Alliance for the Wild Rockies
2025 Annual Report
Protecting the Wild Rockies. Holding the Line. Restoring Balance.
Impact Period: November 2024 – November 2025
Message from the Executive Director
In 2025, thanks to your support, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies made major strides to protect the irreplaceable ecosystems of the Northern Rockies. Our legal team fought and won against illegal logging projects, motorized recreation abuses, and habitat destruction across 2,672 square miles—1.7 million acres—of public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
We celebrated the long-awaited listing of wolverines as “threatened”, a milestone in our decades-long conservation effort. We advanced grizzly bear recovery across the region, blocking harmful policies and forcing agencies to follow the law.
No other environmental group sued the U.S. Forest Service more than the Alliance this year. We filed 86 of the last 186 environmental lawsuits (46.7%) brought against the federal government. Dollar for dollar, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies remains one of the most effective small environmental nonprofits in the country.
There are outstanding and upcoming cases we could take on—and win—in 2026 if we had the financial resources. We stretch every donation, whether it’s $10 or $10,000, and back it with legal muscle, scientific grounding, and a fierce commitment to the land, water, and wildlife that define the Wild Rockies.
Sincerely,
Mike Garrity – Executive Director
2025 Impact at a Glance
- 2,672 square miles (1.7 million acres) of wildlife habitat protected
- 86 federal lawsuits filed against illegal agency actions
- Wolverines listed as Threatened under the ESA
- Multiple injunctions stopping logging, burning, grazing, and dewatering
- Major victories for grizzly bears, lynx, wolves, bull trout, sage grouse, and elk
Major Court Victories & Projects Stopped
Colville National Forest (WA/ID)
A federal court halted the Sxwutn–Kaniksu Connections Project, stopping 20 years of logging, burning, and road-bulldozing across 141 square miles of grizzly, wolverine, and lynx habitat.
Paradise Valley (MT)
Court victory protecting grizzly bears from expanded cattle grazing.
Cabinet–Yaak Grizzly Habitat (MT)
- Black Ram Project: 143 square miles protected
- Knotty Pine Project: 76 square miles protected
Idaho Panhandle National Forest
Hanna Flats Project: 10 square miles of lynx and grizzly habitat protected
Gravelly Mountains (MT)
Illegal logging and burning stopped across 27 square miles of grizzly, elk, sage grouse, and lynx habitat.
Bitterroot National Forest (MT)
Stopped the massive 781-square-mile, 20-year Eastside logging and burning project.
Utah Roadless Lands
Halted Forest Service plans to log and burn 7 square miles of Inventoried Roadless Areas in the Uinta–Wasatch–Cache National Forest.
Manti–La Sal National Forest (UT)
The Forest Service withdrew plans to log and burn 1,487 square miles over 32 years after the Alliance sued.
New Lawsuits Filed in 2025
- Yellowstone National Park: Challenging the new Bison Management Plan, which authorizes widespread bison killing based on outdated brucellosis science.
- National Park Service: Lawsuit to stop dewatering the Clark Fork River, critical bull trout habitat, for livestock irrigation.
- State of Montana: Sued for failing to assert instream flow water rights, allowing rivers to be dewatered.
- Flathead National Forest: Sued to stop a 22-square-mile clearcutting project in grizzly and lynx habitat.
- BLM Garnet Mountains (MT): Lawsuit to stop 23 square miles of logging and burning in grizzly, wolverine, and lynx habitat.
- Helena–Lewis and Clark National Forest: Sued to stop logging and burning across 107 square miles of a critical grizzly travel corridor in the Big Belt Mountains.
How We Work
The Alliance protects the Wild Rockies through:
- Litigation: Enforcing federal law in court
- Science: Partnering with leading conservation biologists
- Advocacy: Educating and mobilizing the public
- Legislation: Advancing the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA)
Why Litigation Matters
When agencies ignore the law, we sue—and we win. Our work is strategic, science-based, and rooted in the public interest. We are not anti-logging. We support responsible forestry near communities to reduce wildfire risks. We oppose only those projects that harm threatened, endangered, or severely declining species.
When we lose, legal costs come out of our limited operating budget. That’s why your support is essential.
Financial Overview
Use of Funds:
- 82% – Program Services (Litigation, Science, Advocacy)
- 10% – Administration
- 8% – Fundraising
Nearly 65% of all donations come from gifts under $5,000, making grassroots supporters the backbone of the organization.
Looking Ahead to 2026
Our priorities for the coming year:
- Expand litigation capacity to meet rising threats
- Grow grassroots organizing across the region
- Strengthen conservation partnerships
- Advance passage of NREPA
- Keep overhead low, transparency high, and legal wins coming
Thank You to Our Supporters
We are deeply grateful to our donors, scientists, volunteers, grassroots partners, and allied organizations. You are the reason the Wild Rockies still has a fighting chance.
Join Us in Defending the Wild Rockies
Every victory in court, every acre protected, and every species saved happens because of people like you. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies runs on the passion and generosity of its supporters—not corporate sponsors or government grants.
As threats intensify across the West, your tax-deductible donation helps us:
- Stop illegal logging
- Protect grizzlies, wolves, and wolverines
- Defend clean water and old-growth forests
- Hold agencies accountable to the law
Donate today or become a sustaining monthly member—and help us keep fighting for the Wild Rockies.
About Us
Alliance for the Wild Rockies (AWR) formed in 1988 to meet the challenge of saving the Northern Rockies Bioregion from habitat destruction. We are thousands of individuals, business owners, and organizations taking a bioregional approach to protect and restore this great region.
Our mission is to secure the ecological integrity of the Wild Rockies Bioregion through citizen empowerment and the application of conservation biology, sustainable economic models and environmental law.
We have worked to protect thousands of acres of old growth forests from road building and logging in Montana’s Seeley-Swan Valley. We have stopped a 2,900 acre timber sale on the western border of Yellowstone National Park, saving 500 acres of old growth forest and preventing new logging roads from cutting into grizzly bear and lynx habitat. We have fought for native species both large and small, from mountain lions and wolverines to bull trout and ground squirrels.
We are educating the public every day about the value of old growth forests and clean mountain watersheds. We are actively promoting the conservation of biological corridors between wilderness areas so that grizzlies, lynx, wolves, bison, and countless other native species can not only survive, but thrive.
We are one of the smallest environmental organizations in the country, yet we have a huge impact. A membership-based, nonprofit organization, our board and advisors include some of the nation’s top scientists and conservationists, and their research and experience strongly supports the argument for the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act.=
Donate today or become a sustaining monthly member—and help us keep fighting for the Wild Rockies.
About Michael Garrity – Executive Director
I’ve spent nearly three decades as Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, working every day to protect one of the most intact and biodiverse ecosystems left in North America—the Northern Rockies.
Our approach blends science, advocacy, and environmental law to defend endangered species, preserve old-growth forests, and safeguard wildlife habitat and clean watersheds for future generations. We’re small, nimble, and highly effective—taking on cases and campaigns that larger organizations often can’t or won’t, and winning precedent-setting victories that shape the future of conservation.
I believe in solutions that protect both wildlife and communities. We support projects on public lands that create good jobs and value for companies—when they follow the law. But when they don’t, we hold them accountable in court.
Alongside our dedicated members and partners, we’ve helped secure protections for wolverines, stopped illegal logging in grizzly habitat, and blocked harmful development in sensitive areas. We have many more battles ahead, and we’re building the capacity to take them on while keeping our general operating expenses among the lowest in the sector.
If you share our commitment to protecting wild places, wildlife, and the integrity of our public lands, I’d love to connect.
Donate today or become a sustaining monthly member—and help us keep fighting for the Wild Rockies.
