CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Conservationists Win Another Battle in the Fight for Bitterroot Grizzly Bears

Grizzly sow and cub. Photo: Frank van Mane/USGS.

On March 31, two Montana grassroots conservation groups, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council, prevailed in their lawsuit to stop a logging and road-building project on public lands in the Sapphire Mountains of the Bitterroot Valley because the government had pretended that grizzly bears were not present in that region.  The facts show otherwise — grizzly bears are repeatedly attempting to repopulate the Bitterroot Valley on both the east and west sides.  The court order requires that the government acknowledge the growing presence of grizzly bears in the Bitterroot Valley and act appropriately to protect them.

This victory follows the groups’ recent victory mandating that the government prepare a new environmental analysis on Bitterroot grizzly bear recovery.  “These cases are two sides of........

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