Two Grizzly Bears Credit: USFWS
August 20, 2026 - MISSOULA, Mont.— Following a legal challenge from conservation groups, the U.S. Forest Service will reconsider the dangers the massive Bitterroot Front logging project poses to grizzly bears. The project would log 135,000 acres in the Bitterroot National Forest.
“I’m glad the Forest Service hit the brakes on this enormous logging project because it’s clear the agency didn’t adequately consider how dangerous it would be for Montana’s grizzlies,” said Kristine Akland, Northern Rockies director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This is exactly why the Endangered Species Act requires agencies to take a hard look at new information before moving forward with projects that threaten imperiled wildlife. Our legal challenge forced the agency to go back and address its failure.”
In a letter responding to the groups’ June 16 notice of intent to sue, the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed that the agency is reinitiating Endangered Species Act consultation for grizzly bears because new information about the project’s potential harms has become available.
“For years biologists have warned that roads are simply bad for grizzly bears, and the Bitterroot Front project would actually expand the road system,” said Adam Rissien, rewilding manager with WildEarth Guardians. “Here the Forest Service failed to ensure grizzlies have enough habitat security for their natural recovery in Bitterroot mountains.”
The Bitterroot Front Project proposes extensive commercial logging, road building, prescribed burning, herbicide use and other industrial activities that will significantly damage the forest. The groups’ legal challenge highlighted the agencies’ failure to fully assess the project’s dangers to grizzly bears and their habitat.
“In recent years several grizzly bears have made their way into the Bitterroot ecosystem,” said Jim Miller, president of Friends of the Bitterroot. “The Forest Service seems bent on destroying their habitat with extensive logging and road building, when they should be protecting it for natural recovery of this threatened species.”
The agencies’ decision to reanalyze the logging project means their previous analysis about the dangers to grizzly bears is no longer sufficient. The agencies must complete a new consultation before the project can move forward.
“The Bitterroot Front logging project would bulldoze 27 miles of new logging roads. Most grizzlies are killed within one-third of a mile of a road,” said Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. “This is great news for grizzly bears since they wouldn’t survive if the Forest Service was allowed to bulldoze even more roads into the project area.”
“The court recently recognized the Bitterroot National Forest's overall Forest Plan doesn't adequately protect grizzly bear habitat,” said Jeff Juel of Friends of the Clearwater. “Therefore, we're urging the Forest Service to prioritize habitat protection by first updating its forest plan in an open public process, which might reveal the folly of the entire Bitterroot Front project altogether.”
The groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Bitterroot, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, WildEarth Guardians, Friends of the Clearwater and Native Ecosystems Council — will closely monitor the consultation process to ensure that the agencies fully account for the project’s environmental consequences.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.8 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
