Who’s defending Caribou-Targhee?

Grand Targhee Resort asked to expand onto 866 acres of Caribou-Targhee National Forest on the quiet side of the Tetons. The Forest Service’s draft analysis found the project would take more than 500 acres of secure grizzly bear habitat and 200 acres of Canada lynx habitat, carving lifts and runs through a mule deer migration corridor and critical winter range. Public comments ran ten to one against it. In May 2026 the forest issued a draft decision trimmed to 694 acres, citing bighorn sheep and the loss of threatened whitebark pine, and approved it after the objection period closed. Wyoming Game and Fish, the state’s own wildlife agency, publicly urged the Forest Service to reverse the approval. The permit area now runs to roughly 3,000 acres.

1. 2021Grand Targhee submits master development plan to Forest Service
2. 2025Forest Service releases 600-page Draft Environmental Impact Statement
3. 2025Public comment period closes; comments run 10:1 against expansion
4. 2026Forest Service issues final EIS and draft decision, 694 acres, 45-day objection period opens
5. 2026Wyoming Game and Fish urges the Forest Service to reverse the approval
6. 2026Expansion approved, permit boundary grows by 694 acres

No public comment window is open on Caribou-Targhee 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.