The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced in December 2002 that it will rehabilitate 50-plus miles of roads illegally bulldozed in sensitive areas in southwestern Idaho.

The local Three Creek–Good Road District, using money from the state of Idaho, conducted the work with money from the State of Idaho and did it without BLM approval. There was little "good" about it. The roads are just east of the Jarbidge and Bruneau River and weave in and out of the Jarbidge Wilderness Study Area and the Bruneau-Jarbidge Bighorn Sheep Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

Not only did the agency not approve the roadwork, it didn’t even know about until The Wilderness Society called to ask about it after one of our members who was hiking in the area saw the bulldozers in action.

Before the "improvement," the roads were primarily two-track ways with considerable vegetation growing between the tracks and passable only in high-clearance vehicles. The roads were traveled only infrequently, mostly by ranchers and the occasional recreational user. The agency will let let the roads revert to their former condition, after some seeding and raking work to speed the return of vegetation.

The decision was hard-won. The Wilderness Society, other conservation groups and the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe applied pressure on the agency over for two years.

The drastically upgraded roads threatened the area’s wilderness qualities, as well as habitat for bighorn sheep, sage grouse, and other sensitive species. There are also archaeolical and cultural sites in the area, some of which date back 11,000 years. Noxious and exotic weed invasions could well have followed, putting at risk important populations of the rare slickspot peppergrass and their associated wetland areas.

We and our partners will monitor the rehabilition work to make sure it succeeds and that the area recovers.