Meadow Creek ORVs

Meadow Creek is a major tributary to the Selway River in central Idaho which is a candidate Wild and Scenic river; and it offers some of the best habitat anywhere for endangered salmon, steelhead and bull trout.  The Idaho conservation community has long fought to protect Meadow Creek from logging, roads, and other human impacts.

Working with clients The Wilderness Society and Idaho Conservation League — who documented growing ORV degradation of streams and soils in Meadow Creek — we filed a series of appeals and then federal court litigation in 2008 seeking to force the Forest Service to close Meadow Creek to motorized entry.  In response, the agency issued an emergency closure order in September 2008 barring ORVs from entering most of the key areas of concern on a temporary basis, and so we dismissed our lawsuit.

We pushed for permanent closure of Meadow Creek from ORVs through the Forest Service’s travel planning process.