Photo by USFWS

The Forest Service authorized a Special Use Permit in March to allow a private company to clear-cut and bulldoze a 50-foot wide, 18.2-mile-long corridor through six National Forest Inventoried Roadless Areas for construction of a gas pipeline from Montpelier, Idaho to Afton, Wyoming.

But here’s the deal: The pipeline was approved despite the fact that the Forest Plan rates this area “high” for potential sage grouse habitat. One of the greatest harms to greater sage grouse is habitat fragmentation from utility corridors. Given that the pipeline route is within 12 miles of a documented sage grouse breeding ground, that means the area for the pipeline corridor should remain intact to provide nesting, brood-rearing, and winter habitat for sage grouse.

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service to stop construction of the pipeline, contending the project violates the National Environmental Policy Act, the Forest Service Manual, the National Forest Management Act, the Mineral Leasing Act, and the Administrative Procedures Act as well as the Forest Plan and the federal Sage Grouse Conservation Plan.

Although the federal district court in Idaho ruled against our request for a Preliminary Injunction to stop the construction, we have not given up the fight! We just filed an Emergency Appeal with the 9th circuit Court of Appeals — but we need your help to raise $30,000 to pay for the legal costs.

Sage grouse facing extinction

There were 16 million Greater Sage Grouse before Europeans arrived and began the destruction of the “sagebrush sea” in the Great Plains. The iconic birds were down to 400,000 in 2015 when Obama’s Secretary of Interior, Sally Jewell, rejected listing them for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Today there are only 200,000 left, an astounding loss of half the remaining birds in a decade.

Sage-grouse need good-quality sagebrush habitat for nesting, rearing their young, and to provide food and cover throughout the year. In winter, their diet is 100% sagebrush leaves and buds.

Photo by Richard Prodgers

The primary cause of sage grouse population collapse is the loss of sagebrush habitat and associated breeding grounds — and this pipeline will permanently destroy even more dwindling sagebrush habitat.

In this case, the Forest Service failed to demonstrate that the new pipeline corridor is in the public interest; is compatible and consistent with other Forest resources; that there is no reasonable alternative or accommodation on National Forest lands; that it’s impractical to use existing rights-of-way; and importantly, that the rationale for approving the new pipeline corridor is not solely to lower costs for the private energy company.

How You Can Help

National Forests were designated for the benefit of all Americans, not to maximize the profits of the oil and gas or any other extractive industry.

Thanks to the Alliance for the Wild Rockies fearlessly challenging the federal government in court, we have protected more habitat than all of the regional environmental groups combined. That includes our recent win against a plan to log, masticate (grinding trees down to stumps), and burn across a stunning 1,487 square miles, more than two-thirds of the entire Manti-LaSal National Forest. We filed suit in federal court early this year and the Forest Service withdrew the project.

Given that the Alliance wins about 80% of our cases, there’s a very good chance we can stop this pipeline and protect some of the last remaining intact sage grouse habitat.

But we can’t do it without your help. Please help us by making a tax-deductible donation here. We thank you — with your help we can carry on the fight to prevent the extinction of the greater sage grouse.

Mike Garrity is the Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.