Sawtooth Wilderness
Subsequently, Sawtooth National Forest began to extensively develop recreation opportunities, including new campgrounds, trails, and roads.[9] Support for greater protection of the Sawtooths and surrounding areas grew after the discovery of a molybdenum deposit at the base of Castle Peak in the White Cloud Mountains in 1968.[11] There are 40 trails totaling nearly 350 miles (560 km) in the wilderness that can be used for day hiking, backpacking, and horseback riding and accessed from 23 trailheads.Graham Guard Station is by the North Fork Boise River, on the far western edge of the Sawtooth Wilderness.Land cover types in the Sawtooth Wilderness include pine and spruce-fir forests, meadows, and alpine tundra.Lodgepole pine forms nearly monotypic forests in lower elevations of the wilderness, while douglas fir and quaking aspen can also be found.[12] Most of the area's native mammal species are present in the wilderness, with the exception of grizzly bears, which have become locally extinct.They were reintroduced to restore the ecosystem stability that they provide as top predators, including managing high elk populations, which had inhibited new vegetation growth.[28][29][30][31] The wilderness contains habitat for wolverines and the endangered Canada lynx, but no recent sightings of these species have been reported.Bull trout are the management indicator species for Sawtooth National Forest, and they can be found in some of the streams in the wilderness.
Sawtooth Mountains WildernessLake Chelan-Sawtooth WildernessIUCN categorywilderness areaAlice LakeBlaineCusterElmoreUnited StatesStanley, IDU.S. Forest ServicefederallyprotectedU.S. Department of AgriculturePrimitive AreaSawtooth MountainsSawtooth National Recreation AreaNational Wilderness Preservation SystemUnited States Environmental Protection Agencylower 48 statesSawtooth National ForestForest ReservePresidentTheodore RooseveltFrank Churchfeasibility studynational parkNational Park ServicemolybdenumCastle PeakWhite Cloud MountainsHouse of RepresentativesSenateRichard NixonWilderness ActRedfish LakePayette RiverRendezvous LakeNational ForestsBoise National ForestChallis National ForestextractionhorsebackHuntingfishingmotorizedmechanicalbicyclescampingloggingminingIdaho Department of Fish and Gameday hikingbackpackinghorseback ridingMountain climbingrock climbingsnowshoeingdownhill skiingStanleySawtooth ValleyAtlantaSawtooth CityRocky Mountains50 peaksThompson PeakMount CramerEoceneAlturas LakeCretaceousgranodioriteIdaho BatholithSawtooth LakeMount ReganList of lakes of the Sawtooth Mountains (Idaho)Snake RiverColumbia RiverPacific OceanSalmon RiverBoise RiverglaciationToxawayArdethHell RoaringSawtooth Faultnormal faultearthquakeRichter magnitude scalealpinesnow fieldsrock glaciersPleistoceneLittle Ice Ageglacial lakesmoraineshanging valleyscirquesarêtesNorth Fork Boise Riverhumid continental climateKöppensubalpine climatediurnal variationprecipitationEcology of the Rocky Mountainsspruce-fir forestsLand covermeadowsalpine tundraLodgepole pinedouglas firquaking aspenwhitebark pineEngelmann sprucesubalpine firlimber pineList of animals of the Sawtooth National Recreation AreaList of birds of the Sawtooth National Recreation Areagrizzly bearslocally extinctGray wolvesreintroducedtop predatorsEndangered Species ActwolverinesCanada lynx