The Lands Council's Forest Watch Program keeps a watchful eye over the U.S. Forest Service, protects roadless areas, safeguards communities from wildfires, ends destructive timber sales, preserves old growth areas, and defends wildlife such as mountain caribou, lynx, and trout.

Current projects:

• Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition
  Collaborating with a diverse coalition of stakeholders to protect communities from wildfire, promote restoration, and design and implement innovative approaches to forest management.

• Idaho Panhandle National Forest Protection
  Applying science, research, fieldwork, advocacy, and litigation to protect the integrity of these public lands.

• Save Mt. Spokane
  The Save Mt Spokane Coalition is founded by local citizen and environmental groups to focus energy and resources on preventing destruction of the intact ecosystem and watershed on the north and west slopes of Mt Spokane by the proposed ski area expansiion by Mt Spokane 2000.  Click here for PDF version of the Save Mt. Spokane petition.

News:

• The Lands Council wins important court ruling to protect areas affected by fire in the Umatilla National Forest (February 2007)
  
  
• The Lands Council is one of the plantiffs in another important legal victory for national forests! Read the March 31, 2007 Washington Post article

Accomplishments:

• Iron Honey Court Case
  In 2004, The Lands Council won a significant court case in the Ninth Circuit of Appeals (TLC vs. Powell) in which the court found that the IPNF timber database inventory is outdated and inaccurate and is not a reliable indicator of old-growth habitat.

• Old Growth Campaign
  An investigation by The Lands Council regarding the Forest Service's inventory of old growth in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest developed into an ongoing campaign focused on identifying and protecting the last remaining old growth areas in Northern Idaho.

• Aerial Guide to the Northwest
  We produced the fastest-going pamphlet at the Spokane International Airport in 1998.

• Destructive logging
  From 1991 to 1993, we reduced the proposed amount of logging in four national forests by 75 percent.

• Clearcut Shame
  Our 1991 billboard campaign to halt clearcutting led to establishment of the Interior Columbia Basin Environmental Management Project.

Background:

In 1990, The Lands Council launched its Forest Watch program in response to the hundreds of timber sale decisions in Inland Northwest forests, which proceeded without public scrutiny and without challenge. The Forest Watch program recruited, trained, and supported individuals and groups to provide on-the-ground oversight of Forest Service timber sales and other decisions. The Forest Watch program has been highly successful, decreasing the cuts on individual National Forests from unsustainably high levels to the lowest levels since the 1950s. The Forest Watch program provides valuable input to national efforts – from education on fire ecology and defensible space planning, to advocating ecological restoration principles and old growth and wildlife protection. The Forest Watch program places an emphasis on coordinating our conservation campaigns with local, state, regional, and national conservation organizations, and serves as a critical link in the conservation movement.

For more information contact the Forest Policy Director, Jeff Juel at (509) 209-2401, or at jjuel@landscouncil.org.

Click here to read The Lands Council Winter 2008 Newsletter Article
Protecting Idaho's Roadless Areas by Tania Ellersick.