Action timeline

October 25, 1983 – The woodland caribous was listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.

2002 – The Center, Defenders of Wildlife, the Selkirk Conservation Alliance, and the Inlands Empire Lands Council petitioned for the designation on critical habitat for the woodland caribou.

August 17, 2005 – The Center filed a lawsuit with the Selkirk Conservation Alliance, Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife, Idaho Conservation League, and Inland Empire Lands Council to protect woodland caribou habitat from increasing snowmobile traffic. The lawsuit sought to restrict snowmobile use in critical feeding and calving areas within 450,000 acres of high elevation forests near Priest Lake, Idaho.

November 2006 – The coalition of plaintiffs in the Center’s lawsuit reached an agreement with snowmobile users on which areas and trails needed to be closed off to protect the woodland caribou. The U.S. Forest Service intervened with its own plan that would have meant far fewer safeguards for the species.

February 16, 2007 – A Center request that the court reconsider the Service’s plan resulted in a decision that banned snowmobiles from a 470-square-mile recovery zone for the Selkirk population of woodland caribou. This represented a compromise between the original agreement and the agency’s plan.

January 15, 2009 – The Center and allies filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to compel a response to a 2002 petition to grant the woodland caribou much-needed critical habitat.

June 3, 2009 – In belated response to our 2002 petition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to consider granting critical habitat to the woodland caribou. A draft decision is scheduled for November 2011, with a possible final designation to be complete by 2012.