THREE NEW CASES FILED TO PROTECT PAHSIMEROI AND LEMHI WATERSHEDS.

Advocates for the West filed three new cases in June and July 2009 for client Western Watersheds Project, suing the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management over their legal violations in managing public lands in the Pahsimeroi and Lemhi watersheds of central Idaho.  

The Pahsimeroi and Lemhi watersheds offer vital habitat for endangered fish -- including salmon, steelhead and bull trout -- as well as sage grouse, pygmy rabbits, and other sagebrush species.  Yet the federal agencies continue to authorize livestock grazing and grazing-related water developments and diversions without accounting for the harms they cause to these imperiled species and their habitats.  These three cases are the first of a suite of lawsuits aimed at improving habitat conditions in the Upper Salmon basin.