Forest Service to authorize livestock in grizzly habitat on grazing leases already bought out for conservation purposes in Wyoming

The Trump Administration is trying to open up four former sheep grazing allotments on the Bridger-Teton National Forest for what they are calling “fire mitigation.” The problem is, these allotments – Elk Ridge, Lime Creek, Rock Creek, and Tosi Creek – have been recovering from livestock use for the last ten years after being administratively retired and bought out by private funding from the Sagebrush Habitat Conservation Fund and other conservation interests. These allotments are important habitat for bighorn sheep and domestic sheep grazing was removed in part to reduce the risk of disease transmission, but they also have a long history of livestock conflict with grizzly bears and wolves. For the last ten years, wildlife have been able to occupy these 30,500 acres of prime habitat without the risk of preying on privately-owned livestock, but that’s all about to change if the Forest Service gets its way in the middle of August.

The issue is that the agency made the decision to turn out up to 650 cattle on these allotments between August 15 and October 15, 2026. They made this decision without completing an environmental analysis of the consequences of shifting to cattle use and initiating grazing on allotments that have been free from the impacts of livestock for a decade. This matters to the grizzlies with territories here, to the wolves, the trout, the boreal chorus frogs, the western toads, Canada lynx, North American wolverine, yellow-billed cuckoo, monarch butterfly, Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bee and to the watershed.

The Forest Service’s rationale is that they need to offset the forage use from the allotments impacted by the Dollar Lake Fire. But there are programs - namely, the Livestock Forage Disaster Program – that can buy feed for ranchers displaced by fire. In fact, some ranchers in Sublette County are already recipients of these funds for the Dollar Lake fire…. So what’s the rush to put cows in in grizzly and wolf habitat?

The answer is that the Trump Administration has effectively pledged to extract every dollar from public lands and put it into the pockets of their cronies. To buy hay for these 650 cows for two months could cost upwards of $100,000 and letting them graze for $1.69 per AUM equates to only $2,197.00, saving the ranchers a pretty penny.

But it’s more than just giving away public resources to ranchers, virtually for free – it’s the philosophy of the Forest Service (and the Bureau of Land Management) under this Administration’s grazing agenda to get cows on every acre, everywhere, at all times. The Bridger Teton National Forest is opening the Elk Ridge Complex allotments because of the directives from the White House. It’s an assertion of dominance, a reestablishment of the control by the livestock industry on public lands. It’s a standoff between the taxpayer-funded cowboy hats and anyone else who might care about national forests for other reasons.

The animals, plants, and ecological functions of these four allotments are being sold out for the sake of that pissing match.

Image 1: Burned conifer trees in the Upper Green allotment following the Dollar Lake fire in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. (Photo: Signorelli/WWP)

Image 2: Burned mosaics of vegetation from the Dollar Lake fire in the Upper Green allotment of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.(Photo: Signorelli/WWP)

Image 3: Scenery of the Upper Green River in the Upper Green allotment of the Bridger-Teton National Forest from October 2025. (Photo: Signorelli/WWP)

Image 4: Intact lowland vegetation in the Bridger-Teton National Forest Upper Green grazing allotment directly after the 2025 Dollar Lake fire. (Photo: Signorelli/WWP)

Image 5: Cattle feces on crucial yearlong elk habitat (designated by Wyoming Game and Fish Department) on the Upper Green allotment directly following the 2025 Dollar Lake Fire on the Bridger-Teton National Forest.(Photo: Signorelli/WWP)

Image 6: Cattle feces on crucial yearlong elk habitat (designated by Wyoming Game and Fish Department) directly following the 2025 Dollar Lake Fire on the Bridger-Teton National Forest. (Photo: Signorelli/WWP)