We expect this bill will be reintroduced into the next Congress. This very well may be the best chance in well over a decade for real debate and action on protecting the wildlands in the entire US Wild Rockies Region, of which the Clearwater country is a key component. Most citizens in the Wild Clearwater region voiced strong support for keeping the Clearwater region and all of the national forests in northern Idaho wild and for keeping decisions about public lands open to ALL citizens of the US. Friends of the Clearwater worked with the Kootenai Environmental Alliance and Selkirk Conservation Alliance to coordinate this effort in northern Idaho. In an interesting twist, the former governor of Idaho decided to forward a roadless plan to the US Department of Agriculture, though inadequate and based only upon state input, does at least recognize some value for Idaho wildlands. We will engage in 2007 and beyond to protect these areas. Administrative proposals to sell pubic land were turned back. This effort represents the power of the grassroots conservation movement, like Friends of the Clearwater, working with citizens and large organizations. Even anti-conservation western legislators opposed the Bush administrations proposal. While not every threat to the Clearwater country was successfully turned back, all the roadless wildlands on the national forests have been protected from roadbuilding and logging. Citizen support for roadless areas has been responsible for convincing the Forest Service that logging in these undeveloped wildlands in the Clearwater country is not worth it. In response to an appeal filed by Friends of the Clearwater and allies, the Region I Office of the Forest Service required the Clearwater National Forest to make sure that a small salvage logging sale was not within a roadless area that still retained its roadless characteristics. The state of Idahos proposal to kill wolves, up to 75%, in the upper Clearwater was turned down by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as being without scientific merit. Friends of the Clearwater members and other conservationists responded to the proposal with passionate and factual information. FOC and allies won an appeal of the ill-advised Cherry Dinner timber sale in the Potlatch River drainage on the Palouse Ranger District. The Forest Service must now go back and look at cumulative impacts of this timber sale if it wants it to go forth. This area has been heavily affected by logging in the past and a remnant population of steelhead is barely hanging on in this tributary to the Clearwater. FOC joined with Palouse Group Sierra Club in closing trails on Grandmother Mountain to all-terrain vehicles. The Forest Service finally recognized the damage and initiated an emergency closure in this proposed Wilderness. EarthJustice, representing Friends of the Clearwater and other clients won an important legal victory for the Wolverine. The US Fish and Wildlife Service must yet again consider the information presented by conservationists to make a determination about listing the wolverine as a threatened or endangered species. Friends of the Clearwater worked with scientist Dr. Fred Rabe in challenging the BLM final resource management plan for the Coeur dAlene area. This includes a portion of the Grandmother Mountain and Pinchot Butte roadless areas which are unique. This area is the headwaters of the Little North Fork Clearwater and includes rare plant communities, wetlands, and lakes. We challenged the failure of BLM to include the headwaters of the Little North Fork as an area of critical environmental concern. Dr. Rabe is also producing an educational report on the area which we will print in 2007. Friends of the Clearwater cooperated with over 80 groups across the country to defend public lands from bad legislation that makes Faustian bargains. There has been a trend to weaken the Wilderness Act and sell or give away public land in large omnibus bills. The changes in Congress may make it harder to pass these kind of bad bills but we must remain vigilant. Friends of the Clearwater interns monitored off-road vehicle use on the Clearwater and Nez Perce National Forests in 2006. This program will conclude in 2007. We learned that off-road vehicle use was not as great as has been portrayed by the agency. This information will be used in the travel planning process the two Forests will undertake in the coming two years. Friends of the Clearwater interns and volunteers initiated a Coeur dAlene salamander monitoring project. This effort should lead to increased understanding and protection of this species and public land. This effort will be ongoing in 2007 as well and has generated several new volunteers. Friends of the Clearwater continued with free public presentations, education and outreach. We co-sponsored two well-attended public presentations with the Palouse Group Sierra Club on the Idaho Panhandle National Forest Plan and Grandmother Mountain. Our outreach and education director made presentations to Moscow, Pullman and Asotin High Schools. We worked with Wildlands CPR in monitoring road closure on the Clearwater National Forest. We hosted a local conservation community meeting in December attended by over 30 organizations. We so-sponsored the joint Wild Rockies Rendezvous/national Forest Protection Alliance meeting in September. We sponsored a presentation of the first draft of a documentary film about the Nez Perce people and land, fish and wildlife issues. We sponsored a presentation on the birds of northern Idaho. Friends of the Clearwater continues to sponsor a bi-monthly potluck, co-sponsors hikes with the Palouse Group Sierra Club, and attends numerous community events. Volunteers staff information booths at those events. It is a major method of recruiting new members. 2006 was a good year for the fiscal health of Friends of the Clearwater. We left the year in the best financial shape we have ever been in. Annual Financial Report Friends of the Clearwater January 1 to December 3 2006* Funds Available 1/1/06 $27,135.48 Expenses $65,232.31 Revenue $72,975.07 Funds Available 12/31/06 $34,878.24 Revenue* Grants: $45,000.00 Donations: $20,177.42 Miscellaneous: $7,274.50 (Includes fundraising events, raffles) Interest $523.15 Total $72,975.07 Expenses Payroll (includes taxes/unemployment/workers $40,968.05 compensation health benefits) Phone/internet $1,593.15 Printing/Film/Graphics $3,126.58 Rent $3,575.00 Postage $2,422.92 Travel $3,886.21 Office Supplies and Equipment $1,589.28 Professional Fees (legal, computer network, $2,085.00 and fundraising) Miscellaneous $5933.12 (Includes, costs associated with free public meetings we sponsor, events, conferences, joint projects with other groups, direct fundraising expenses) Bank Fees $53.00 Total Expenses: $65,232.31 * Does not include in kind donations such as $700 of office equipment