Alert on Idaho roadless areas. Meetings in I.F. and Pocatello Feb. 20 and 21

By Ralph Maughan On February 11, 2008 · Leave a Comment · In Forest Service, Public Lands, Wilderness/Roadless, Yellowstone

Alert on Idaho roadless areas-

On December 26, 2007, the Forest Service released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that seeks to weaken protections for much of Idaho’s 9.3 million acres of roadless lands. Nearly 6 million acres of those lands would be opened to potential logging and mineral development. An additional 600,000 acres in Southeast Idaho and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem would be virtually unprotected, opening these backcountry lands to phosphate mining.

The details of the roadless plan for Idaho are available on the National Forest Service’s website:

http://roadless.fs.fed.us/idaho.shtml

More information about roadless areas, and their importance to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, is available on the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s website.

http://greateryellowstone.org/roadless/

A more comprehensive web site for all the roadless areas (it’s an interactive site) is at http://roadlessland.org/index.php

Please attend and participate in the upcoming public hearings in your area. Times and locations of meetings in northern Idaho are below.

And finally, feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Kit McGurn

GYC Conservation Coordinator- Idaho

208 522-7927

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Forest Service Public Meetings to hear comments on proposed management of Idaho’s roadless lands:

February 20, 2008

Idaho Falls

Shilo Inn

Grand Teton Room

780 Lindsey Blvd

Idaho Falls, ID 83401

6:00 PM

February 21, 2008

Pocatello

Holiday Inn

1399 Bench Road

Pocatello, ID 83201

6:00 PM

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Tagged with: Idaho roadless • national forests • roadlessland

About The Author

Ralph Maughan

Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project.

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