Recent News

May 28, 2010    by PERRY BACKUS - Ravalli Republic | Posted: Friday, May 28, 2010 12:00 am People waiting to get their hands on a brand new travel plan map for the Bitterroot National Forest are going to have to be patient. The long anticipated release of an updated travel management plan has been pushed back to sometime in late fall. The plan was expected to be released in April.

February 22, 2010    By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press | Posted: Saturday, February 20, 2010 12:00 am BILLINGS — Conservationists and backcountry horse riders headed to federal court Friday, seeking to stop motorized vehicle use in much of southern Montana’s Pryor Mountains, a popular destination for off-road vehicle users. Several groups, acting jointly as the Pryors Coalition, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Missoula, challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s 2008 travel plan for the 125-square-mile mountain range.

February 19, 2010   FOR IMMDEDIATE RELEASE    2-19-2010 Contact: Dick Walton, Pryors Coalition, 406- 656-9064 Adam Rissien, Wildlands CPR, 406-543-9551 Matthew Bishop, Western Environmental Law Center, 406-324-8011 BROAD COALITION SEEKS QUIET TRAILS

December 23, 2009    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE         December 23, 2009 CONTACT: Bethanie Walder, Wildlands CPR (406) 543-9551 John Grove Friends of the Bitterroot Phone: (406) 777-2423 FOREST SERVICE AGREES TO END CONTROVERSIAL SNOWMOBILE GROOMING PROGRAM Conservation Groups Settle Lawsuit: Agreement Protects Core Wolverine Habitat and Nearly 148,000 Acres in West Pioneer Wilderness Study Area

December 22, 2009    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Dec. 21, 2009 Future gets brighter for state's aging national forest roads OLYMPIA - Congress and the Obama administration are responding with on-the-ground results in response to appeals by a coalition of conservation groups and the state Departments of Ecology and Fish & Wildlife. Federal action is now occurring to repair and reclaim crumbling national forest roads in Washington state that have been harming endangered salmon and clean water.

December 7, 2009   Five environmental groups jointly filed a lawsuit today against the United States Forest Service to stop construction of a new road for off-road vehicles (ORVs) in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area (Oregon Dunes). The lawsuit challenges the Forest Service’s approval of the “Riley Ranch Access Project,” which involves building a 14- to 24-foot wide motor vehicle route through the heart of both an Inventoried Roadless Area and a section of the Oregon Dunes that has long been closed to motor vehicle use.

May 29, 2009    Public Deserves Say On Snowmobile Decision Contact: Adam Rissien, Wildlands CPR, 543-9551 John Grove, Friends of the Bitterroot, 777-2423 Matthew Bishop, Western Environmental Law Center, 406-324-8011 Missoula – The public deserves a chance to weigh in on a decision allowing snowmobiling in a wilderness study area on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, say two conservation groups filing suit over the proposal.

April 29, 2009    Wildlands CPR board member Cara Nelson is a professor of restoration ecology at the University of Montana in Missoula.  The attached article from Universtiy of Montana newspaper, The Kaiman, highlights some of her and her students' successes in UM’s wildland restoration program - which Cara coordinates. Restoration ecology is a growing activity in the west.  Wildlands CPR works with Cara and her graduate students on restoration research projects.

April 27, 2009    On Sunday, April 26, and again on Thursday night, April 30, Wildlands CPR's Development Director Tom Petersen was featured on the Montana Public Radio program, The Write Question, which "explores the world of writing and publishing in the western United States."

January 27, 2009   by Erik Hoffne, guest contributor in The Grist The Paiute ATV Trail, in central Utah's Fishlake National Forest, and adjacent BLM land comprise a network of roads and "motorized trails" that have been linked and promoted for off-road vehicle recreation by public lands agencies. The routes range from custom-designed ATV-only tracks to paved roads through small towns. The majority of the trail uses ordinary dirt roads on federal public lands, sharing them with general traffic.