The Place

Weitas (pronounced "wheat-us") Creek is almost certainly the greatest place in Idaho you have never heard of. The 260,000-acre Bighorn-Weitas (Weitas Creek) Roadless Area, in the Weitas Creek and Cayuse Creek drainages, is the largest Roadless Area entirely within the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests, a verdant expanse of rainforest-like creek bottoms and windswept peaks. If the Clearwater is the Emerald of the Rockies, Weitas is the Emerald of the Clearwater.

It is also one of the places most at risk of development in Idaho. This roadless area, despite its ecological importance, magnificent opportunities for solitude, and vital role as a carbon sink, is not recommended for wilderness protection by the US Forest Service, nor is it protected from development under the Idaho Roadless Rule.

Ecology

Both Weitas and Cayuse creeks drain into the North Fork of the Clearwater. The gently rolling area between the two creeks contains highly erosive soils; the mountaintops are mostly rounded and deeply weathered. The Weitas Creek ecosystem features grand fir and western red cedar in stream bottoms (at elevations of 2,400-4,000 feet), along with extensive brush fields and grass meadows used as winter forage by ungulates. Mountain hemlock and slender, even-aged, post-fire lodgepole pines dominate at elevations of 5,000-7,000 feet. The area includes 18,000 acres of crucial winter range for elk as well as habitat for many other large mammals and Region 1 sensitive species; the cold, clear waters of the creeks provide a haven for Bull trout and cutthroat trout.

Cultural Significance

Of particular historical and cultural interest here is the Lolo Trail, which is on both the National Historic Landmark and National Historic Trail registries. Long a fundamental prehistoric route connecting the Columbia Basin and Great Plains peoples, the trail was also utilized by Lewis & Clark. Later, Nimiipuu leader Chief Joseph and the band of non-treaty Indians traveled the trail to Canada, attempting to escape persecution during the Nez Perce War of 1877.

This remote area provides abundant opportunities to enjoy solitude and serenity among some of the largest stands of old growth trees left in the entire Clearwater Basin. It is essential that the Bighorn-Weitas region be protected from logging, roadbuilding, and off-road motorized use, which threatens to erode soils, disturb fish populations, disrupt habitat and displace wildlife.