Along the Nez Perce National Historic Trail, Bitterroot Valley Trapper Peak, near Sula, Montana. (Photo by Roger Peterson/ U.S. Forest Service)
The Trump administration has backed off a logging project in the Bitterroot National Forest after four different groups challenged the plan, which they said could have harmful effects on bull trout, wolverines and grizzly bears, all of which are protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The decision to halt the Eastside project came after the groups sent a letter of notice of intent to sue because they claimed the U.S. Forest Service did not properly consider the effects of the project on those sensitive species. In a March 7 letter sent to the Center for Biological Diversity, leaders from the U.S. Forest Service, including Matthew Anderson, the forest supervisor for the Bitterroot National Forest and Amity Bass of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said they’re revisiting the research and consultation process. Until that’s complete, the logging project has been stopped.
The Eastside project called for tree cutting, prescribed burns and roadwork across more than 470,000 acres “almost the entire eastern side of the Bitterroot National Forest and a crucial wildlife corridor.”
The groups which challenged the decision includes the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Bitterroot, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, and WildEarth Guardians.
The U.S. Forest Service approved the project in January 2021, but the groups filed a letter of notice of intent to sue, something that’s required by the Endangered Species Act. That gives a federal agency the time to correct or re-evaluate the plans before possible litigation.
The letter from the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife said that since August 2024, the two agencies had begun re-evaluating the project’s impact on the different species, including grizzly bears. On Feb. 2, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service submitted a new biological assessments for the grizzly bear, wolverines and bull trout.
“Since reinitiating has begun and consultation is ongoing on the effects of the updated proposed action, all previous consultation processes that have occurred related to the Eastside Forest and Habitat Improvement Project will be superseded,” the letter said.
While the plan will be to suspend the project, that could be a temporary reprieve because it said the U.S. Forest Service “does not intent to implement the project until the reinitiated consultation is complete.”
“This decision is much-needed good news for some of Montana’s most iconic and imperiled wildlife,” said Kristine Akland, Northern Rockies and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Grizzly bears are slowly returning to the Bitterroot, wolverines are struggling to survive in the face of climate change and bull trout are teetering on the edge of extirpation from the area. Instead of protecting these species, the Forest Service has been pushing this massive habitat-destroying project under the guise of forest health.”