Sawtooth Lodge expansion inside the Sawtooth National Recreation Area
Sawtooth Lodge Master Development Plan
U.S. Forest Service· Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Sawtooth National ForestU.S. Forest Service project page ↗
U.S. Forest Service’s comment portal has been failing our nightly check since October 11.
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Forest ServiceWe track this on the agency’s own system of record, where most on-the-ground decisions live.
The groups on this fight
4 groups predicted likely to care in Idaho
Predicted likely to care is a guess from footprint in Idaho, by the same match the STAND matchmaker runs, with no link to this decision. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- Advocates for the West
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Works Idaho: represented Western Watersheds Project in the Jarbidge grazing litigation, winning 2004 and 2005 NEPA rulings, a 2009 injunction that grazing-as-usual must end, and a 2011 order closing 17 allotments across the 625,000-acre resource area.
- Center for Biological Diversity
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Works Idaho: plaintiff and co-counsel in the February 2025 lawsuit arguing federal wildlife agencies violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect salmon, steelhead, bull trout, and wolverine from the mine.
- Idaho Conservation League
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Works Idaho: mobilized Idahoans to file Interior Department comments defending Craters of the Moon during the 2017 national monument review, arguing shrinkage would damage the economies of Blaine, Butte, Minidoka, and Power counties.
- Western Watersheds Project
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Works Idaho: challenging BLM's grazing management across 1.4 million acres of the Jarbidge and Bruneau river canyonlands, where it won an injunction blocking ranchers from grazing beyond their permit limits.
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
The Forest Service may authorize new facilities at a private lodge inside a protected recreation area.
What’s at risk
Public land within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area would be used to support expanded private lodge infrastructure. The proposal authorizes new development under a special use permit on federally owned land.
If this goes through
New and expanded lodge facilities would be authorized on public land inside the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, setting a development footprint that shapes the site for years to come.
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
By the numbers, from the agency’s own document
- Forest Service roads named as project access routes
- Roads #524 and #824 off State Highway 21
Location Summary
Open the document ↗“Sawtooth Lodge, located off State Highway 21 in Grandjean, Idaho via Forest Service Roads #524 and #824.”
Each figure is checked word for word against the decision document ↗; open a label to read the sentence it comes from and the document it’s in.
The agency’s own analysis
What the notice says, and what it leaves out
The strongest findings read from the agency’s own document, each quoted word for word. Each one is a point a letter can put on the record.
Project Overview
The agency says
“The Sawtooth National Forest and SNRA propose the analysis of the accepted MDP for the Sawtooth Lodge to include both new and existing facilities.”
The agency selects Categorical Exclusion as the analysis type in the Project Overview while explicitly stating the project covers both new and existing facilities.
Project Overview
The agency says
“propose the analysis of the accepted MDP for the Sawtooth Lodge to include both new and existing facilities”
The Project Overview calls the Master Development Plan 'the accepted MDP' while the current status is simultaneously listed as 'Developing Proposal' and no NEPA milestone dates have been published anywhere in the notice.
Location Summary
The agency says
“Sawtooth Lodge, located off State Highway 21 in Grandjean, Idaho via Forest Service Roads #524 and #824.”
The Location Summary names Forest Service Roads #524 and #824 and State Highway 21 as the access routes, but the notice provides no information about current road condition, load limits, traffic volumes, or how additional development from proposed new facilities would affect traffic, dust, drainage, or recreational access on these same roads.
3 holes in the agency’s own analysis
Make these points, in your own words
- I oppose this action as proposed, and I ask the agency to weigh the specific harms below.
- The agency selects Categorical Exclusion as the analysis type in the Project Overview while explicitly stating the project covers both new and existing facilities. New facility construction at a Special Use permit site inside the Sawtooth National Recreation Area is not self-evidently a categorically excluded action. The notice identifies CE type USDA-44d-USFS but provides no analysis of extraordinary circumstances, no list of what new facilities are proposed, and no explanation of why new construction inside this specially designated area fits the CE's scope. The agency should prepare at minimum an Environmental Assessment that identifies each proposed new facility, analyzes extraordinary circumstances for this National Recreation Area location, and explains on the record why the named CE category encompasses new construction.
- The Project Overview calls the Master Development Plan 'the accepted MDP' while the current status is simultaneously listed as 'Developing Proposal' and no NEPA milestone dates have been published anywhere in the notice. The word 'accepted' signals the Forest Service has already committed to this plan before completing required environmental review. The agency should clarify when and by whom the MDP was accepted, explain what that acceptance means for the scope of the NEPA review, and confirm that no irreversible commitments to specific new facilities have been made prior to completing environmental analysis.
- The Location Summary names Forest Service Roads #524 and #824 and State Highway 21 as the access routes, but the notice provides no information about current road condition, load limits, traffic volumes, or how additional development from proposed new facilities would affect traffic, dust, drainage, or recreational access on these same roads. A Master Development Plan authorizing new construction will generate construction-phase traffic and increased long-term visitor use. The agency should analyze road capacity, surface condition, and cumulative traffic impacts on these routes as part of its NEPA review before selecting any analysis pathway.
- Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.
In the agency’s own words
The Sawtooth National Forest and SNRA propose the analysis of the accepted MDP for the Sawtooth Lodge to include both new and existing facilities.
On the record for this fight
2 people have filed on this fight through PLAN. The official record is still catching up.
- John H.13 seals
- Judith A.27 seals
Ranked on letters found on the agency’s record, then letters filed. Readers appear as first name and last initial, or as a steward in their state; switch yours off in your record. All boards
Did the agency answer?
3 issues are on this record. The agency has not published its decision document yet, so each one stays pending until the agency answers.
Issues on the record, awaiting the decision
- PendingThe Project Overview calls the Master Development Plan 'the accepted MDP' while the current status is simultaneously listed as 'Developing Proposal' and no NEPA milestone dates have been published any
The Project Overview calls the Master Development Plan 'the accepted MDP' while the current status is simultaneously listed as 'Developing Proposal' and no NEPA milestone dates have been published anywhere in the notice. The word 'accepted' signals the Forest Service has already committed to this plan before completing required environmental review. The agency should clarify when and by whom the MDP was accepted, explain what that acceptance means for the scope of the NEPA review, and confirm that no irreversible commitments to specific new facilities have been made prior to completing environmental analysis.
A hole PLAN found in the agency’s own notice, quote verified against the text
- PendingThe agency selects Categorical Exclusion as the analysis type in the Project Overview while explicitly stating the project covers both new and existing facilities.
The agency selects Categorical Exclusion as the analysis type in the Project Overview while explicitly stating the project covers both new and existing facilities. New facility construction at a Special Use permit site inside the Sawtooth National Recreation Area is not self-evidently a categorically excluded action. The notice identifies CE type USDA-44d-USFS but provides no analysis of extraordinary circumstances, no list of what new facilities are proposed, and no explanation of why new construction inside this specially designated area fits the CE's scope. The agency should prepare at minimum an Environmental Assessment that identifies each proposed new facility, analyzes extraordinary circumstances for this National Recreation Area location, and explains on the record why the named CE category encompasses new construction.
A hole PLAN found in the agency’s own notice, quote verified against the text
- PendingThe Location Summary names Forest Service Roads #524 and #824 and State Highway 21 as the access routes, but the notice provides no information about current road condition, load limits, traffic volum
The Location Summary names Forest Service Roads #524 and #824 and State Highway 21 as the access routes, but the notice provides no information about current road condition, load limits, traffic volumes, or how additional development from proposed new facilities would affect traffic, dust, drainage, or recreational access on these same roads. A Master Development Plan authorizing new construction will generate construction-phase traffic and increased long-term visitor use. The agency should analyze road capacity, surface condition, and cumulative traffic impacts on these routes as part of its NEPA review before selecting any analysis pathway.
A hole PLAN found in the agency’s own notice, quote verified against the text
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