Dear public lands owners,
The Forest Service has announced that they have extended the public comment period for the East Saddle Integrated Restoration Project until March 26. The project would commercially log approximately 400-acres in the Kelly Creek and Cayuse Creek watersheds on the Clearwater National Forests, which are prized blue-ribbon cutthroat trout fisheries. Click here to read our full alert and submit a public comment. Please help us spread the word about this important public comment period extension.
A federal appeals court has affirmed that the Forest Service illegally permitted the Idaho Fish & Game Department in 2016 to use helicopters to capture and collar elk in the Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness. The helicopter intrusions were part of Idaho’s broader program to inflate elk numbers above natural levels within the Wilderness by eliminating wolf packs that prey on elk. We were proud to join Wilderness Watch and Western Watersheds Project on the case. Thank you to attorneys with Earthjustice for representing our coalition.
Conservation groups recently reached an agreement with USDA Wildlife Services that sets strict limits on how and where the federal agency can kill wolves in Idaho. The agreement, which stems from a lawsuit filed in 2016, also bans the use of M-44 “cyanide bombs” statewide, and prohibits the use of snares to kill wolves on public lands. The federal government is bound by the agreement until they complete a full analysis detailing the potential impacts of their wildlife killing program in Idaho. We were proud to join Predator Defense, Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians on the complaint. Thank you to attorneys with Advocates for the West and Western Watersheds Project for representing our coalition.
All in-person public meetings involving the government’s environmental analysis of the continued operations of the Columbia/Snake River dams and recovery of salmon have been cancelled due to the current health epidemic. The public comment deadline, which should be extended as a result of these cancellations, currently remains April 13. If meetings are rescheduled and/or the comment period is extended, we will let you know. Save Our Wild Salmon is another excellent source of information.
Lastly, the public comment deadline for the draft forest revision on the Nez Pece and Clearwater National Forests is April 20. This page will tell you about our strong concerns over the heavily-flawed plan, and where to send a public comment. We will have more action alerts about this in the coming weeks.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Brett Haverstick
Education & Outreach Director