Photo by Glenn Phillips
It took the Alliance for the Wild Rockies almost six years of litigation fighting the US Forest Service through both the Trump and Biden administrations to try and save what’s left of the imperiled grizzly bear population in Northern Idaho’s Selkirk Ecosystem. But that persistence, along with strong and consistent local opposition to the project, paid off when a federal court recently issued a decision upholding the Alliance’s claims and halted the “Hanna Flats” project with an injunction.
There’s no other way to put it, the Selkirk grizzly bear population is in dire straits. There are only about 50 bears in the population when the very minimum needed for recovery is 100 bears.
Why is the population so low? Because the bears suffer from human-caused mortality at a rate of about 2.7 bears killed by humans per year and grizzlies have very low reproductive rates since females become sexually mature at 4.5 years and only breed every 3-4 years and cease breeding at about 10 years old.
This current mortality rate, which violates the limits set by the federal government, is so high for this tiny population that there are only three years out of the last 30 with higher mortality rates.
There is really no hope of recovery for this imperiled population unless the government starts complying with road density limits to protect grizzly bear habitat since it’s well-documented that most human-caused grizzly mortalities occur near roads.
The Court Order in this case found the project violates federal law since the government’s own management plan for the area limits road construction to protect grizzly bears. Moreover, the court found the government has been violating the road construction limit for many years, and was continuing to violate it with this project.
The Court also found that the government’s attempt to secretly change the management plan to allow more roads without the required public process for amendments to the management plan was also illegal. The Court Order found that changing and weakening the most important substantive Plan provision for grizzly bears in this area – the road limits – is a modification which requires a Plan amendment. But until such an amendment occurs, the road limits remain in effect. The Court then enjoined the project from proceeding for these violations of federal law.
This is a big win for grizzly bears, but in addition to protecting the grizzly bears, this decision also protects the rights of the homeowners in this area — who strongly opposed massive clearcutting operations that would destroy the forest around their homes and trails, and lead to harmful sedimentation of waterways. Throughout the years of litigation, they bravely stood up and spoke truth to power to protect their home. There is no doubt that their resistance and strength helped bring about this victory.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies is a grassroots conservation group which focuses on protecting rare grizzly bear populations, endangered species, and functioning forest and river ecosystems on public lands in the Northern Rocky Mountains of Idaho and Montana.
Please consider helping us to protect grizzly bears and their habitat.
Mike Garrity is the Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies
