STANDfor Public Landsby More Than Just Parks
Stand · Find your defenders

Who’s defending Bitterroot?

4 groups on the record for it

National forest in Montana, 1.59M acres, managed by the U.S. Forest Service, designated in 1897.

The groups

Who’s in the fight for Bitterroot

Every group here is listed for a sourced fact, and each fact opens its source. Give directly; no gift routes through this site.

Local 2

Headquartered in Montana, or Bitterroot named in the mission on its latest 990.

Your group works here? Add it. Send the page on your group’s own site that says it works on Bitterroot. A person on the desk reads it before anything lists.

The situation

What’s happening to Bitterroot

Steep mountain walls rise from the Bitterroot River to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, where the northern Rockies begin in earnest. Now a Salt Lake City company wants to tunnel into Sheep Creek, a Bitterroot River headwater near Darby, to extract rare earth elements. Over 650 Ravalli County residents packed a commission meeting to oppose the mine. The Forest Service rescinded the initial plan on March 27, but the company is expected to submit a scaled-back proposal.

  1. 1897Established as forest reserve
  2. 2025US Critical Materials submits rare earth mining plan for Sheep Creek
  3. 2026Forest Service rescinds initial mining plan after public opposition
Rare earth mining proposed in Sheep Creek headwaters

Source: Bitterroot Star · March 27, 2026

No public comment window is open on Bitterroot right now. A call script is ready on the Public Lands Action Network, and the groups above are how the fight gets funded and argued in the meantime.

In the courts

The cases over this place

The dockets we track that name Bitterroot directly. Active first.

ClosedFriends of the Bitterroot v. HaalandMTD · filed 2024 · Docket ↗
ClosedFlathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force v. United States Fish and Wildlife ServiceMTD · filed 2020 · Docket ↗
ClosedWildEarth Guardians v. Montana Snowmobile Ass’nNinth Circuit · filed 2012 · Docket ↗
ClosedBitterroot Ridge Runners Snowmobile Club v. U.S. Forest Serv.MTD · Docket ↗

Your move

How to stand for Bitterroot

GiveGive to Five Valleys Land Trust

Straight to their own donation page. Your dollar never passes through us.

Their donation page ↗SpeakCall your representatives

A ready call script on Bitterroot, plus any comment window as it opens.

Public Lands Action NetworkFollowWatch the map

Every threatened place in the country, tracked, with who stands for each.

Threatened Lands Map

Build my lineup around Bitterroot: a group in the fight here opens it, and the other seats are the matchmaker’s picks.

Bitterroot has defenders. It needs more.

2 local groups, 2 more in the fight, Five Valleys Land Trust with 17 staff + 1,240 volunteers. That is who is holding it. Find your way in.

Give to Five Valleys Land Trust ↗Every place, state and species
Sources and methodThe situation, timeline, and threats: the MTJP threatened-lands record for Bitterroot, with per-item sources. Court cases: CourtListener dockets in the MTJP litigation database (4 naming this place). Group crews and program ratios: IRS Form 990 via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, latest filed year, EINs on each group’s profile. Which groups are listed for this place: a group is listed only under a sourced fact, and each chip opens its source. Local means headquartered in the state (the group’s own site, else the legal domicile on its 990) or the place named in its mission on its latest 990. In the fight means a case over the place naming it (the court docket), its own comment on a decision about the place (regulations.gov), an editors’ link with its source or its own page approved by a person here, or events on its own calendar held at the place. No fact, no listing. Org-reported figures are always labeled. Data verified as of 2026-11-01. No group pays to be listed on this page or for where it sits.