Thomas

OVERVIEW

The Idaho Conservation League and The Wilderness Society (ICL) appeal from the district court’s summary judgment in favor of Jack Ward Thomas, Chief of the United States Forest Service, in its action seeking a permanent injunction preventing the Forest Service from proceeding with the Thunderbolt timber salvage sale. We affirm the judgment of the district court.

*1347 FACTS AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

The Thunderbolt timber salvage sale is located in the South Fork Salmon River (SFSR) drainage in the Boise and Payette National Forests in central Idaho. Historically, the river was the single largest producer of spring/summer chinook in the Columbia River Basin. However, since the 1950s, the drainage has suffered severe erosion and stream sedimentation caused by mining, grazing, logging, and associated road building. This degradation has been exacerbated by the geological formation underlying the drainage, the Idaho Batholith, which is characterized by steep, highly dissected topography and shallow soils. As a consequence, the spring/summer chinook population has suffered a drastic decline.

State and federal agencies took action to correct the problems in the SFSR. In the…