Hells Canyon In Peril, Group Warns Wilderness Society Says Off-Road Vehicles Causing Problems

Hells Canyon National Recreation Area is one of the 15 most endangered wildlands in the United States, according to a report released this week by The Wilderness Society.

But a group that fights for motorized use of the backcountry dismissed the report as more politics than substance.

The Wilderness Society cites off-road vehicles and exotic weeds as the top threats to the area straddling Eastern Oregon and west-central Idaho across 71 miles of the Snake River.

“Hells Canyon has some of the best native grasslands in the entire Columbia Basin, but these grasslands are threatened,” said Craig Gehrke, Idaho director for The Wilderness Society.

Dirt bikes and off-road vehicles use old roads to access open hillsides and go up steep slopes, ripping up soils and native grasses, the report says. Meanwhile, exotic weeds such as yellow star thistle are crowding out native plants.

This is the fourth year The Wilderness Society has released the endangered wildlands report. It’s the first time Hells Canyon made the list.

At Hells Canyon, the group wants to draw attention to a government proposal for the future of the area that’s currently out for public comment. Next year, the Forest Service will decide on a strategy to manage logging, grazing and recreation across the 652,000-acre area.

The Nez Perce Tribe, sporting groups and conservationists favor an alternate proposal that phases out grazing and cuts logging.

Off-road vehicle advocates said the report is a political maneuver.

Clark Collins, executive director of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, characterized the listing of Hells Canyon as part of a larger campaign to ban ORVs in the backcountry.

“It’s just their attempt to drum up political attention,” Collins said. “I think they deliberately pick areas that not many people are familiar with because then they can use these reports on endangered areas to rally support in large urban areas among people that don’t know any better.”

Other areas that made the list include: Washington’s Cascade Crest; the Greater Yellowstone area in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho; Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Copper River Delta and Denali National Park and Preserve; Grand Canyon National Park; and the Klamath Basin in Oregon and California.

Zaz Hollander can be reached at (208) 765-7129 or by e-mail at zazh@spokesman.com.