Friends of the Clearwater is a public lands advocacy group dedicated to protecting the wildlands, waterways, and wildlife of North Central Idaho. Founded in 1987, Friends of the Clearwater began as a grassroots response to large-scale logging operations in the Clearwater Basin of Idaho’s Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. Covering 9,600 square miles, the public lands of the Clearwater Basin make up one of the largest swaths of undeveloped country in the contiguous United States. The Clearwater Basin is home to some of the nation’s last remaining stands of old-growth forests, which provide crucial habitat for wolves, wolverines, lynx, Chinook salmon, cutthroat trout, and grizzly bears—all of which are threatened by logging, road-building, and mining. To protect these biodiverse ecosystems and the species that live there, Friends of the Clearwater engages in public education and outreach, community organizing, forest monitoring, and litigation. As stewards of the Clearwater Basin, Friends of the Clearwater is fighting to ensure that the wildlife, wildlands, and waterways of North Central Idaho remain wild and free forever.
An enormous western red cedar grows in Idaho’s Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Photo: Friends of the Clearwater
With only two full-time staff members, Friends of the Clearwater is a small nonprofit protecting a massive tract of wilderness. Since its inception, the organization has blocked timber sales on over a million acres of roadless country in the Clearwater Basin. In 2000, Friends of the Clearwater partnered with the Center for Biological Diversity, petitioning for the protection of wolverines under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). After more than two decades of advocacy and litigation, these efforts led to the wolverine gaining ESA protection in November 2023. Friends of the Clearwater has also pushed for the protection of grizzly bears, partnering with the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and other organizations in 2020 to file a lawsuit that successfully preserved 2,000 acres of grizzly bear habitat in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. Friends of the Clearwater continues to defend wolverines, grizzly bears, and other wild animals that can’t speak for themselves. Their long-term goal is to designate 1.5 million acres of new wilderness in North Central Idaho.
Grizzly bears roam in Idaho’s Clearwater Basin. Photo: Diana Robinson/Flickr/Friends of the Clearwater