1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

Block the Bitterroot Front Project. The Forest Service approved 135,000 acres of commercial logging in the Bitterroot National Forest as an emergency wildfire measure — but their own timeline shows implementation will take over 20 years. That's not an emergency. It's a pretext for industrial logging that threatens grizzly bears, bull trout, Canada lynx, wolverines, and whitebark pines in clear violation of the Endangered Species Act. The legal problems are serious. The agency is claiming credit for roads already decommissioned years ago to offset new road construction — that's double dipping. It's relying on a 1-acre habitat fragment standard for grizzly bears that a federal court already rejected. And it failed to disclose where roads and logging units will actually occur, making any real environmental review impossible. Conservation groups including the Center for Biological Diversity and Alliance for the Wild Rockies have filed notice of intent to sue for exactly these violations. Commercial logging doesn't protect communities from wildfire — home hardening does. Non-flammable roofs, decks, and vegetation removal near structures are proven strategies. The Forest Service should be funded to do that work, not handed over to corporate timber interests. Demand that the agencies reinitiate consultation under the Endangered Species Act and halt this project until a lawful environmental review is complete.