Lawsuit challenges new U.S. Forest Service pan for Nez Perce-Clearwater Forests

Kamiah — A coalition of three conservation groups sued the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday for its approval of the Revised Land Management Plan for the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests, the overarching document that guides management of approximately 4 million acres of National Forest land in North Central Idaho. 

Plaintiffs Idaho Conservation League, Great Burn Conservation Alliance, and Montana Wildlife Federation argue that the agency failed to provide adequate protections to safeguard wolverines, mountain goats, and the Great Burn ecosystem, a press release said.

“For decades, the Great Burn Conservation Alliance has worked to protect the wild lands and wildlife of the Northern Bitterroot Mountains,” said Hayley Newman, executive director of the Great Burn Conservation Alliance. “The Great Burn’s value extends far beyond any single boundary on a map, and protecting it means conserving the connected habitats wildlife depend on to survive, including the high-elevation areas critical to mountain goats and wolverines. By removing protections for these important areas, this plan moves us in the wrong direction at a time when these species and the landscapes they depend on need stronger protections.”

Adopted in early 2025, the plan replaces two separate management plans for the Clearwater and Nez Perce National Forests created in the 1980s, well before the two Forests were consolidated. 

The conservation groups’ central claim concerns changes to the boundaries of the Great Burn Recommended Wilderness Area (RWA). The agency shrank the Great Burn RWA by approximately 3,700 acres overall and removed two large blocks on the north and south ends of the RWA that are critical to wildlife, while adding new acreage on the west side. These changes opened once-closed areas to winter motorized use.

The high-elevation areas removed on the north and south ends of the Great Burn are valuable habitat for wolverines and mountain goats, species that are highly sensitive to human disturbance during critical winter months. 

Rather than use the best available scientific information to conserve mountain goats and wolverines and protect the Great Burn from known and escalating threats such as climate change and motorized winter recreation, the Forest Service shirked its procedural legal obligations, the conservation organizations allege, and through these boundary manipulations reduced conservation outcomes for mountain goats, wolverines, and the Great Burn, according to the release.