Photo: Frank van Manen /USGS
Alliance for the Wild Rockies understands that when the government breaks the law and destroys the essential habitat upon which endangered species like grizzly bears rely, the only way to stop the destruction is to file a lawsuit. Last month, we prevailed in a lawsuit for exactly this purpose.
This time we stopped government plans to build roads and log 5,000 acres of public land in occupied grizzly habitat in the Cabinet-Yaak area of Northwestern Montana. The Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bears are the most isolated and imperiled population in the country and their recovery is crucial to the recovery of grizzly bears in the lower 48 states.
The best available science from decades of research finds that reducing roads — both official legal roads and illegal user-created roads — is the most effective way to ensure grizzly bear survival and recovery. When it comes to human-caused mortality, most grizzlies are illegally shot and killed within 1/3 mile of roads, many in clearcuts where there are no trees left to hide them. In short, more roads result in more dead bears.
Decades of logging, road building and motorized recreation have fragmented wildlife habitat, especially grizzly habitat and limited their recovery. Despite a legal requirement to limit road density on National Forests in northwest Montana, in 2022 the Forest Service signed a decision to bulldoze in more than 45 miles of new and rebuilt roads to clearcut 5,000 acres of the Kootenai National Forest in prime occupied habitat for the imperiled Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear.
Black bear in the Knotty Pine project area
Photo: Peter Leusch
We are proud to report that after years of litigating this case with our co-Plaintiffs, we have prevailed and protected another critical block of Cabinet Yaak grizzly habitat. The court order finds that the government has again ignored science and stuck its head in the sand by excluding known illegal roads from road-density calculations in grizzly habitat, which provides an inaccurate assessment of how government action will impact grizzly bear survival in this area that is the lynchpin for grizzly recovery.
This victory for grizzlies follows on the heels of our similar recent victories that stopped the Black Ram logging and road construction project in occupied Cabinet-Yaak grizzly habitat in Montana, as well as the Hanna Flats logging and road construction project project in occupied Selkirk grizzly habitat in Idaho. We promise to continue to take the government to court as often as needed to protect these grizzlies.
Although the government is shut down, we are not. We are still here – working every day to prevent the extinction of grizzly bears – and we will not stop. Our highly effective litigation will continue to protect our mountains and prairies regardless of government dysfunction in Washington.
Join us. We need your help. We can’t do this alone. We are a small grassroots organization, but we still win 80% of our David vs. Goliath battles because we hire the best lawyers to represent us in court. It is expensive but the result – protecting grizzly bears from extinction – is priceless and so it is worth it. Please donate so that you too can be part of this critical work.
Mike Garrity is the Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.
