Snowmobiles banned in Idaho caribou zone

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A judge has declared nearly 470 square miles of national forest land in northern Idaho off-limits to snowmobiles in an effort to save the last mountain caribou herd in the contiguous 48 states.

U.S. District Judge Robert H. Whaley, in a ruling Friday, banned the vehicles throughout a caribou recovery zone in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests until the U.S. Forest Service develops a winter recreation strategy taking into account the impact of the loud, exhaust-spewing devices on the herd.