Logging in the Salmon-Clearwater Divide
Current Status:
Inactive
Date Filed:
Apr 28, 2021
Case Title:
Friends of the Clearwater v. Cheryl F. Probert and U.S. Forest Service
Staff attorney(s):
Bryan Hurlbutt
Laird J. Lucas
Client(s):
To Protect:
Old-growth forests and habitat for fisher, salmon, steelhead, and grizzly bears.
Date won/settled:
June 24, 2022
Idaho
Case Information:
January 3, 2023 — Advocates for the West received affirmation of our June 2022 victory on behalf of Friends of the Clearwater to protect old growth forests on Idaho’s Salmon-Clearwater Divide. The U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho denied the Forest Service’s motion to amend the prior decision ordering the agency to conduct a more thorough environmental review for the End of the World logging project.
The Court held that the agency is required to prepare a full environmental impact statement for End of the World as a result of cumulatively significant environmental impacts on old growth forest-wide when that project and the adjacent Hungry Ridge logging project are considered together.
June 24, 2022 — Advocates for the West won a major victory halting the End of the World and Hungry Ridge projects. In the decision, the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho agreed that the Forest Service failed to ensure required minimum amounts of old growth will be protected from logging. The Court enjoined End of the World and Hungry Ridge and ordered the Forest Service to accurately identify old growth stands and to comply with all old growth protections.
December 3, 2021 – Advocates for the West filed our reply brief in this case.
October 1, 2021 – Advocates for the West filed our opening brief in this case.
April 28, 2021 – Advocates for the West filed suit on behalf of Friends of the Clearwater to stop two massive logging projects in the Salmon-Clearwater Divide. The Forest Service approved the two projects, End of the World and Hungry Ridge, based on the misguided notion that to save the forest and its wildlife, you have to log it.
Each massive on their own, together End of the World and Hungry Ridge would result in logging more than 25,000 acres of public land of the Salmon-Clearwater Divide to harvest more than 300 million board feet of timber over the next ten years.
The Salmon-Clearwater Divide is the mountainous, forested ridge rising between the Salmon River and the South Fork Clearwater River. Located between Grangeville, Idaho, and the Gospel Hump Wilderness, the Divide provides habitat for fisher, salmon, steelhead, and grizzly bears, among other at-risk species.
