Conservationists Land Another Victory for Grizzly Bears and Bull Trout in Flathead National Forest

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday approved a motion from the federal government to dismiss its appeal of a decision limiting road building in grizzly bear and bull trout habitat in Flathead National Forest.

In March 2024, the Montana federal district court found that the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) did not lawfully examine the impacts to federally protected grizzly bears and bull trout when the agencies greenlit their road building plan for the national forest. Then in June, the court recognized additional impacts to grizzlies from existing roadways, including those that don’t receive motorized use. The agencies then appealed the court’s June decision which modified the March ruling.

“With the government’s appeal dismissed, the focus now shifts to what the agencies will do to limit the impacts of roadbuilding on grizzly bears and bull trout,” said Ben Scrimshaw, senior associate attorney with Earthjustice’s Northern Rockies Office. “We will keep a close eye on what the Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service do next and will respond as needed.”

“We are pleased that the agencies will not appeal Judge Christensen’s well-reasoned decision,” said Arlene Montgomery, program director for Friends of the Wild Swan. “They should now follow the law to reduce the number of roads in order to protect grizzlies, bull trout, and their habitat.”

“Judge Christensen essentially ruled that the government can’t just close a logging road, say it has no further impact on wildlife, and not count it against limits on total road density,” said Keith Hammer, Swan View Coalition Chair. “We’re glad to see that ruling still stands and hope the government recognizes it must reinstate meaningful limits on its road building program.”

Background

In 2019, conservation groups first challenged the 2018 revised Flathead National Forest Plan, the accompanying Environmental Impact Statement, and the FWS biological opinion in the U.S. District Court in Montana. The court ruled that the agencies’ analysis of impacts to grizzly bears and bull trout violated the Endangered Species Act, particularly in its arbitrary abandonment of the prior forest plan amendment the agencies credited with conserving the species. In response to the 2019 challenge, FWS made a series of minor but inadequate revisions to its biological opinion, which led conservation groups to sue again in 2022.

Grizzly bears have learned to avoid roads — even closed roads — and are often displaced from habitat that features them.