BOISE (CN) - Idaho can't use a U.S. Forest Service access road across private property for commercial logging in a wild and scenic corridor along the Selway River, a federal judge ruled.
Idaho Rivers United and property owners Morgan and Olga Wright sued the Forest Service in May under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the state's corridor river management plan. The state intervened as a defendant.
The Forest Service designated Forest Road 652, in Northern Idaho's Nez Perce National Forest, as a public road on Nov. 20, 2014, clearing the way for the Idaho Department of Lands to use it for commercial logging.
The plaintiffs describe the road as a "short, unimproved spur" parallel to the Selway River, in the Selway Wild and Scenic River Corridor. The area is at the bottom of Idaho's rugged Panhandle.
The road was to be reconstructed as a 16-foot thoroughfare under the Department of Lands engineering plan, creating concern for habitat and private property value.
Idaho Rivers said the 142-acre logging project would create 18,500 cubic yards of rubble waste that could create "massive sedimentation" and debris flows on the protected river.
"The Selway is a national treasure, and the Forest Service has to protect the numerous values that lead to its Wild and Scenic designation," Idaho Rivers United conservation director Kevin Lewis said in a statement praising the judge's July 10 ruling.
"Our lawsuit focuses on a specific issue, but the big picture is about upholding wild and scenic values. Wild and scenic rivers are our nation's most precious, prized and celebrated rivers, and they deserve our utmost care and consideration."
The Wrights say the project would produce 6.89 million board feet of timber, requiring more than 1,000 truckloads across 740 feet of their private land, which is entirely within the corridor.
"The reason I bought property and built a house on the bank of the Selway River was because of its incredible beauty, but also because of the protections afforded by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act," Morgan Wright said. "Being locked out of a Forest Service decision-making process that affects the value of my land is patently offensive and un-American."
The plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction on June 24, prohibiting work on Forest Road 652 until the case is resolved.
The road was improperly designated, according to Idaho Rivers attorney Laurence Lucas, with Advocates of the West.
"The road does not meet the statutory definition of a 'public road,' based on lack of public maintenance," Lucas told Courthouse News. "It is still a Forest Service road; it is still accessible to the public; it just does not qualify as a public road, which is what determines if a Forest Service special use permit is required or not for IDL [Idaho Department of Lands] to conduct its commercial activity on the road."
The Forest Service argued that the court does not have jurisdiction because the plaintiffs challenged only its failure to act; and that a 1937 easement allows the road to be converted into a public road.
The Decision
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill rejected both of the Forest Service's arguments.