This declaratory judgment action seeks injunctive relief from the Kootenai and Panhandle Forest Plans.2 These forests lie in the Forest Service’s Northern Region, or “Region l .” The Forest Plans began coordination in 2002 and were formally adopted on January 6, 2015, in the Forest Service’s Final Record of Decision (“ROD”). The RODs and resulting Forest Plans were implemented 30 days after publication of the notice of the RODs in the Federal Register, and now constitute the governing land use plans for the Kootenai and Panhandle Forests.

Court upholds the Forest Service’s discretion to maintain the wild character of the forests

Earthjustice seeks to preserve forest management plans for Kootenai and Idaho Panhandle National Forests.

A timeline of the creation of and fight to defend the National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Policy.

State rule may allow new roads and logging, put wildlife habitat at risk, and pollute watersheds with mining pollution.

Late in the Bush administration, the U.S. Forest Service issued the Idaho Roadless Rule, a regulation establishing special rules to govern management of undeveloped roadless areas in Idaho’s National Forests. Idaho has the most roadless public forest lands of any state in the lower-48 United States, with more than nine million acres. These pristine lands…

Facts about the National Forest roadless areas in Idaho

Lawsuit challenging the USFS Idaho Roadless Rule, which makes hundreds of thousands of acres of Idaho's roadless lands available for road construction, mining, and logging.

Only state in the lower 48 to have roadless forest protection downgraded by the Bush administration