By Groups concerned about the IPPLI
Reader Contributors
The Idaho Panhandle Public Lands Initiative (IPPLI) presented in the Sandpoint Reader guest editorial [Perspectives, “Idaho Panhandle Public Lands Initiative reaches landmark agreement,” July 23, 2026], would sacrifice crucial wildlife habitat in order to get crumbs of new Wilderness that would only secure a fraction of what needs protecting. We can do better.
Specifically, the IPPLI fails to protect roughly 174,200 acres of wilderness-quality lands and limits protections to just a pair of small additions, 39,600 acres in the Selkirk Crest and 16,900 acres in the Salmo Priest, while omitting Hughes Meadow and Kaniksu Mountain, both recognized as essential to the region’s ecological integrity. At the same time, the IPPLI would expand the damage and disruption from motorized recreation, while failing to protect intact forests that support threatened species like grizzly bears, Canada lynx, bull trout and whitebark pine.
The IPPLI would reward illegal off-road vehicle use in the Roman Nose area by converting eight miles of a user-created route to an official Forest Service system trail. The unauthorized route cuts through core grizzly habitat in the Myrtle Bear Management Unit, the same Apache Ridge area where a sow grizzly defended her cubs from two encroaching archery hunters in 2020. The Westside Restoration Project increased the potential for further defensive grizzly bear encounters by adding the Myrtle Ridge Trail for hiking and mountain biking.
The initiative would create a “National Recreation Area” spanning from Fault Lake north to just south of Myrtle Lake which explicitly allows over-snow vehicles all winter, powered mountain bikes, and motorized equipment for trail maintenance. Two Mouth Lakes, now recommended Wilderness, is folded into the new Recreational Area playground.
Further, increasing winter motorized use will harm wolverine recovery. Female wolverines need real solitude in their maternal denning habitat from den selection in January, through the end of denning in mid-May. Winter motorized recreation directly threatens that solitude.
The IPPLI would sacrifice core grizzly bear habitat by opening roads between the Kootenai Valley and Priest Lake to public motorized travel, including the Bog Creek Road. The Forest Service closed this road in the late 1980s to aid the recovery of the still struggling Selkirk grizzly bear population. In 2020, the Forest Service authorized the Border Patrol’s request to use the road, expanding the number of “administrative use days,” claiming it would not hinder grizzly bear recovery.
WildEarth Guardians, Selkirk Conservation Alliance, the Idaho Conservation League and other conservation groups unsuccessfully challenged the decision in court. Sadly, the IPPLI would open the entire Bog Creek road to unlimited public motorized use that would violate current grizzly recovery standards. The best current science for grizzly bears indicates that any decrease in conservation would hinder the recovery of the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk grizzly bear populations.
Additionally, of the four rivers eligible for Wild and Scenic River designation within the IPPLI area, only the Upper Priest River is proposed for protection while Hughes Fork, Long Canyon and the Upper Pack River would remain unprotected.
What we need is a landscape-level solution, like the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) that protects all remaining roadless areas, safeguards endangered wildlife and dramatically increases ecosystem connectivity across the region. NREPA offers a fundamentally different approach from IPPLI, prioritizing wildlands and wildlife protection over motorized recreation.
Protecting wildlands is essential for safeguarding biodiversity and preserving vital habitats and migration pathways that plants and animals depend on amidst our changing climates. Intact ecosystems mitigate climate change by storing significant amounts of carbon and maintaining the water cycle, which helps slow warming and reduce the severity of floods and droughts during extreme weather events. Moreover, conserving wildlands enhances the resilience of local communities by ensuring access to clean air, healthy soils, and livelihoods rooted in natural systems.
Idaho’s last wild country needs Congress to meaningfully protect public lands that have waited decades for real, lasting protection. By taking action to preserve these invaluable landscapes, we invest in a sustainable future for all.
Signed, Paul Sieracki, Inland Empire Task Force; Janet Torline, Kootenai Environmental Alliance; Amy Anderson, Selkirk Conservation Alliance; Kyran Kunkel, Friends of the Clearwater; Adam Rissien, WildEarth Guardians; Mary Costello, Save Our Cabinets; Helen Yost, Wild Idaho Rising Tide.
