Welcome - to the Gallatin Wildlife Association's website.
We certainly hope you become more knowledgeable about GWA as you wander through the pages of our website. We are a small, but vocal non-profit organization located in Bozeman, Montana advocating for wildlife, their respective habitat, and migration corridors across southwestern Montana, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and the northern Rocky Mountains. We advocate for wildlife and fisheries by utilizing science and the law. GWA, founded in 1976, has long recognized the intense pressures on our wildlife from habitat loss and climate change, and we advocate for science-based management of public lands for diverse public values, including but not limited to hunting and angling.
To learn more about GWA, who we are, and what we've done: click here
Best Wishes for Joyous Holiday
and a New Year:
Change is all around us, making our life in the moment as fleeting as the shadow of a tree reflecting on freshly fallen bed of snow. As we come to the end of another year, each one of us have undergone change in some way. It is evitable. Often times, that change can be stressful to body and mind. The question is how can we make that change work toward a better world? This Holiday Season we wish each of you the best, we wish you a time for refreshing the soul, a time to renew your spirit, and a time to enjoy family and friends.
As we move forward in our struggle to give wildlife a voice, and let there be no doubt; it is a struggle. We know what it is like from what we've seen, from what we've heard, and from what we feel. Although our struggle still continues, the dream lives on. The Gallatin Wildlife Association needs you now more than ever. We can make that difference individually as well as cooperatively. We get to decide, many already have. but there is more to be done than any one of us can do individually. We know it is so much easier if we do it together, and this is why GWA would like you to join us in that effort for the new year.
Merry Christmas Everyone! Thank you for allowing us to come into your home with newsletters and emails, knowing often times it is not good news. But awareness is the beginning of that better change that we all hope for.
Sincerely We Thank you!
Clinton Nagel, President
Gallatin Wildlife Association
Will there be peace in
South Plateau?
The roar of chainsaws are now quiet, but the question is for how long. Perhaps that day is here, perhaps sooner than we think, but as we have learned, we can never give up on the faces of exploitation. Our recent court victory delayed the worst of tomorrow and that is a good reason to be thankful for this Holiday Season. Below is the draft Press Release from Western Environmental Law Center. It never did get released due to some agreement with Center for Biological Diversity, but it is here in its entirety and it provides you the information you need to summarize the victory we received on Dec. 11, 2025.
We should say that two camps filed suit over the South Plateau timber project. They were merged into one case, Center for Biological Diveristy was the lead Plaintiff in one case and GWA was the lead plaintiff in the other. This Press Release references the Plaintiffs of GWA and WildEarth Guardians. Native Ecosystems Council did not get mentioned but they were there. They share this victory as well. The plaintiffs in the other case were Center for Biological Diversity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Council on Wildlife and Fish.
NOTE: There is still a chance of appeal - time will tell what decision is to be made.
Court decision strikes down destructive clearcutting plan in grizzly and lynx country on Yellowstone’s doorstep
Contacts:
Matthew Bishop, Western Environmental Law Center, 406-324-8011, bishop@westernlaw.org
Adam Rissien, WildEarth Guardians, 406-370-3147, arissien@wildearthguardians.org
Clint Nagel, Gallatin Wildlife Association, 406-600-1792, clint_nagel@yahoo.com
Press Release of Dec. 11, 2025
Today, the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana issued an
order halting a massive logging and road-building project adjacent to Yellowstone National Park that would have threatened grizzly bear and Canada lynx recovery in the region and destroyed huge swaths of mature forests more than 80-90 years old. The court order vacates and remands the project’s environmental assessment and decision notice to two federal agencies for revision.
Conservation groups two years agochallenged the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for authorizing the South Plateau Landscape Area Treatment Project (SPLAT), which would have clearcut more than 5,500 acres (more than six square miles) and log another 6,600 acres of mature forests over the next approximately 15 years near West Yellowstone, Montana—a tourism hub and gateway to Yellowstone National Park. The project would also have constructed more than 56 miles of temporary roads.
The court held that the agencies’ use of “condition-based management” unlawfully deferred critical decisions—the siting of 56.8 miles of temporary roads—that are essential to evaluating impacts on grizzly bear secure habitat and Forest Plan standards. The judge also found that the agencies relied on flawed and unsupported assumptions in their Endangered Species Act analysis, including an unscientific definition of secure habitat and inadequate consideration of how road placement affects grizzly bear survival.
“This project proposed new clearcuts and more roads in an especially vulnerable and problematic area for Yellowstone grizzly bears and did so without specifying the location of the roads and without applying the best science on habitat needs of bears,” said
Matthew Bishop, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “By failing to inform the public about where over 58 miles of new roads would be located and arbitrarily defining secure habitat for grizzly bears as small as 10-acre patch sizes, the agencies played too fast and loose with the law and the science. The court got it right. This is an important win for grizzly bears and grizzly bear recovery in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.”
"This is a big win for grizzly bears. The court affirmed what we all know - Yellowstone bears need large areas of intact habitat to recover, said
Adam Rissien, ReWildling manager with WildEarth Guardians. "The federal agencies got it wrong when asserting that grizzlies only need 10-acre patches free from roads in an otherwise fragmented landscape. They need much more."
“We are glad the court is requiring these agencies to adhere to the best available and most recent science when it comes to grizzly bear management,” said
Clint Nagel, president of the Gallatin Wildlife Association. “This project would have worsened habitat fragmentation rather than aiding in bear habitat protection. Grizzly bear management must reflect true, on-the-ground conditions for secure habitat.”
Background:
On August 7, 2023 the Custer-Gallatin National Forest issued a final decision for its South Plateau Landscape Area Treatment Project (SPLAT) that authorized clearcutting on more than 5,500 acres (more than six square miles) and commercial logging of another 6,600 acres of mature forests near West Yellowstone, Montana. The project would have constructed 56.8 miles of temporary roads through old forests and removed more than 83 million board feet of commercial timber.
Logging and road construction would have taken place in critical habitat for Canada lynx and the Greater Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone. The Forest Service did not specify the location and timing of where the agency would log the forest and construct roads due to its use of conditions-based management, where the agency waits until after it issues a project decision to collect site-specific information.
There will be Peace in South Plateau, with your continued help!
Seems as if the Grey Wolf can't catch a break, not in this society. There have been two recent news stories on this species lately. Let's begin with the one that demands your attention, your energy, your involvment. You have probably heard by now that U.S. House Rep. Boebert of Colorado had her legislation (HR 845) voted on in the U.S. House to delist the grey wolf. Unfortunately this bill passed the House.
The legislation now moves to the U.S. Senate. We must defeat this in the U.S. Senate. If not, this legislation will go to the President's desk for signature, something which he most assuredly will do. Friends of GWA, we cannot let this happen. We urge each of you to contact our U.S. Senators and have them vote against this legislation.
U.S. Senator Steve Daines - Washington D.C. office: 202-224-2651
https://www.daines.senate.gov/services/email-steve/
U.S. Senator Tim Sheehy - Washington D.C. office: 202-224-2644
https://www.sheehy.senate.gov/contact/
The other wolf news is that GWA, Footloose, WildEarth Guardians and Project Coyote are in court litigating the accuracy of the IPOM Model, the model that the State of Montana is using to justify the population of wolves in the state of Montana and to justify the expansive killing spree that the state wishes to embark upon. Our four NGOs refute that model as being scientifically accurate to justify this killing spree of wolves. Do to the action of Montana's State Legislature and the required action of Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission, our organizations filed a Preliminary Injunction to stop the massive slaughter of 450+ wolves within the state of Montana. We just learned on Dec. 19 that the judge failed to grant us our PI, but he did give us the green light for our Constitutional claim.
Needless to say, this fight continues on. The link to the Press Release by WildEarth Guardians is below.
The Hyalite/South Cottonwood Hazardous Fuel Reduction Project -
Concern over the future of South Cottonwood Canyon continues as the U.S. Forest Service project lingers on in the hearts and minds of residents of Gallatin County. Many residents have been through this agony once, if not more.
We at GWA have already claimed one victory. We achieved the right to have a public open house on the issue. That has come and gone, but we've learned some valuable information, too much to go into detail in this format.
But we feel the Forest Service is listening, whether they can be responsive to the public's viewpoint is an unknown. A large part of this effort was the collection of 1000 signatures to make a claim to the Custer Gallatin National Forest that the people are watching. We feel that has already made a difference, as to how much, it is to soon to tell as the Environmental Assessment is still be carried out.
To sign on to our petition, click the link below and sign your name to be one of those with a voice to fight for wise management of our forest not based upon fear, demagoguery, or pressures from Washington D.C., but to have our forest be managed as a forest.
It's time to Protect the Hyalite Porcupine Buffalo-Horn Wilderness Study Area!
The Gallatin Wildlife Association has been in service to the community for 49 years, leaving next year as our 50th anniversary. In all that time, one of the most frustrating and incomplete tasks that lie before us is the lack of wilderness designation for the HPBH WSA.
There are many reasons for that frustration, politics has definitely been one, but now we are fighting the attempts of once fellow green NGOs who now want to take the easy way out and carve out pieces of this WSA and make those susceptible to mountain biking interests and other activities that will fragment an already endangered landscape.
This coalition known as the Gallatin Forest Partnership is determined to reduce the size and scope of the HPBH WSA by 40%. That 40% is invaluable for wildlife security and habitat. It will surely affect the ecological quality of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) as we know it.
Sign in the button box below if you would like to see this beautiful and critical wildlife habitat secure for all time. We will continue to gather signatures as necessary.
Montanans for Safe
Wildlife Protection: MSWP
Most of you should know, GWA has been involved with and are supporters of MSWP for several years now. Being as one representative on the MSWP Steering Committee, we try to propagate the energy and resources for wildlife infrastructure across the state of Montana.
Below is their most recent website:
Montanans for Safe Wildlife Passage
There is much to do in this realm of establishing wildlife connectivity across highways and railways, etc. Please help out in any way you are able.
Climate Forest Coalition:
Another alliance that GWA is participating in is that of the Climate Forest Coalition, an organization of likeminded NGOs across the country that are trying to change forest policy. We're trying to promote policies of protecting mature and old-growth forests in order to preserve biodiversity, ecological integrity and to use our forests as a mitigative approach fighting climate change by carbon sequestration. Here is their link:
https://www.climate-forests.org/
There is much material here for references and they have already testified before Congress.
We urge all members to follow this group and follow us as we try to incorporate their strategy into ours as appropriate.
GWA's First Ever Instagram Account
Thanks to Ben Churchwell for managing our Instagram page.
GWA's Podcast on KGVM -
Wildlife and Wilderness -
http://kgvm.org/program/wilderness-and-wildlife/
Wilderness and Wildlife, presented by the Gallatin Wildlife Association, features discussions of issues involving the wildlife of southwestern Montana, and the wilderness habitat that makes this area appealing to adventurous people from around the country. You'll hear interviews with wildlife experts and naturalists reporting on species they have studied, which are threatened by the pressures of a rapidly growing populace in the Greater Yellowstone Region.
For other shows presented, simply click the following.
The Gallatin Wildlife Association also produces the short Wildlife Capsules.
Thanks to John Shellenberger for taking the initiative to establish this mechanism of outreach for GWA and keeping at it for these past seven years. Also thanks to our new Communication Director for taking over a smooth transition for this operation.
To Contact Us, either contact us directly using this address or using the link button below.
Contact Details:
Gallatin Wildlife Association
P.O. Box 5317,
Bozeman, MT 59717
“To restore stability to our planet, therefore, we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing we have removed. It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves have created. We must rewild the world!”―David Attenborough