Forest Planning: Kootenai National Forest Plan

Summary: The Kootenai National Forest is combined with the Idaho Panhandle National Forest for Forest Plan revisions. Together, they are referred to as Kootenai Idaho Panhandle Planning Zone (KIPZ).

The Kootenai Forest Plan is on hold due to the 2007 court ruling in Citizens for Better Forestry, et al., v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, (U.S. Dist. Court, N.D. CA, 3/30/07, Case 3:04-cv-04512-PJH). There, the Court held that the Forest Service’s 2005 Planning Rule: (1) violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) for failing to adequately involve the public in developing the 2005 Planning Rule; (2) violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for failing to properly consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and (3) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by improperly applying a categorical exclusion and not fully evaluating the environmental impacts of the 2005 Planning Rule. The Court remanded the rule back to the Forest Service for compliance with the APA, ESA, and NEPA. Best guess is that the Kootenai Forest Plan will be released sometime in 2008.

The Kootenai Forest Plan will not be released until the Forest Service decides how to proceed under the March 2007 court ruling holding that the 2005 Planning Rule violated a number of statutes and sending it back to the Forest Service for Compliance with the law. Until that happens, the Forest is operating under the 1987 Forest Plan. Individual projects will continue under the old rules and through NEPA processes. A best guess for the release of the plan will be sometime in 2008.

 There are only a few sizeable places left on the Kootenai that are still wild and natural, places that have avoided being bulldozed and ‘improved’ and crisscrossed by the traffic of the modern age. We need to protect these places for the wildlife, for the peace and quiet they provide, and for future generations to enjoy as we do. 

—Doug Ferrell, Trout Creek

MWA supports:
    1. Wilderness Recommendation for these areas:
    • Rodderick and Northwest Peaks Roadless Areas in the Yaak
    • Scotchman Peaks Proposed Wilderness in the Cabinet Mountains
    • Cabinet Face East Roadless Areas; and
    • Cataract Creek, Galena, McKay Creek, Berray Mountain, Willard-Estelle, Barren Creek, Mount Henry and Mount Robinson, Allen Peak, Buckhorn Ridge, West Fork of the Yaak, Saddle Mountain, Zulu, Gold Hill, and acreage in Trout Creek that was excluded from Wilderness recommendation in the 1987 Forest Plan.