It’s That Time Again… The 2025 Bears & Apples Season is Here! 🍎🐻

We’re excited to share that sign-up is officially open for this year’s Missoula Bears & Apples program! Whether you’re interested in volunteering, getting help removing fruit from your trees, or using harvested fruit so it doesn’t go to waste, we’d love to have you involved.

Please use the link below to fill out the form(s) that best match how you’d like to contribute. Every action helps reduce bear attractants and supports our local community!

CLICK THIS LINK to sign up or request help with your fruit!

Please feel free to share this link with anyone who might benefit from knowing about this program!

Thank you for being part of the solution, let’s help bears stay wild and free!

Speak Up for Grizzly Bears by May 16.

Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection for grizzly bears in the lower 48 states is yet again under threat. The good news is that US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has rejected petitions by the states of Montana and Wyoming to completely remove federal protections—otherwise known as delisting. But, a few days later, the Service announced a proposal to shrink the area of protected grizzly bear habitat and weaken ESA protections for grizzlies. You can find the proposed rule and associated documents here.

CLICK HERE TO COMMENT.

You have until May 16 at midnight EDT to submit your public comment in support of rigorous ESA protections for grizzly bears.

Your comment can be simple and direct, but it should include solid reasons to support ESA protections. Here are some key bullet points to include:

-I support continued protections for Lower 48 grizzly bears as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

-Grizzly bears should continue to be protected as one distinct population segment (DPS), rather than breaking them up into arbitrary subpopulations.

-Grizzly bears should be managed under the overarching goal of connecting their habitats, so they can successfully interbreed across the landscape, exchanging genetic material for resilience.

-USFWS should continue to protect all of the current core grizzly bear populations and suitable habitat surrounding and connecting those populations. A robust population in the Greater Salmon-Selway-Bitterroot region is critical to an interconnected grizzly bear population.

-I support the proposed rule’s emphasis on natural connectivity between core populations and the Selway-Bitterroot Ecosystem.

-USFWS should NOT strip ESA protections for grizzly bears that venture beyond the proposed Distinct Population Segment.

-USFWS should NOT allow a trophy hunt for Lower 48 grizzlies.

-USFWS should abandon the proposed 4(d) rule that would relax restrictions on killing grizzlies. Grizzly bears should not be killed on public lands for preying on livestock, and on private lands, all reasonable methods of non-lethal deterrents should be exhausted before a grizzly bear is killed for preying on livestock.

Thank you for taking action for grizzly bears!

Over the last several years, you’ve helped us defend the Chilkat Watershed from the threat of a dangerous sulfide mine being developed at its headwaters. The Chilkat Watershed is not only important brown (coastal grizzly) and black bear habitat, but also the most biologically diverse watershed in Alaska, unparalleled salmon habitat, and home to the communities of Klukwan and Haines. A mine in the upper watershed would threaten all of that with acid mine pollution that would require active water treatment forever—long after the mining companies have pulled up stakes.

Last week, American Pacific, the Canadian mining company that owns the Palmer Project under its subsidiary, Constantine Mining, announced that it is walking away from the project.

KHNS-FM News cited “local dynamics” as a major challenge to developing the mine. That means us. Whether you responded to one of our action alerts, shared our messaging on social media, made a donation, or sent us kind words of encouragement, you were part of running yet another international mining company off from the Chilkat Valley. Thank you.

Click here to read the KHNS-FM article.

This is not a permanent win, of course—we will still have to guard against potential buyers, make noise so they know we will not back down from protecting the Chilkat Watershed, and ultimately seek long-term protections under the leadership of the Chilkat Lingít—but this is something to celebrate. Last November, we succeeded in running off DOWA, the Japanese smelter company that financed the Palmer Project, and now we’ve given American Pacific the boot.

There will be no drilling program this summer. 2025 will go down as another year we have prevented the Palmer Project from advancing to underground exploration—a point of no return for acid mine pollution.

Thank you for your part in this victory! Something to celebrate!

We were so moved by the generosity of our supporters last week during our spring fundraiser. We know this is a time of economic uncertainty, and that makes us appreciate your support of our work all the more. This year, we increased our number of individual donors by 20 percent!

For a small, grassroots organization like ours, every donation matters, no matter the size.

If you missed out on our giving days, it’s not too late! You can still donate online or by check.

Click here to donate.

Petition Filed to Improve Protections for Lower 48 Grizzlies

Today, along with 14 other organizations, we filed a petition with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) to revise the 30-year-old Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan with the best available science and conservation practices.

Read all about it in The Missoula Current.

USFWS is considering removing Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from the Lower 48 grizzly bear populations, leaving the bears’ fate up to the states to manage. The governments of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming have adopted anti-carnivore policies, and state management could wipe out the gains we’ve made in grizzly bear conservation under the ESA over the last five decades. In contrast, our petition seeks to improve ESA protections so that grizzly populations may not only survive, but also thrive.

The Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan was put in place to guide management and recovery efforts after the Lower 48 grizzly populations were listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The plan designated “recovery zones” that set goals for isolated grizzly bear populations. But bear populations need to be connected to be healthy. Connectivity increases the genetic diversity of all populations, making them more resilient to stresses and environmental changes.

Our petition focuses on connecting grizzly bear populations and their habitats, while also implementing policies that reduce and prevent human-caused grizzly bear deaths.

Grizzly bears belong on this landscape. Updating the recovery plan provides guidance for durable, meaningful recovery of the Lower 48 grizzly populations, so that healthy populations can continue to thrive when it does become appropriate to remove Endangered Species Act protections.

We are grateful to the work of Earthjustice, Dr. Chris Servheen, and the 14 organizations we partnered with on this petition.

Click here to download the petition to USFWS

Big Victory for Alaska’s Chilkat Valley: Palmer Mine De-funded!
DOWA Divests from the Palmer Project

We have some amazing news from the Chilkat Valley in Southeast Alaska: DOWA—the Japanese smelter company that was funding the proposed Palmer Mine—has abandoned the project!

Read the CBC article here

The Palmer Project is a proposed multi-metals mine at the headwaters of the Chilkat Watershed, one of the most biologically diverse watersheds in all of Alaska, home to black and brown bears, the largest seasonal population of bald eagles, and the communities of Klukwan and Haines. If it were to advance to underground exploration, the Palmer Project would pollute the Chilkat Watershed with heavy metals and acid mine drainage forever. But thanks to your help, the project is de-funded.

Thanks to you, we and our partners have driven DOWA from the Chilkat Valley—a major win in our battle against this mine.

With your help, we’ve put tremendous pressure on DOWA—the company that until now owned the majority stake in the project and provided virtually all of the funding—to divest from the project. We’ve done this in the form of email alerts organizing supporters like you to contact DOWA asking them to divest, traditional and social media campaigns demonstrating significant opposition to the mine, public demonstrations in support of protecting the Chilkat, and organizing our supporters to participate in the public process to oppose permits for mine development.

We’ve been fighting to protect the Chilkat Valley from the Palmer Mine for years. And this good news provides some much-needed fuel for the hard work ahead. It’s time to celebrate this win.

But the fight isn’t over yet: American Pacific—the Canadian corporation operating the project—will continue to apply for permits and will spin this news as positive for them in a desperate attempt to attract new investors. We’ll have to be diligent in opposing those permits, standing up for the Chilkat Watershed, and broadcasting to potential investors that the Palmer Project is a bad investment.

Click here to support our work.

Your gift will help us shore up this win and protect the Chilkat Valley from mining impacts.