Off-roading: Clearwater River Basin

Clearwater River Basin is one of Idaho’s largest and wildest forest landscapes. Wolves, Canada lynx and mountain goats roam ancient cedar forests, while cutthroat and ocean-going steelhead trout thrive in the pristine tributaries of the Clearwater River’s north, south and middle Forks.

If you are seeking backcountry adventure, miles of trails lead to spectacular views of the Bitterroot Mountains. Or—if you dare—raft down the renowned whitewater rapids of the Lochsa and Selway Rivers.

The motorized recreation industry constantly lobbies the U.S. Forest Service to open up more wildlands to the whine of motors and tearing of tires. Each year, more powerful and noisier snowmobiles, dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles chew their way into the backcountry of the Clearwater River Basin. They disrupt wildlife, scar the steep hillsides, erode stream crossings and shatter the silence of the landscape.

Private timber companies used to log hundreds of thousands of acres of forest and constructed thousands of miles of road across fragile mountainsides. Now we work diligently with timber companies to carry out sustainable logging to defend our cherished wild forests and oppose proposals and legislation that would open more tracks for dirt bikes and snowmobiles.

By working against allowing motorized vehicles and careless timber harvesting in the fraction of U.S. old growth forest that remains, we can help future generations experience the rugged peace of the Clearwater Basin as it was hundreds of years ago.