Friends of the Clearwater will secure the largest intact wildland preserve in the contiguous United States for biodiversity and climate health—the Big Wild.
In the heart of north-central Idaho lies the largest wildland and wilderness complex in the lower 48 states.
This area, known as the Big Wild, is actually two adjacent wild regions. Clearwater Country is a land of moist cedar-fir forests and lower elevation mountains. This is where Friends of the Clearwater has focused its efforts. Further south, Salmon River Country is a higher, drier region of ponderosa savannahs and glacier-carved peaks. They are joined by the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. Our core region, Wild Clearwater Country, contains 3 million acres of wilderness and roadless forest.
Altogether, the entire region covers more than10 million contiguous acres of wild, undeveloped country, making it larger than Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks combined. This unique and irreplaceable region, jointly owned by all of us, is rich in biodiversity.
Climate change and governmental policies, including the Nez Perce-Clearwater Forests’ new Land Management Plan (Forest Plan), pose unprecedented threats. We are in the midst of what has been termed the Sixth Extinction Crisis. For the sake of species diversity and the climate, we must take bold steps to protect, connect and add to existing wildlands.
Friends of the Clearwater has protected and defended Wild Clearwater Country for almost 40 years, and we aim to keep it wild forever! We envision millions of salmon and hundreds of wolverines, fishers, lynx, grizzlies and wolves thriving in interconnected wildlands and waterways. We know that securing and connecting habitats at large scale is the only way to achieve this vision, and we intend to build a groundswell of support for this endeavor.
Friends of the Clearwater is ready to get to work! We recognize that all parts of an ecosystem are ecologically and spiritually interconnected; what happens to one species, waterway, or forest affects all the rest.
Where is the Big Wild? The Big Wild stretched from roughly the St. Joe River in North Idaho to the Pioneer Mountains of Central Idaho.
The boundaries of the Big Wild are mostly extrapolated from central Idaho wildlands included in the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA).
Below is a hand-drawn and digitally colored map of the rough boundaries of the region.
Poster by Paul Busch. For a limited time, all donations over $50 will receive a poster! Just donate and email the office to let us know you want one.
We are embarking on three initiatives, each focused on protecting one aspect of what makes the Big Wild special:
Wild salmon hold profound spiritual significance for the indigenous people of this land, and adult salmon returning to their spawning grounds are life-sustaining for many other species. These fish can only spawn, and their fry can only feed and gain strength, in clear cold water. Their 600-mile migration routes connect the Big Wild to the Pacific Ocean.
Four of the sixteen salmon and steelhead stocks that historically returned to spawn above the Bonneville dam are already extinct, and seven of them – including all four that return to the Snake River – are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Dams pose by far the largest threat to these fish in their freshwater life stage, causing direct harm as fish attempt to migrate past each dam and indirect harm by transforming rivers into series of slack-water, lethally warm reservoirs.
The Big Wild is ideal habitat for three threatened and endangered carnivores: wolverines, lynx, and grizzly bears. Wolves, whose ESA status is often contentious, inhabit the Big Wild, as do the rare (but unprotected) fisher. Black bears and mountain lions round out the list of native carnivores—the most diverse in North America.
These animals all need vast swaths of wild and well-connected habitat for long- term survival and to strengthen their gene pools. Large carnivores are keystone and umbrella species, meaning that their presence ensures and safeguards overall biodiversity within an ecosystem.
The roadless areas of the Big Wild include mature and old growth forests; other parts of the Big Wild also contain pockets of old growth.
These forests provide essential habitat for carnivores and other wildlife, sequester enormous amounts of carbon, and produce cold, clean water sources that are critically important to salmon and steelhead.
In pursuing our three initiatives, FOC recognizes that the people of the United States all share ownership of the Big Wild and are equally entitled to the benefits it provides. Our work will be guided by the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number, including future generations. FOC will support keeping public lands in public hands, engage the public to promote a land ethic, work with regional conservation partners, facilitate public involvement in government decision-making about land management, and honor our shared history, particularly as expressed in the Nez Perce National Historic Trail and the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.
This is more than a conservation effort. This is a movement. A movement to ensure that the Big Wild remains a thriving, interconnected ecosystem comparable in scale, beauty, and ecological power to the landscapes we revere: Yellowstone, Glacier, Yosemite. A movement rooted in love for a place that still pulses with ancient rhythms, determined to keep it alive for all who come after us.
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