Plan To Preserve State Waters Lists No North Idaho Streams

A state board’s attempt to preserve pristine waters in Idaho is limited in scope, and includes no waters in North Idaho, but it’s a start, board members say.

Conservationists at the Idaho Health and Welfare Board’s first public hearing on “outstanding resource waters” Monday in Lewiston urged the panel to target more streams. But logging industry spokesmen questioned the practical application of applying protected status to streams.

North Idaho residents asked why no streams, lakes or rivers from the five northern counties made it onto the list.

Meanwhile, Northwest environmental groups are calling for a ban against a timber sale along one of the streams in question.

The hearing, the first of four, is an attempt to help the public understand the issues, said board Chairwoman Maureen Finnerty of Idaho Falls.

The other three meetings are in southern Idaho.

“I want to try to remove as much suspicion as possible about what’s being done,” Finnerty said.

The board proposed several streams for the state’s strongest protection in 1990 and 1991. Both efforts failed when legislators balked.

The federal Clean Water Act allows states to create a protected category to preserve pristine waters. Idaho legislators did so in 1989, but have not applied it to any streams.

The outstanding category bans any pollution, but does not prohibit any activity such as logging or mining.

The Idaho Conservation League and others petitioned the board this spring to protect 68 streams. The panel cut the list to 18, including only the Salmon River’s Middle Fork and 13 tributaries, and the Selway River and three tributaries.

Finnerty said the board could only realistically focus on a small number of streams, and chose those that it had unsuccessfully championed in 1990 and 1991.

Board member G. Bert Henricksen of Lewiston defended paring the list to make it more focused.

“We were looking for something the Legislature would approve. Until we get one, we can’t get 68,” he said.

The league has petitioned the board to add 10 streams, including Monumental Creek along the Middle Fork, Moose and Meadow creeks along the Selway, White Sand Creek along the Lochsa, Kelly and Cayuse creeks and the upper St. Joe River.

Mike Medberry, an ICL activist, said he was disappointed the St. Joe and other bull trout-bearing streams in particular were not included.

“That’s one of the premier rivers in the state that deserves water quality protection,” he said Tuesday.

Philosophically, Potlatch Corp. does not oppose protecting the streams, but believes the program would simply become another way to stop industry on public lands, company spokesman Kevin Boling said.

Six conservation groups have called on Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman to preclude the Clearwater National Forest from allowing a timber sale covering 3,500 acres within the White Sand Creek drainage.

They say it is one of the few remaining watersheds in the Clearwater River system that supports wild chinook salmon, steelhead trout, bull trout and westslope cutthroat, all imperiled.

They add it is one of two major tributaries of the Wild and Scenic-ranked Lochsa, and development violates the Columbia River Anadromous Fish Restoration Plan adopted by four Indian tribes, including the Nez Perce.

Among the groups are the Idaho Conservation League, Idaho Rivers United and The Wilderness Society.

, DataTimes