CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Forest Service Tries to Illegally Shrink “Aecure Habitat”  in huge Deforestation Project Spurring Lawsuit to Protect Grizzlies

Grizzly in Yellowstone. Photo: NPS / Jim Peaco.

Grizzly bears were put on the Endangered Species List in 1975 — 51 years ago. They will not be recovered until bears from the Northern Continental Divide and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem can connect to provide crucial genetic exchange to prevent irreversible inbreeding. Yet, despite having a legal mandate to recover the species, the Forest Service continues to log, burn, and build roads in critical connectivity corridors.

The Larabee Hat logging and burning project is located in just such a critical wildlife corridor and will destroy the secure habitat grizzlies require for survival. That’s why the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Native Ecosystems Council, and Council on Wildlife and Fish is challenging the project in federal court.

The deforestation is planned on the Helena Ranger District running from the Continental Divide headwaters of the Little Blackfoot River to Elliston, Montana. The project encompasses 43,158 acres (67........

© CounterPunch