Join Dr. Fred Rabe on a day hike to explore Skookum Creek and a unique cedar grove on the north slope of the Lochsa River valley. Located near the Eagle Mountain trailhead on Highway 12, Skookum Creek hosts bull trout, chinook salmon, steelhead, westslope cutthroat trout, and numerous invertebrates. A few miles up the trail and nestled along the stream, some cedars with typical thin bark susceptible to fire survived a blaze in an atypical area above their usual wetter, lower, and more level habitat. This unspoiled tract is part of the North Lochsa Slope Roadless Area that would be protected as wilderness by the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. It is currently threatened by potential road building, logging, and mining proposed by the Forest Service in the Roadless Area Conservation Environmental Impact Statement due out this fall.
On this hike sponsored by the Palouse Group of the Sierra Club and Friends of the Clearwater, Dr. Rabe, an aquatic ecologist, retired University of Idaho professor, and Wild Clearwater Country explorer, will lead us in collecting information and pictures while observing stream ecology and aquatic life. We will eventually make our way to the old-growth cedar grove as we explore native and rare plants along the trail. Because this hike requires extended time near the water and in the forests, please meet us at Rosauers in Moscow at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 14, and bring a lunch, water, and good hiking footwear. We will return around 5:00 p.m. Please call FOC with questions and suggestions about this and other possible group journeys.
