For Immediate Release, October 21, 2025

• Contact: Patrick Kelly, Western Watersheds Project, (208) 576-4314, patrick@westernwatersheds.org
• Tim Coleman, Kettle Range Conservation Group, (509) 775-2667, tcoleman@kettlerange.org
• Chris Krupp, WildEarth Guardians, (206) 417-6363, ckrupp@wildearthguardians.org

Conservationists Sue Colville National Forest for Allowing Livestock Grazing on Lands It Deemed Unsuitable

SPOKANE, Wash.—Yesterday, Western Watersheds Project, Kettle Range Conservation Group, and WildEarth Guardians sued the U.S. Forest Service over permitting livestock grazing on huge swaths of the Colville National Forest that the agency itself had determined to be incapable of, or unsuitable for, sustaining livestock. The complaint alleges that ongoing livestock operations threaten the habitats of wolves, Canada lynx, grizzly bears, bull trout, and other wildlife, as well as impairing streams and meadows and harming recreational use.

As it was evaluating proposed revisions to the Colville Forest Plan, the Forest Service determined that nearly 70 percent of the land then in the Colville National Forest’s livestock grazing allotments was not suitable to support this use. However, it wholly ignored those findings when it issued the revised forest plan in 2019, instead choosing to disregard its own science and continue permitting livestock grazing at damaging and unacceptable levels across the Forest.

“Despite knowing that livestock grazing is unsuitable for the majority of acres on the Colville National Forest, the agency continues to permit this damaging form of resource extraction on the public lands it manages,” said Patrick Kelly, Washington and Montana Director for Western Watersheds Project. “The impacts to wildlife  especially to wolves and sensitive fish species are unacceptable and the Colville must follow its own scientific analysis and reduce or eliminate livestock grazing from areas where it does not belong.”

The Forest Plan is the blueprint for how the Colville National Forest will be managed for at least fifteen years. By law, the Forest Service can permit grazing or other authorized uses on the forest only if accurate scientific information supports that use. Here, the Forest Service failed to provide adequate data to support allowing livestock grazing on the majority of existing allotments. In fact the limited data it presented should have necessarily led to greatly restricting grazing on the forest. For example, the Forest Service’s analysis found that more than half of the area within existing grazing allotments provided little to no forage for livestock and another 25 percent of allotment area provided only “some” forage. Other data showed that the ecological condition of the allotments across the Forest was declining.

“The Forest Service acknowledges that three-fourths of the Colville National Forest is either incapable of supporting livestock or unsuitable for grazing, but it’s disregarding that finding to appease local ranchers and maintain the status quo,” said Chris Krupp, a public lands attorney for WildEarth Guardians. “We’ve sued because the Forest Service has prioritized the private interests of a favored industry over the interests of the public.”

The Colville National Forest spans 1.1 million acres of densely timbered, rugged terrain, including old-growth forests and peaks rising to 7,000 feet in northeast Washington.  The Forest includes many sensitive riparian (streamside) habitats, including dozens of lakes, and countless rivers, creeks, streams and springs. These moist areas support essential habitat for a diverse variety of fish, wildlife, and plant species, including many species that are either listed or candidates for listing at the federal and/or state level as endangered and threatened.

“The Kettle River Range is rugged wilderness, with few small meadows flanked by dense forest, steep rocky terrain, that is excellent wildlife habitat and a fantastic place for people to reconnect with nature,” said Timothy Coleman, executive director of the Kettle Range Conservation Group.  This is a terrible place to graze cattle, however. It is a contradiction of the Forest Service mission “caring for the land and serving the people,” to lease 66% of the 1.1 million acre Colville National Forest for unsupervised cattle grazing to the ranching industry for less per month than it costs for a cup of coffee.”

The lawsuit claims that the agency’s failure to change livestock grazing management on the Forest will continue to cause significant ecological damage, destroy valuable habitat, decrease the value of the Forest for recreational uses, and lead to continued killing of wolves and other wildlife for conflicts with cattle.

Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, and Kettle Range Conservation Group are represented in this litigation by attorneys from Animal & Earth Advocates and WildEarth Guardians.

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