On July 30th, 2010 Idaho Chief District Judge B. Lynn Winmill issued an Order in Western Watersheds Project’s favor overturning a Bureau of Land Management decision to build fencing within the Burnt Creek Wilderness Study Area (WSA) on the Burnt Creek Allotment in central Idaho’s Pahsimeroi River Watershed.

View Pashimeroi River Watershed in a larger mapFlowing through the allotment is Burnt Creek, spawning habitat for bull trout and critical habitat for Chinook salmon, both of which are listed as threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

This successful litigation compliments Western Watersheds Project’s ongoing litigation in the Pahsimeroi River Watershed against the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service for their collective failure to protect endangered fish including Chinook salmon, Steelhead, and Bull trout.

Read: Online Messenger #182
Read the Court Opinion