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

Highway 12: A Timeline

After the recent victory for Highway 12's Wild and Scenic corridor in a Boise courtroom, we thought it would be a good time to present a timeline of Highway 12 from it's creation to the present:

1961-1962: U.S. Highway 12 was built and paved through Idaho and into Montana.

1968: With passage of the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, eight of the nation's most pristine rivers were designated Wild & Scenic. Among them were three Idaho rivers: the Selway & Lochsa, which join to form the third, the Middlefork Clearwater. For about 90 miles, the latter two -- Lochsa and MF Clearwater -- flow immediately alongside Hwy.12, and at Milepost 97, the Selway flows in from the southeast.

1995: The USFS, which has jurisdiction over these three rivers and the wild corridors through which they run granted a highway management easement to the Idaho Department of Transportation. Many residents, fearful that ITD would ignore Wild & Scenic protection mandates, spoke against the easement. In 1997, some revisions were written into the easement. Five small stretches of the highway were inadvertently, or otherwise, left out and remain left out today.

2008-2010: "Improvements" were madeon Highway 12, including the widening and rock filling of some turnouts, projects partially paid for by Exxon Mobil/Imperial Oil.

2010, spring: ITD and Exxon/Imperial made public a proposal to ship 200+ tarsands modules on U.S.12. Following consultations with Idaho Rivers United and Friends of the Clearwater, The Rural People of Highway 12 Fighting Goliath was launched, and in Montana, NoShipmentsNetwork and All Against the Haul, among others, had entered the fray. Numerous organizations and hundreds of individuals joined the anti-megaload fight, and Advocates for the West lawyer Natalie Havlina and director Laird Lucas began documenting developments.   An Idaho District Court win involving ConocoPhillips' shipments, followed by a Supreme Court appeal, two unsuccessful contested cases (but that caused significant and costly time delays for the corporations), a court case win in Montana that stopped Exxon/Imperial in its tracks, protests, monitorings, comments and letters, and so much more. And then ...

 

2011, March: IRU filed its lawsuit against the USFS & FHWA.

 

2012, December: The Nez Perce Tribe filed a motion for amicus status in the case.

 

2013, Feb. 6th: Advocates for the West's Laird Lucas presented final arguments before U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, and Tribal lawyer Michael Lopez argued for amicus status.

 

2013, Feb. 7th: Judge Winmill ruled in IRU's favor. 

 

Now: With the IRU win secured, all of us must remain engaged in order to ensure that the USFS does step up to protect the Wild & Scenic Lochsa--Middlefork Clearwater corridor from the kind of industrialization megaload transports would bring.

 
 Recent Articles about case:

   The Mega-Myth About Mega-Loads

  equities.com: If not industrial corridor's demise, something close

  Judge Sides with Conservationists in Mega-Load Case

Enough is Enough

Yesterday, Big Oil said "cut all highway-side branches off the trees in the Wild & Scenic River highway corridor 32 feet up and 3 feet past the fog line, and the Clearwater National Forest looked the other way. See photo above of the beginnings of a rectangular tunnel being cut in the highway corridor's forest canopy.

Please let the CNF know exactly how you feel about such treatment of the Wild & Scenic corridor. Call or email:

Craig Trulock ctrulock@fs.fed.us 208-926-4274

Rick Brazell, Clearwater National Forest Supervisor rbrazell@fs.fed.us 208-476-4541

Leslie Weldon, Regional Forester lweldon@fs.fed.us Missoula

And guess what - after over 3 years of planning, over a week of incident review and recommendations and all the last minute tree trimming and both an Exxon press release and and ITD press release saying the were moving last night from mile 61 to 94 - Exxon once again didn't move!

Enough is enough. These loads are too big for Highway 12. The risks far outweigh the benefits to the residents and businesses of Highway 12.