BOISE — The U.S. Forest Service has withdrawn snowmobile use maps for two national forests in Idaho and part of another in Wyoming after environmental groups in a lawsuit said the maps violate the federal agency’s regulations and environmental laws.

The Forest Service last week withdrew Over-Snow Vehicle Use Maps for the Payette National Forest and Boise National Forest in Idaho.

The agency also withdrew the map for the Teton Division of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.

But the agency in the three separate notices also said that for this winter “there will be no change in over-snow motor vehicle use” for any the forests from the 2016-2017 season as a result of withdrawing the maps. The agency also said new maps would not be completed any sooner than April 1.

Winter Wildlands Alliance and Wildearth Guardians filed the lawsuit in September, and The Wilderness Society joined in November. That lawsuit has been put on hold until at least March 15 when the Forest Service is scheduled to give a progress report.

The environmental groups say the maps are based on outdated information and aren’t restrictive enough for snowmobiles that in recent years have become more numerous and powerful, giving more snowmobilers access to remote areas.

The groups said that can harm wildlife and also create conflicts with backcountry skiers and snowshoe enthusiasts looking for a quieter experience.

“One of the main things is designating places where people can backcountry ski and snowshoe without having snowmobiles running around,” said Laurie Rule, an attorney with Advocates for the West representing the groups.

Specifically, the lawsuit contends the Forest Service in using the maps didn’t adhere to an updated January 2015 rule that required new travel management plans for snowmobiles that must designate specific roads, trails and areas open for use.

That rule also includes requirements minimizing damage to natural resources and disruption of wildlife. It also seeks to minimize conflicts with other recreation users.

“The 2015 rule presents an important opportunity to enhance quality recreation opportunities for everybody, protect wildlife during the vulnerable winter season, and prevent avoidable damage to wild places,” said Alison Flint, counsel and planning specialist at The Wilderness Society. “But not if forests short-circuit the process required by the rule.”

The groups also contend the Forest Service in approving the maps violated various environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act due to Canada lynx and northern Idaho ground squirrels found in the forests.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which handles legal matters for the Forest Service, didn’t immediately respond to an email on Wednesday from The Associated Press.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A giant chunk of central Idaho with a dazzling night sky has become the nation’s first International Dark Sky Reserve.

The International Dark-Sky Association late Monday designated the 1,400-square-mile Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve. The sparsely populated area’s night skies are so pristine that interstellar dust clouds are visible in the Milky Way.

“That such truly dark nighttime environments still exist in the United States is remarkable,” said J. Scott Feierabend, executive director of the Tucson, Arizona,-based association, calling the designation a milestone for the group.

Researchers say 80 percent of North Americans live in areas where light pollution blots out the night sky.

The central Idaho reserve covers some of the most remote and rugged areas in the state and is mostly land managed by the U.S. Forest Service. It contains wilderness areas and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

“The Reserve’s chief draw is its wilderness quality, with its lack of development and significant visitor services,” the association said on its website.

The Forest Service has supported the designation as part of its mandate to preserve natural and scenic qualities. It has reduced light pollution from its buildings, but said mitigation by others in the recreation area would be voluntary.

Opposition to dark sky measures elsewhere in the U.S. has come from the outdoor advertising industry and those against additional government regulations.

Supporters say excess artificial light causes sleeping problems for people and disrupts nocturnal wildlife and that a dark sky can solve those problems, boost home values and draw tourists.

“Sun Valley is excited about this prestigious designation and I believe this is something that will benefit residents and visitors alike,” said Sun Valley Mayor Peter Hendricks.

Sun Valley, a resort destination that also has some of Idaho’s highest home values, is within the reserve as is neighboring Ketchum. Both towns have worked to limit nighttime lighting.

In November, the International Dark-Sky Association named Ketchum an International Dark Sky Community, only the 16th in the world. Earlier this year, the association named Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in south-central Idaho an International Dark Sky Park, one of about 40 in the United States.

But getting the rarest prize of all with the reserve, officials said, took several decades of work and included efforts from communities on the edges of the reserve to reduce nighttime lighting. The association looks at what surrounding communities are doing to protect the dark core area of a proposed reserve.

Volunteers also fanned out across the region to take light readings at night, and the Idaho Conservation League, an environmental group, supported the designation aiming to limit light pollution.

Stanley, a tiny mountain town in the Sawtooth recreation area on the northern side of the reserve, runs mostly on tourism money and has supported the reserve with voluntary measures to limit outdoor lighting.

“Visitors can come here and experience the primeval wonder of the starry night sky,” Mayor Steve Botti said.

BOISE (AP) — Idaho officials are challenging a federal court order to destroy information collected from tracking collars placed on elk and wolves obtained illegally by landing a helicopter in a central Idaho wilderness area.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore on Tuesday requested a stay of the judgment in U.S. District Court in Idaho pending the agency’s appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled in January the U.S. Forest Service broke environmental laws nearly two years ago by authorizing Idaho Fish and Game to put collars on about 60 elk by landing helicopters in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, where engines are prohibited.

Idaho also collared four wolves in an action the Forest Service didn’t authorize. Fish and Game blamed miscommunication with a helicopter crew.

Winmill wrote that it was such an extreme case “the only remedy that will directly address the ongoing harm is an order requiring destruction of the data.”

Specifically, Fish and Game is seeking to stay the court’s order to destroy data and to stay the court’s prohibiting the agency as well as the Forest Service from using that data.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game “agrees that as a condition of such stay, IDFG would not use any live radio collar placed during the January 2016 helicopter project in the Frank Church Wilderness to locate wolves for lethal removal,” the document states.

Western Watersheds Project, Friends of the Clearwater and Wilderness Watch sued the Forest Service in January 2016 when they learned of the helicopter flights. Tim Preso, an attorney for Earthjustice handling the case, said the groups will continue to seek to force Fish and Game to destroy the data.

“The problem is they’ve now got almost two years of data that tells them wolf pack locations and where focused activity is and their seasonal movements,” Preso said. “It makes it very easy for them now to target those packs.”

The 3,700-square-mile (9,600-square kilometer) mountainous and inaccessible River of No Return is considered a sanctuary from which young wolves disperse in search of new territory. Idaho officials have previously targeted that population by sending in a state-hired hunter in 2014 that killed nine wolves.

State officials have been concerned wolves are having a detrimental effect on elk populations pursued by sport hunters. But environmental groups contend wilderness areas are specifically set aside to allow for natural prey-predator dynamics free of human interference.

In late 2016, Fish and Game said three of the four collared wolves were alive. An adult female died in May 2016 near the middle of the wilderness because of unknown causes. The other three wolves from three different packs were at the time still roaming the wilderness area.

The collars give the location of the wolves once every 12 hours. It’s not clear if the three wolves are still alive or if the collars are still working.

Mike Keckler, Fish and Game spokesman, said the agency isn’t discussing the court case or the data. Some of the documents in the case filed on Tuesday are sealed and unavailable to the public.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A relatively new $13.5 million hatchery intended to save Snake River sockeye salmon from extinction is instead killing thousands of fish before they ever get to the ocean, and fisheries biologists in Idaho think they know why.

The Department of Fish and Game in information released this week says water chemistry at the Springfield Hatchery in eastern Idaho is so different from that in the central region that the young fish can’t adjust when released into the wild.

“It’s not a disaster, it’s part of what you experience when you open a new hatchery,” Paul Kline, Fish and Game’s assistant fisheries chief, said in a post on the agency’s website.

Idaho Rivers United, an environmental group, blasted the report as more reason for removing four dams on the lower Snake River that impede salmon.

“Until we address main-stem survival we’re missing the biggest opportunity for these amazing fish,” Kevin Lewis, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.

Sockeye salmon are a prized sport fish and the Idaho run is culturally important to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. An estimated 150,000 sockeye returned annually to central Idaho, and Redfish Lake was named for the abundant red-colored salmon that spawned there.

Federal officials say the run began to decline in the early 1900s due to overfishing, irrigation diversions, dams and poisoning, teetering on the brink of extinction in the early 1990s.

The fish have been the focus of an intense recovery program centered at Fish and Game’s Eagle Fish Hatchery in southwestern Idaho after being listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1991.

The Springfield hatchery was completed in 2013. Salmon eggs from the Eagle hatchery and the federally operated Burley Creek Hatchery in Washington state are transported to Springfield where they are raised until they are ready for release as young fish, called smolts, into the Salmon River.

The goal has been to release 1 million smolts with the hope that up to 5,000 of them could survive the ocean odyssey to return annually as adults to Redfish Lake. This year, 162 adults returned, none from the Springfield Hatchery.

Fish and Game officials say smolts from the hatchery released in central Idaho are not surviving.

The main theory, officials say, is that water at the Springfield Hatchery has a high amount of dissolved minerals, called hard water, while the water at Redfish Lake and the Salmon River does not, making it soft water.

Young fish headed for the ocean transition from living in fresh water to salt water. Biologists say the additional stress of trying to also adjust from hard water to soft water could be killing the salmon.

Idaho officials say they plan on trying various solutions, including releasing fish directly into Redfish Lake in the fall as pre-smolts, raising more sockeye at the Sawtooth Hatchery in central Idaho, and gradually softening water as fish are transported from the Springfield Hatchery in trucks to central Idaho.

The Bonneville Power Administration paid for the Springfield Hatchery as part of federally required mitigation to replace fish killed by hydroelectric projects that provide power to the region.

“We are confident that this hatchery is still viable and that our partners will find a solution,” said David Wilson, spokesman for the agency.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Governors of 19 Western states are pressing the federal government to do more to prevent the spread of damage-causing invasive mussels from infected federally managed waterways.

The Western Governors’ Association on Thursday sent a letter urging Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to put in place by spring 2018 controls to prevent the spread of zebra and quagga mussels.

The governors are also asking that federal agencies conduct mandatory inspections and decontamination of boats leaving infected water bodies. The mussels can attach to boats and trailers and travel long distances, clogging water pipes, damaging boat motors and affecting other aquatic life.

“Given the significant risks that quagga and zebra mussels pose to uninfested waterbodies, it is critical to implement effective control policies in a timely manner,” the letter states.

The governors say they’re particularly concerned about the mussels reaching the Columbia River Basin, Lake Tahoe, and the Colorado River Basin above Lake Powell.

The Interior Department has said that hydroelectric projects infested with the mussels might require an additional $500,000 in annual maintenance. The Pacific Northwest gets much of its power from hydro projects, so an infestation could increase the cost of electricity.

Many states have spent millions and continue to do so to keep the mussels out. Some have set up mandatory checkpoints near borders to intercept boats for inspections, including Idaho, which is spending more than $3 million annually.

“Idaho and our neighbors in the West are acting individually and collaboratively to address the challenge of these invasive species,” Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter said in a statement to The Associated Press on Friday. “Now our federal partners must step up to help us stop further infestations.”

Heather Swift, Interior Department spokeswoman, said in an email to The Associated Press on Friday that Zinke hadn’t seen the letter and couldn’t comment specifically.

“Stopping the spread of invasive species is a big concern of the Department and the Secretary,” she said, noting a June 26 news release outlining some of the agency’s collaborative efforts with states and tribal agencies.

The governors’ letter on Thursday is the second they’ve sent this year about invasive mussels to Zinke. A letter sent June 22 also pressed for watercraft inspection and decontamination.

The Interior Department responded Sept. 15 with a two-page letter agreeing with the severity of the problem. The most recent letter by the governors’ included “clarifying questions.”

Specifically, the governors want to know what timeline has been set for the National Park Service to complete an assessment of mussel containment and monitoring programs at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in southeastern Nevada and northwestern Arizona, and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Southern Utah and northern Arizona.

The governors are also interested in knowing if similar timelines are being set for other Interior Department agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation.

The governors also asked if federal agencies have the authority to require mandatory boat checks and, if not, what authority would be needed.

“Western states need adequate measures to ensure these invaders do not spread to uninfested waters,” the governors said.

The stars are aligning for Idaho — mainly because they’re visible.

The International Dark-Sky Association this week named the central Idaho city of Ketchum an International Dark Sky Community, only the 16th in the world, after years of efforts to limit excess artificial light. It comes as bigger parts of the state received or are seeking rare dark-sky designations that can attract stargazers and boost home values.

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in south-central Idaho, a prime destination for astronomy buffs, became an International Dark Sky Park earlier this year, one of about 40 in the United States.

And the rarest prize of all could come in December when the association decides whether to designate 1,400 square miles in central Idaho an International Dark Sky Reserve. It would be the first in the nation.

Idaho is “becoming one of the centers of interest in dark skies in the country,” said John Barentine, program manager at the Tucson, Arizona-based International Dark-Sky Association.

Much of Ketchum’s economy runs on tourism, and the designations could bring in additional visitors. Thousands descended on the mountain resort town for last summer’s total solar eclipse, and it’s sandwiched between the ritzy Sun Valley to the east and Sun Valley Resort’s ski area on Bald Mountain to the west, which draws tourists from across the globe.

The town’s designation is due to the “work of so many who have devoted time and energy to reducing light pollution across our city and neighborhoods so that we can enjoy the truly amazing views we have of the night sky,” Mayor Nina Jones said in a statement.

Ketchum, with some of the highest home prices in Idaho, is the first city in the state to be named a Dark Sky Community. The association started making such designations in 2001, which also include Sedona, Arizona; Beverly Shores, Indiana; and Moffat, Scotland.

Dark-sky measures have drawn opposition in the U.S. from the outdoor advertising industry and those against additional government regulations.

The Ketchum designation could help as the International Dark-Sky Association considers a 127-page application for the reserve in Idaho. Barentine said the group looks at what surrounding communities are doing to protect the dark core area of the reserve.

“It’s more like a restoration effort in the communities, and it’s more of a preservation effort in the parks and reserves,” he said.

Barentine said Craters of the Moon monument is too far away from the proposed reserve to be a factor in the decision, expected in mid-December.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The number of imperiled Snake River sockeye salmon that made it back to central Idaho this year is the second worst in the last decade, but enough hatchery-raised fish exist to keep a state and federal recovery program going.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game says that through Monday 159 of the federally protected fish arrived at the Sawtooth Basin near Stanley after traveling 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

That’s below the 10-year average of 690 but not bad considering biologists estimated only about 400 started the journey at Bonneville Dam, the first of eight dams the fish must pass on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

State and federal officials started a hatchery program in the 1990s when the fish teetered on the brink of extinction.

Tourists heading to central Idaho will be in the dark if local officials get their way.

The first International Dark Sky Reserve in the United States would fill a chunk of the state’s sparsely populated region that contains night skies so pristine that interstellar dust clouds are visible in the Milky Way.

“We know the night sky has inspired people for many thousands of years,” said John Barentine, program manager at the Tucson, Arizona-based International Dark-Sky Association. “When they are in a space where they can see it, it’s often a very profound experience.”

Supporters say excess artificial light causes sleeping problems for people and disrupts nocturnal wildlife and that a dark sky can solve those problems, boost home values and draw tourists. Opposition to dark sky measures elsewhere in the U.S. have come from the outdoor advertising industry and those against additional government regulations.

Researchers say 80 percent of North Americans live in areas where light pollution blots out the night sky. Central Idaho contains one of the few places in the contiguous United States large enough and dark enough to attain reserve status, Barentine said. Only 11 such reserves exist in the world.

Leaders in the cities of Ketchum and Sun Valley, the tiny mountain town of Stanley, other local and federal officials, and a conservation group have been working for several years to apply this fall to designate 1,400 square miles as a reserve. A final decision by the association would come about 10 weeks after the application is submitted.

The association also designates International Dark Sky Parks, with nearly 40 in the U.S. Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in central Idaho, known as a prime destination among avid stargazers, became one earlier this year.

“There is some astro tourism,” said Ketchum Mayor Nina Jonas, a point driven home last month when thousands descended on the town in the path of the total solar eclipse.

Ketchum officials have applied to become an International Dark Sky Community and join Flagstaff, Arizona, Dripping Springs, Texas, and Beverly Shores, Indiana.

The Idaho city approved a dark sky ordinance requiring residents to install shields on exterior light fixtures to block light from going upward and mandating holiday lighting by businesses and residents be turned off at night.

Becoming a dark sky community could help with the larger reserve status and even lift property values in the already pricey area by keeping the night sky visible. Nearby Sun Valley, a ski resort city, also has a dark sky ordinance, as does Hailey about 12 miles to the south.

“It’s nice to look up and see something greater than ourselves,” Jonas said.

The Idaho Conservation League has joined the effort, noting light pollution can adversely affect nocturnal wildlife and people’s sleep rhythms.

“Out of all the types of pollution that ICL is engaged in, I see this as one we can combat in an easier way,” said Dani Mazzota, whose group is coordinating efforts among federal and local entities.

That includes an intensive effort by volunteers taking darkness readings throughout the region. Those readings, combined with satellite measurements, will be some of the information used by the International Dark Sky-Association in its decision.

International Dark Sky Reserves have two main components, Barentine said. The first is a core area dark enough to meet the association’s standards. The second is a buffer area with communities that demonstrate support in protecting the core by limiting light pollution.

The proposed Idaho reserve is mainly land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and contains the wilderness of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

“We have a preservation and protection mission, and preserving the dark sky and mitigating light pollution is a really good fit for the Sawtooth National Recreation Area,” said ranger Kirk Flannigan.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho officials declined to move forward Friday allowing the use of bait by hunters to specifically target wolves amid widespread opposition.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission voted 7-0 to direct the Department of Fish and Game to suspend an administrative process called negotiated rulemaking.

Commissioner Jerry Meyers said he would like more information about wolf baiting before moving ahead with any plan.

“I would like to have time to think about the rule,” he told fellow commissioners, “to decide which areas and to what extent.” Commissioners noted they could revisit the idea in the future.

Idaho hunters are already allowed to kill wolves attracted to bait put out for bears.

The change considered by the commission could have allowed hunters to target wolves with bait outside bear season. It would have required approval by state lawmakers.

State Wildlife Manager Jon Rachael told commissioners that the agency received about 24,000 comments on the idea with 96 percent opposed allowing hunters to use bait specifically targeting wolves.

The agency told the commission that views were so polarized that additional negotiated rulemaking wasn’t feasible.

Environmental groups have frequently fought Idaho in court over the state’s wolf management policies. Earlier this year, a federal judge ordered Fish and Game to destroy information collected on four wolves with radio collars illegally captured in a central Idaho wilderness area using a helicopter.

Idaho had about 780 wolves in 2015, the last time the state was required to do a count by federal officials. Idaho officials said Friday that wolf numbers remain strong based on the reported wolf kills and wolf reproductive rates.

But earlier in the meeting, Commissioner Daniel Blanco questioned Fish and Game employees about getting reliable wolf population numbers out of concern the agency could face lawsuits. Fish and Game officials said they were working on a process to get those numbers but it wasn’t yet available.

The 2015 wolf count by Idaho was the last required by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after wolves in Idaho were removed from the Endangered Species List.

Federal officials can retake management of Idaho wolves if the population falls below set levels for various lengths of time. Idaho officials say the Idaho wolf population is far above that happening.

The rugged Frank Church River of No Return wilderness in central Idaho was one of the areas to receive wolves when they were first reintroduced in the contiguous United States. Officials released 35 in the area in 1995 and 1996.

BOISE — Predator-killing cyanide traps such as one that sickened a boy in Idaho and killed his dog should be banned, environmental groups told the federal government Thursday.

The Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation groups petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to outlaw the spring-activated devices called M-44s.

The traps look like water sprinkler heads embedded in the ground and spray cyanide when triggered by animals attracted by bait.

The groups said the federal agency should ban the traps that pose a threat to people and pets on public lands and kill non-targeted wildlife.

“This is a good time for the agency to take a serious look because people are really outraged about this,” said Collette Adkins, an attorney and biologist at the center.

The EPA didn’t return a call seeking comment.

In March, one of the devices injured a 14-year-old Pocatello boy and killed his dog when they encountered it on federally owned land about 500 yards from his home.

The scrutiny intensified after The Associated Press reported the device was on public land despite a decision months earlier by federal officials to halt use of the traps on all U.S.-owned land in Idaho.

Officials say the devices killed about 12,500 coyotes in 2016, mostly in Western states.

The Agriculture Department said a 2015 survey of producers determined that coyotes nationwide killed about 120,000 sheep and lambs valued at up to $20 million.

The cyanide devices are also used to protect cattle.

Environmental groups say the devices over the past 20 years have killed about 40 dogs and injured a handful of people, including the boy in Idaho

In April, federal officials in Idaho placed a temporary ban on the predator traps. Two months later, U.S. officials launched an expanded review of the traps and additional guidelines for workers deploying the devices.

Adkins said a denial of the petition would be a basis for a lawsuit.

“The federal government has a paramount duty to protect people and wildlife from deadly poisons that unnecessarily endanger the public, wildlife and companion animals,” Kelly Nokes, carnivore advocate at WildEarth Guardians, said in a statement.

The petition is part of a larger effort by environmental groups to ban the devices.

Earlier this year, environmental and animal-welfare groups filed a lawsuit claiming the U.S. government is violating the Endangered Species Act by allowing the predator-killing poison in areas where it could harm federally protected species including grizzly bears and Canada lynx.

That lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and others seeks an immediate ban on cyanide on predator traps and another pesticide called Compound 1080 that’s placed in collars worn by livestock and ingested by attacking predators.

Environmental groups also petitioned federal officials in Idaho and Wyoming to stop using the predator traps. Wyoming hasn’t responded but federal officials in Idaho issued the temporary ban.

In recent weeks, federal officials in Idaho held a series of public meetings demonstrating how the traps work and explaining the need to protect livestock.