Boundary Creek is a premiere creek run located in the Panhandle of Northern Idaho, and also is critical habitat for bull trout, west slope cutthroat trout, redband rainbow trout, harlequin ducks, grizzly bears, wolves,and mountain caribou. Boundary Creek offers paddlers an exhausting and exhilarating barrage of continuous boulder rapids through a remote and rugged valley.

Boundary Creek has twice been the target for hydropower developers, and both times American Whitewater played a leading role in defeating the proposals.

The first proposal came in the late 1990's. AW's John Gangemi did an excellent job documenting the environmental and recreational values at stake, and in opposing the proposed dam and diversion that would have largely dewatered the entire whitewater reach. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission initially granted a preliminary permit for the project but on October 19th, 2001 they revoked it.

The stream saw a decade long respite from development pressure before a new corporation proposed a nearly identical project. Once again FERC granted the preliminary permit to the developer. American Whitewater helped organize the environmental community's response, and filed several strong objections to the permit. Ultimately the permit holder abandoned the permit in the summer of 2013.

American Whitewater has also sought protective status for Boundary Creek as a Wild and Scenic River through the Forest Planning process, including filing a formal objection to the 2013 proposed Forest Plan, but our efforts were unsuccessful.