Web posted Friday, August 19, 2005

Lawsuit seeks to protect 3 caribou

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Only a handful of endangered caribou remain in the remote Selkirk Mountains near the Canadian border, and a federal court lawsuit seeks to ban snowmobiles from their winter range.

The lawsuit filed here Wednesday would limit snowmobile access on 450,000 acres of high-elevation forest in a sliver of Eastern Washington and northern Idaho near the snowmobiling hotspot of Priest Lake, Idaho.

The lawsuit said only three mountain caribou were seen in the area this year, although about 30 live on the Canadian side of the border.

‘‘It is the most endangered mammal in the United States,’’ said Mark Sprengel, executive director of the Selkirk Conservation Alliance, which brought the lawsuit.