BITTERROOT NATIONAL FOREST — On July 14, U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen of Montana ruled that a road-building amendment to the Bitterroot National Forest Plan violates the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
In December 2024, Friends of the Bitterroot and other local and national conservation groups challenged part of a 2023 plan amendment that focused on elk habitat, trees, and policies on road building.
The conservation groups said that the amendment eliminated road density restrictions without fully considering ramifications for other species, including grizzly bears and bull trout. They sued land management agencies in 2024, arguing that the amendment violates the ESA, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA).
Defendants, including U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, argue that they "will be forced to pursue project-specific amendments for those projects that would alter open road density without bringing the affected drainages into compliance with the 1987 standard."
Tuesday, Christensen ruled in favor of the conservation groups, writing, "This Court found that the agencies failed to adequately consider, or consider at all, the Amendment's impacts on grizzly bear and bull trout, which are both directly adversely affected by open roads. The errors are therefore significant. And Defendants do little to assuage these concerns."
This decision invalidated the specific part of the amendment that the groups challenged, removing the road density requirements related to elk habitat. The rest of the amendment stands.
Christensen sent the challenged part of the amendment back to the Forest Service to move forward in a way consistent with the ESA and NEPA, including an evaluation on road and motorized impacts to grizzly bears, bull trout and their habitat.
In a statement, Maxine Sugarman, associate attorney with Earthjustice’s Northern Rockies Office, shared with MTN, "At a time when the Endangered Species Act and the wildlife it helps to protect are under constant attack by this administration, this is a welcome decision that will prevent harmful new roadbuilding in Bitterroot National Forest."
