A pair of key conservation groups last week threw their support behind Idaho's embattled roadless rule, potentially undermining efforts by a broad coalition of environmentalists to try to repeal the state-based rule in favor of an overarching federal plan for roadless areas.

In a joint friend-of-the-court brief, Trout Unlimited and the Idaho Conservation League said Idaho's roadless plan is "as, or more, protective" than a 2001 rule passed by the Clinton administration and generally backed by environmentalists.

The 2001 rule granted blanket protection to about 58 million acres of federal land nationwide -- including 9.3 million acres in Idaho -- but has been mired in legal challenges after being overturned twice during the George W. Bush administration only to be reinstated last year by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Marv Hoyt, Idaho director for Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said the Idaho rule has allowed multiple mining companies to begin preparations for phosphate mines that could further pollute southeast Idaho waterways with selenium and other heavy metals.

"There is a spiderweb of impacts far larger than the footprints of these [mining] pits," he said, adding that mining activities are responsible for the designation of 17 Superfund sites in southeast Idaho, some of them owned by the same firms seeking to open new mines.

"The mining methods and the protective measures they are taking still aren't good enough," he said.

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