Home: Education: Roadless Area Information

Idaho's Backcountry Forests at Risk

The Biggest Environmental Story You've Never Heard Of

Right now the fate of Idaho's roadless forests is at stake. The Bush Administration is taking one last crack at the Nationwide Roadless Rule with a swipe at Idaho.

Rice Lake

Essentially, they want to roll back nationwide protections in Idaho, and hand over millions of our last undeveloped forests to special interests. They are not even bothering to hide their agenda, and continue to move forward with their plans despite tremendous outcry from united groups of backpackers, hunters, anglers, hikers, environmentalists and other outdoor enthusiasts.

While these groups typically don't see eye to eye on environmental issues, they do when it comes to protecting the last of Idaho's pristine roadless forests.

To better understand the issue at hand please watch PBS's NOW Video: Fighting Over Forests.

Ready to take action? Click here to send in your comments!

E-mail direct to: IDcomments@fsroadless.org

Snail Mail them to:
Roadless Area Conservation-Idaho
PO Box 162909
Sacramento, CA  95816-2909

View talking points, background info, links, maps and more

Roadless Rule Background

2001 Roadless Rule Reinstated
On September 20th, 2006, U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth LaPorte ruled that the Bush Administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Endangered Species Act when it repealed the 2001 Roadless Rule. The court found the Bush Administration acted illegally, and reinstated the original 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (Wilderness Society, 2006). Management of our public lands has been given back to the public, and taken away from special interest groups.

Following the reinstatement of the 2001 Roadless Rule, the President of the Wilderness Society issued a formal statement, which can be viewed here.

Sadly, on the eve of such great news, and the very same day of the reinstatement, Idaho's Governor announced plans to stay the course - and go against the reinstatement of the nationwide roadless rule. Idaho plans to continue with the grossly unbalanced petition process aimed at building roads into roadless areas for logging, drilling and other invasive and destructive activities.

What Went Wrong
On May 5th, 2005, the Bush Administration revoked the widely-supported 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule and replaced it with the 2005 Roadless Rule. Under this new rule, approximately 60 million acres of pristine wild forests were now open for logging, drilling, road building and other destructive forms of development (Idaho Conservation League, 2005).

The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule was created to establish a nationwide blanket to protect inventoried roadless areas as a whole; it grants the same high level of protection and management to every single roadless area regardless of state legislation (USDA Forest Service, 2005). This approach makes sense because roadless areas often are independent of state and political boundaries, and as such, should be managed as a whole.

The 2001 Roadless Rule was the most supported set of Federal laws ever enacted; 95% of over 1.6 million comments submitted were in support of 2001 Roadless Rule (Wilderness Society, 2005).

The Bush Administration was able to revoke the 2001 Roadless Rule by focusing on changing federal regulations in order to quietly replace the Roadless Rule. Federal regulations are basically proposals that allow for fundamental changes to be made to roadless management with little media attention and a small amount (if any) of public involvement (Wilderness Society, 2005).

Why Preserve Roadless Areas?
Roadless areas are important because they represent our last remaining intact ecosystems, water systems, wildlife areas and open-spaces. Roadless areas represent 2% of land in the entire US (Wilderness Society, 2005). That's all that's left!

Idaho Roadless Facts
  • Idaho has the most roadless land in the lower 48 with over 9.3 million acres
  • Over 54% of Idaho’s public land is developed; leaving 46% of public land that is considered roadless
  • 74% of Steelhead and Chinook Salmon habitat in roadless areas
  • Steelhead and Salmon fishers spend $60 million annually in Idaho

(Wilderness Society, 2005)

How to Help: Adopt-a-Roadless-Area
In response to renewed threats to 9.3 million acres of roadless forests in Idaho, the Idaho Conservation League and partners statewide have initiated an Adopt-a-Roadless-Area Program.

To participate, you can select a roadless area you already know, or get to know a new one. You'll be expected to visit the area at least once, write a letter to the Governor, raise awareness about the area and document your visit.

As an adoptive parent of an orphaned roadless area, you'll be helping ensure protection for Idaho's clean water, wildlife and natural heritage.

How to Adopt-a-Roadless-Area:

1. View/Download the Adoption packet (in Word format)

2. View/Download a list of all roadless areas in Idaho (PDF format)

Maps of Idaho's Roadless Areas:

Please e-mail Jonathan Oppenheimer of the Idaho Conservation League with any questions, comments or concerns regarding the Adopt-a-Roadless-Area Program at:

"We simply need wild country available to us, even if we do no more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope." Wallace Stegner

[TOP]