Judge bans snowmobiles

A federal judge on Friday banned all snowmobiling within the 175,000-acre caribou recovery area in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service complies with the Endangered Species Act by determining the effect the machines have on the endangered woodland caribou.

The ban includes the vast majority of snowmobile areas in western Boundary County, a former snowmobile guide said.

“Boundary Creek, Smith Creek, Canyon Creek, it comes clear out to the West Side Road. It takes in the whole west side,” Stan Sweet said. Sweet owned and operated Moyie River Outfitting Guide Service for 46 years in Boundary County. He is an avid snowmobiler who started riding back in 1963. “That’s pretty well going to whip the snowmobilers (here).”

The court order closes the entire caribou recovery area to all snowmobile activity, a change from last year when a court only banned grooming of snowmobile trails but allowed snowmobiling.

The order leaves open the possibility that the size of the closed area might be reduced. Fish and Game can submit new information arguing that the order is overkill and U.S. District Court Judge Robert H. Whaley would consider reducing the size of the closed area.

Until then, however, the judge chose to be “over- rather than under-protective” in his order.

“The fact that caribou have been spotted in proximity to snowmobile tracks … (and) the fact that snowmobile interaction with and harassment of these animals has been observed even once indicates to the Court that snowmobiling within the caribou recovery area presents a definitive threat of future harm to the caribou,” Whaley wrote in his order.

The woodland caribou herd in the recovery area, which encompasses parts of Washington, Idaho and British Columbia, is the only remaining herd of the animals in the lower 48 states. Fewer than 36 animals remain, wildlife officials believe.

As of Tuesday afternoon, National Forest representatives were still trying to decipher the court’s order and its impact on the area.

“Generally, it looks like it is within the Selkirk Mountains above 4,500 feet that are on the Idaho Panhandle National Forest,” National Forest Wildlife Specialist Tim Layfer said. Layfer works out of the Priest Lake district. “The biggest portion impacts Boundary, Bonner and Pend Orielle counties.”

There will be overlap of popular snowmobile areas and the caribou habitat, Mike Herrin, district ranger at the Bonners Ferry Ranger District office of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, said. He named off several areas that will be closed, including Trapper Peak, Continental Mountain, Gunsight Peak, Caribou Creek, Hughes Meadow and Hughes Creek.

In addition to closing the snowmobile areas themselves, the order also closes off access to some areas that otherwise would be outside the caribou recovery zone, Herrin said.

Closing the western areas in the Selkirks will push snowmobilers into the already-overcrowded areas elsewhere in the county, Sweet said. Boulder Creek and Canuck Basin will all see more and more riders because of the ban.

The ban will remain in place until the Forest Service complies with the Endangered Species Act’s consultation section. That means the service must evaluate the effect snowmobiling has on the caribou and its habitat.

In 1994, the Forest Service closed a 25-square-mile area of the IPNF including the Selkirk Crest to snowmobile access to assist in caribou.