<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><span style="color:black"><font face="arial, sans-serif" style="">For Release: Friday, October 24, 2025<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4"><b><span style="color:black">Federal judge overturns Forest Service plan to poison
Buffalo Creek in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><i><span style="color:black"><font size="4">Court rules in favor of Wilderness Watch, strikes
down Forest Service poisoning plan in Buffalo Creek watershed near Yellowstone</font><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><span style="color:black"><font face="arial, sans-serif">MISSOULA, MT \u2014 In a landmark ruling for
wilderness protection, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy <a href="https://wildernesswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Molloy_Buffalo_Creek_Order_10_23_2025.pdf" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">granted
summary judgment</a> in favor of Wilderness Watch and vacated the Forest
Service\u2019s approval of a plan to poison more than 45 miles of Buffalo Creek in
the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness at the behest of Montana Fish Wildlife and
Parks (FWP). <br>
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Molloy found the project violated the Wilderness Act on several grounds and,
\u201c[u]nlike other resource management statutes, the Wilderness Act is not merely
a procedural checklist or a delegation of discretion to a managing agency to
weigh competing uses; the Wilderness Act mandates the preservation of
wilderness character.\u201d <br>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><span style="color:black"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Styled as an effort to expand Yellowstone
cutthroat trout populations, <a href="https://wildernesswatch.org/poison-has-no-place-in-the-absaroka-beartooth-wilderness/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">the
project</a> would have involved a decade\u2019s worth of helicopter landings plus
the use of other motorized equipment to poison and kill fish, amphibians, and
insects in numerous lakes, ponds, and wetlands and nearly fifty miles of
high-mountain wilderness streams. After the watershed was poisoned with the
toxic chemical rotenone, FWP planned to stock the naturally fishless streams
and lakes with cutthroat trout.</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><span style="color:black"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Molloy rejected the Forests Service\u2019s claims
that the project would restore natural conditions in the Wilderness, pointing
out that because the watershed was naturally fishless, \u201cthe wilderness neither
depended on Yellowstone cutthroat trout for ecological balance nor contributed
them to the watershed as a whole. As a result, conserving them serves no
wilderness purpose.\u201d<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><span style="color:black"><font face="arial, sans-serif">\u201cThis is one of the most important rulings for
protecting the integrity of the Wilderness Act in the law\u2019s 60-year history,\u201d
said Wilderness Watch executive director, George Nickas. \u201cThe idea that
managers can substitute their desired conditions for what Nature provides in
these wild places threatens to destroy the profound values that set Wilderness
areas apart. Judge Molloy\u2019s thoroughly reasoned Order spells out precisely
why the agency\u2019s misguided aims are fundamentally at odds with the law. Every
manager who oversees Wilderness needs to read and understand it.\u201d</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><span style="color:black"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Judge Molloy\u2019s ruling clarifies how the Act must
be applied: \u201cthe Wilderness Act mandates the managing agency \u2018preserve
wilderness character\u2019 even if it acts to further other enumerated purposes.\u201d
Echoing other decisions in the Ninth Circuit, the court noted, \u201cwhen there is a
conflict between maintaining the primitive character of the area and between
any other use, the general policy of maintaining the primitive character must
be supreme.\u201d</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><span style="color:black"><font face="arial, sans-serif">\u201cThis ruling reaffirms that Wilderness wasn\u2019t
designated by Congress to serve as a staging area for agency manipulation,\u201d
said Wilderness Watch staff attorney Dan Brister. \u201cThe court recognized what
the Act requires\u2014wilderness areas must remain self-willed.\u201d </font></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">\u201cWith rapidly mounting pressures on our most
protected landscapes, Judge Molloy\u2019s opinion marks an essential line in the
sand for Wilderness,\u201d said Dana Johnson, attorney and Policy Director for
Wilderness Watch. \u201cIn Wilderness, restraint is a core statutory
imperative.\u201d<br>
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A copy of Judge Molloy\u2019s Order is available here:<br>
<a href="https://wildernesswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Molloy_Buffalo_Creek_Order_10_23_2025.pdf" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">https://wildernesswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Molloy_Buffalo_Creek_Order_10_23_2025.pdf</a></span></font></p>
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<a href="https://wildernesswatch.org/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">Wilderness Watch</a>, headquartered in
Missoula, Montana, is the leading national organization whose sole focus is the
preservation and proper stewardship of lands and rivers included in the
National Wilderness Preservation System.<br>
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<b><span style="color:black">Contact:</span></b><span style="color:black"> <br>
George Nickas, Executive Director, Wilderness Watch, 406-531-2355, <a href="mailto:gnickas@wildernesswatch.org" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">gnickas@wildernesswatch.org</a></span></font></p>
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