For immediate release: August 12, 2026
Media contacts:
Erik Molvar, Western Watersheds Project (307)399-7910; emolvar@westernwatersheds.org
Conservationists Sue to Block Cattle Expansion in Ungrazed Grizzly Habitats on the Bridger-Teton National Forest
JACKSON, Wyo. – Western Watersheds Project, represented by Greenfire Law, filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the proposed release of livestock into prime grizzly bear habitat this week on four allotments on the Bridger-Teton National Forest that have been recovering and livestock-free for a decade. The allotments overlapping the Gros Ventre Wilderness – Tosi Creek, Elk Ridge, Lime Creek, and Rock Creek (collectively the “Elk Ridge Complex”) – were bought out by conservation groups in 2016, ending livestock grazing, in order to prevent wildlife conflicts between livestock and wolves and grizzly bears, and to end the risk of disease transmission between domestic sheep and wild bighorns. The Forest Service has decided to reopen them for cattle use without appropriate environmental review.
“The Forest Service is proposing to re-open a can of worms on these ungrazed allotments by relying on an environmental analysis from 1978, years before the mountains were reoccupied by rare native wildlife including grizzly bears and gray wolves,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project. “The agency claims it is doing this for wildfire recovery reasons, but the truth is that this administration has prioritized putting cows and sheep everywhere and anywhere, simply for the sake of appeasing the livestock industry.”
The allotments at issue include 30,500 acres of wildlands within the Green River Valley, including parts of the Gros Ventre Wilderness Area and close to Grand Teton National Park. Natural recovery of the native ecosystems has occurred unimpaired by livestock for the past ten years These mountains provide habitat for imperiled species including bighorn sheep, wolves, grizzly bears, western toads, boreal chorus frogs, lynx, and wolverines.
“Putting up to 325 cows into a place where the native wildlife – from elk and mule deer to wolves and grizzly bears – have had the freedom to roam in undisturbed habitats for the last decade is a recipe for renewed conflict,” said Molvar. “The Forest Service is all but shoving cattle down grizzlies’ throats, and we know what happens when there is livestock conflict: The bears will die.”
Western Watersheds Project is represented by Greenfire Law, PC, a public interest environmental law firm located in Berkeley, California.
The litigation effort was launched with a generous grant from Large Carnivore Fund, a 501(c)(3) wildlife conservation nonprofit based in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem.
The Complaint and Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order are online.
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