America's Most Endangered Rivers 2014

 American Rivers protects wild rivers, restores damaged rivers, and conserves clean water for people and nature.  Since 1973, American Rivers has protected and restored more than 150,000 miles of rivers through advocacy efforts, on-the-ground projects, and an annual America's Most Endangered Rivers campaign.  

 This morning river conservation organization brought our efforts to protect the Wild and Scenic corridor to even greater national attention by announcing the designation of the Lochsa and Middle Fork Clearwater rivers as among America's Most Endangered Rivers.  This designation shines "a national spotlight on the threat that megaload shipments bound for the Canadian tar sands pose to the rivers' unique Wild and Scenic character."  Further, American Rivers and its partners urge the US Forest Service to stop industrialization of the Lochsa-Clearwater U.S.12 corridor by banning megaload transports.

You can help protect our rivers by personally writing to Tom Tidwell, the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service ttidwell@fs.fed.us 

Or respond to the Take Action call via the American Rivers website

American Rivers protects wild rivers, restores damaged rivers, and conserves clean water for people and nature. Since 1973, American Rivers has protected and restored more than 150,000 miles of rivers through advocacy efforts, on-the-ground projects, and an annual America’s Most Endangered Rivers® campaign. - See more at: http://www.americanrivers.org/about/#sthash.9TuJgBJo.dpuf

Thank you!

 



 

The Wild and Scenic rivers’ coldwater fisheries, scenery, and whitewater are threatened by industrialization that would bring huge megaloads bound for Canadian tar sands onto narrow roads beside the rivers. - See more at: http://www.americanrivers.org/endangered-rivers/#sthash.z6qPowII.dpuf

The Wild and Scenic rivers’ coldwater fisheries, scenery, and whitewater are threatened by industrialization that would bring huge megaloads bound for Canadian tar sands onto narrow roads beside the rivers. - See more at: http://www.americanrivers.org/endangered-rivers/#sthash.z6qPowII.dpuf

USFS Report

As the Nez Perce Tribe & Idaho Rivers United vs. the US Forest Service megaload case slowly proceeds, this afternoon the USFS released a report titled "Perceived Values of the Middle Fork Clearwater and Lochsa River Corridor Potentially Affected by Certain Over-Legal Truck Traffic."  (That is, by megaload traffic.) You'll find the report here.

Although the top-of-page headline includes the word "study," the USFS notes:  "This paper is not an impact study..."  You may recall that on 9/12/13 (5.5 months ago), Federal Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered the USFS to conduct a "corridor review" and consult with the Nez Perce Tribe -- a consultation yet to commence.

Sign the Stop the Megaloads Petition

Stop the Megaloads Petition
Created by Ciarra Green.  

 
Here's what she has to say:  The megaloads are manufactured outside the US, are shipped to the Inland Northwest, and then transported via highways through Idaho and Montana to the Alberta Tar Sands. The Alberta Tar Sands have destroyed the resources of the First Nations people of Canada. We cannot support or allow this injustice to continue.
Our land in the US is worth protecting! Here are the top 20 reasons US Hwy 12 is worth protecting:

1. Runs through the Nez Perces' ancient homeland.
2.The Nez Perce National Historic Park is located here, including the headquarters and museum
3. Nationally designated the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway.
4. Nationally designated 1 of the nation's 27 All-American Roads.
5. Crosses and parallels for 80+ miles the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.
6. Crosses and parallels for 80+ miles the Nez Perce National Historic Trail.
7. Runs for 70+ miles beside 2 nationally designated Wild and Scenic Rivers, the Middle Fork of the Clearwater and the Lochsa, and provides access to a 3rd, the Selway River.
8. Travels beside and provides access to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, one of the nation's most cherished wilderness areas.
9. National & International - renown of the Lochsa River for its world-class spring whitewater run.
10. Named by Motorcycle Magazine as the #1 recreational motorcycle route in the nation (many curves, much beauty).
11. Comprises a segment of the nationally recognized TransAmerica Bicycle Route.
12. Bisects the old growth Bernard Devoto Cedar Grove.
13. Crosses the Pacific Coast Disjunct Area, which includes rare plants for Idaho environs.
14. Lies within yards of USFS campgrounds, dispersed campsites, USFS and Nat'l Park Service interpretive sites, beaches and picnic sites.
15. Provides access to suspension bridges and dozens of trails used by hunters, fishers and wilderness trekkers and horseback riders, including access to the Idaho Bicentennial Trail and the Lochsa River Historical Trail.
16. Provides access to the Lochsa Historical Ranger Station, the McBeth House, historical churches, Big Eddy Marina at Dworshak Reservoir, and Spalding Park.
17. Runs alongside streams providing habitat of vital importance to salmon, steelhead, eel, bass and trout fisheries.
18. Runs through the wild habitats of a myriad of birds and other wildlife.
19. Runs for miles as a narrow, winding, shoulderless roadway within feet of rivers that provide domestic water supplies for 3 towns: Kamiah, Orofino and Lewiston.
20. Provides both an access route and a destination for travelers/tourists and recreationists who spend millions of dollars annually at over 150 small businesses, Lewiston to Lolo Pass, as part of the single growing industry of the corridor communities which comprise an economically depressed region of Idaho.

Please sign the petition to Rick Brazell, US Forest Service, Skip Brandt, Idaho County Commissioners Office, Doug Havens, Nez Perce County Commissioners Office, Greg Johnson, Lewis County Commissioners Office, Don Ebert, Clearwater County Commissioners Office, The Idaho State House, The Idaho State Senate, Governor Butch Otter, The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama, which says:

"I urge the US Forest Service to enforce its jurisdiction over megaload shipments across the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest. The scientific process should be adhered to before the authorization of transport is allowed; This would include a complete assessment of the possible impacts from megaload transportation through the pristine scenic corridor, including tribal lands, recreation areas, historical sites, and other indispensable lands. The environmental and public welfare injustices will have long lasting effects that cannot be repaired through financial settlements."

Will you sign the petition too? Click here to add your name:
Stop the Megaloads Petition
 

VIDEO PROOF THAT ITD & THE OIL COMAPNIES ARE LYING ABOUT MEGALOAD DELAYS

 

ITD states that in order to receive a permit "Over-legal loads are limited to 15-minute traffic delays."  Anyone who's had the misfortune of being stuck behind or in front of one of these megaloads as they block the highway in both directions knows the wait in many places is much longer than 15 minutes.  Now, a revealing video, taken from a steep hillside above U.S.12's Fish Creek Bridge during early August's Omega Morgan megaload transport, provides proof of ITD's -- and Omega Morgan's -- lie.

The embedded video, "Megaload Through Clearwater Country" documents 29 minutes of a 1-hour-25-minute traffic blockage caused by Omega Morgan, clocked by a citizen timer, witnessed by approximately 75 on-site protesters.

 

Video footage by Roger and Janice Inghram 

Tree-scaping in the Wild and Scenic Corridor

Exxon hired an army of out-of-state tree trimmers to take to the Wild and Scenic corridor on Easter Sunday. Here are just a few pictures from the "tree-scaping". The top three pictures are along the Wild and Scenic Lochsa, the next two pictures are in the Devoto Memorial Cedar Grove and the last one is in the Wild and Scenic section of the Middlefork of the Clearwater river.

Easter Sunday Hack Job

Driving up Highway 12 to enjoy the Wild and Scenic Lochsa River Corridor on this Easter Sunday my family was shocked and saddened to see an army of tree trimmers hacking away on the beautiful old trees that line the highway. Trees that stood long before the highway was built are now being altered in a most un-aesthetic way to make way for an Exxon Test Module (one that is too large for the corridor and doesn’t even have a permit to proceed beyond Lolo Hot Springs!)

Frank Church and Cecil Andrus along with the U.S. Congress protected the Lochsa River Corridor for future generations of Americans with the passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968 and now ITD and USFS are working hand in hand with Exxon/Mobil to undo those protections.

Anyone taking a Sunday drive upriver today or traveling home from a family gathering met with 40+minute delays as they were held behind flaggers and led haphazardly by a pilot car through a maze of tree-trimmers trucks.
What kind of transportation department schedules major road alterations on Easter Sunday?
Why wasn’t there any kind of notification on ITD’s website to inform the traveling public of the delays being experienced on Highway 12?
What kind of Forest Service allows for a nationally mandated Wild and Scenic corridor to be radically changed in a way that puts the trees that line the highway at increased risk of disease and weakens them to the affects of wind and snow damage?

This inane attempt of making Highway 12 into an over-sized shipping route must come to a stop. The time is NOW before anything worse happens. Already many of the concerns brought up by locals have come true – delays well over 15 minutes, trees along the highway damaged, power outages, pullouts blocked off to the public, the shipments not being able to make the trip in the time presumed, altering of the wild and scenic corridor and a highway shutdown - and all that after only 2 megaloads have made the full trip from Lewiston to Lolo Pass! What more has to happen before ITD acknowledges the truth? These loads are too large for Highway 12 and they place an unnecessary risk on the local citizens and businesses who rely on Highway 12.

Let’s stop this NOW before something worse happens. If one of these loads went into the river the damage to the riverbed would be devastating. Exxon has proven that they have not planned well for this transportation project. There are other options to get this equipment to Alberta. We do not need to sacrifice Highway 12. I encourage you to pick up the phone on Monday morning and call as many of the people on the following list as you can to express your concern and dismay at the disregard with which our government agencies are treating the public. The short-sightedness of those individuals charged with protecting the resources of the public must be addressed.

PLEASE CALL
USFS:Craig Trulock, Lochsa Ranger Station (208)926-4274
Rick Brazell, Clearwater Natn'l Forest Supervisor (208)476-4541
Leslie Weldon, Regional Forester (406) 329-3470

ITD:
ITD Director Brian Ness (208) 334-8876
Public Involvement Adam Rush (208) 334-8119
IDAHO TRANSPORTATION BOARD MEMBERS
Darrell Manning – Chairman (208) 334-8808
Jim Coleman (208) 762-4704
Jan Vassar (208) 743-5093
Jerry Whitehead (208) 344-2539
Gary Blick – Vice Chairman (208) 537-6787
Neil Miller (208) 681-3172
Lee Gagner (208) 529-5600

If you’d like to call more people at ITD here is a link to the complete phone list:
http://itd.idaho.gov/aboutITD/phonelst.htm