Yes, it is spelled that way.
The Place
The 118,000-acre Fish-Hungery Roadless Area is named for Fish Creek, the most important watershed for steelhead in Idaho, and Hungery Creek. Hungery was named (and poorly spelled) by Lewis and Clark, who had turned to eating their horses in the fall of 1805 as they descended the Lolo Trail toward the Nimiipuu village of Weippe.
The region is largely the same as when Lewis and Clark saw it more than 200 years ago. The northern boundary is the Lolo Motorway, a high clearance road that closely follows a traditional Nez Perce trail and divides the Fish-Hungery area from the Weitas creek watershed. The southern boundary is US Highway 12, which follows the Wild and Scenic Lochsa River.
Ecology
The Fish-Hungery Creek Roadless Area is located entirely within the boundaries of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests, about 70 miles east of Lewiston, Idaho along U.S. Highway 12. Nestled between Weitas Creek, Rackliff-Gedney, and Lochsa Face Roadless Areas and the Selway-Bitteroot Wilderness Area, this country is characterized by two major types of drainages. One type of drainage involves a series of one- to six-mile long streams like Glade, Apgar, Deadman, and Bimerick Creeks that drain directly into the Lochsa River. The southwestern and northeastern portions of these creeks are distinguished by steep stream breaklands dissected by abrupt side drainages. The second type of drainage, represented by the central portions of the Upper Bimerick and Fish Creek areas, exhibits a more broken topography: moderate-relief uplands and gentle hills etched with meandering streams that spill into broad, diversely vegetated bottomlands. Here, in the 60,000-acre Fish Creek drainage, the explorer is blessed with a sense of solitude and isolation from other human activity along the most important steelhead stream in Idaho. Lush, shaded banks create a vital haven for anadromous steelhead trout and Chinook summer salmon, as well as cutthroat and rainbow trout. Elk enjoy essential summer range in the Fish Creek drainage, and the area as a whole contains nearly 18,000 acres of ungulate winter range. Mule and white-tailed deer, moose, mountain goats, cougars, black bears, fishers, pine martens, wolverines, and lynx are among the mammal denizens, and Region 1 sensitive bird and amphibian species are also present.
Elevations in the Fish-Hungery Creek area range from about 1,500 feet along the Lochsa River to over 6,500 feet atop Castle Butte to the northeast. At higher elevations, lodgepole pine, subalpine fir, and beargrass are common. Western red cedar and grand fir grace the north-facing slopes. Extensive forest fires in the early 1900s largely determined later growth. A mosaic of expansive brush fields covers many of the slopes, especially those in the southern and western portions of the area; these fields then give way to areas dense with western white pine, Douglas-fir, Engelmann spruce, larch, ponderosa pine, and mountain hemlock. The Fish-Hungery Creek area also boasts several sensitive plant species including clustered ladyslipper, evergreen kittentail, Constance’s bittercress, broad-fruit mariposa, light hookeria, and banks monkeyflower. The 1,300-acre Lochsa Research Natural Area was established in 1977 to protect and study the unique Pacific Coast vegetation that occurs within the roadless area boundaries. Flowering dogwood and 14 other plant species not normally found east of the Cascade Mountains grow in this Research Natural Area.
An approximately quarter-mile-wide corridor along the Wild & Scenic Middle Fork/Lochsa River runs along the full length of the roadless area north of Highway 12. This 4,500-acre corridor is specially managed to emphasize the scenic values of the river's environs. A sparse network of minimally maintained trails weaves throughout the area, most constructed by the Forest Service for wildfire control access in the early 20th century. One path runs parallel to Fish Creek, offering low-impact accessibility to its cool, alluring waters. Stream fishing, hiking, backpacking, and horseback riding are becoming more popular here; visitors can disperse widely throughout this country, from the mossy stream beds to the steep breaklands with panoramic vistas of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.
Cultural Significance
The Lolo Trail is an important prehistoric route and plays a prominent role in Nez Perce culture and history. This area contains the longest remaining undisturbed section of the Lewis & Clark Trail in the country, a stretch of approximately 17 miles through the Hungery Creek drainage area. A World War II Japanese-American Internment camp near Highway 12 just outside the southern boundary is one of several other noteworthy historic and prehistoric sites in or near this roadless area.
Conservation History
The Fish-Hungery Creek area was separated from Weitas Creek in the 1930s when the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed the Lolo Motorway. This was the primary road between Lewiston, Idaho and Missoula, Montana for decades, before the completion of US Highway 12 over Lolo Pass in 1962.
This area provides critical habitat for steelhead and became even more important after the construction of dams on the Lower Snake and North Fork Clearwater Rivers in the mid-20th century. The Fish-Hungery Creek Roadless Area was formally identified during the RARE (Roadless Area Review and Evaluation) process during planning for the US National Forest Service's 2001 Roadless Rule. Unfortunately, the area is currently governed under the Idaho Roadless Rule, a weak piece of regulation that offers little protection from roadbuilding, logging, or other development. The Fish-Hungery Creek Roadless Area could be protected if the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act ,a visionary proposal to protect all roadless country in the Northern Rockies as designated wilderness, were to be passed by Congress.
Management and Conservation
Under the Clearwater National Forest Travel Plan (2012), the region is now open to ORVs and ATVs and the associated disruption of natural processes and intact ecosystems. Areas to the west and east of the Fish-Hungery Creek Roadless Area have already been developed for timber harvesting. The wealth and diversity of the region’s flora and fauna cannot afford encroachment of roads and further exploitation. Its wilderness attributes and spatial orientation make it an ideal wilderness candidate.
