A team of scientists assembled by Wild Heritage, a project of Earth Island Institute, released new findings in the peer-reviewed journal Forests on the importance of Montana’s Yaak Valley, and more specifically, the Black Ram area, as having climate refuge properties that may buffer the region’s globally significant biodiversity from extreme climate changes.
The team poured through dozens of climate, vegetation, and wildlife datasets, including those from the federal government, to ascertain the area’s unique climate benefits as global overheating, extreme drought, and fast fires exert a heavier toll on the logged and roaded areas of the Northern Rockies in the coming decades.
According to lead author and Chief Scientist, Wild Heritage, Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala, “our study underscores the importance of protecting mature forests and intact watersheds from logging as they have the best chance of life-boating the region’s unique biodiversity as the surrounding logged and roaded areas heat up and burn faster in forest fires.”
Climate projections show extreme temperature increases, drought, reduced snowpack, and wildfires are likely to increase in the coming decades, the extent to which depends on global and regional emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and logging of forests.
Importantly, the study found that most Forest Service fuel treatments are taking place more than 1-km (0.67 miles) from the nearest structure—an approach that will do little to protect communities from increasing fire threats.
Dr. Kaia Africanis, co-author on the study, added, “Local communities are left to absorb the fallout while federal agencies double down on fire strategies that fail where it counts. Fire resilience means addressing real risk—starting with home hardening near communities, not logging remote backcountry under the false flag of safety.”
The Northern Rockies contain irreplaceable habitat for iconic species like grizzly bears, wolverine, great gray owls, and some of the highest concentrations of temperate rainforest lichens on Earth. The Yaak Valley’s intact watersheds, and specifically, the Black Ram older forests, have climate refuge properties needed for these species to survive extreme heating and drying if protected from logging.
The Yaak Valley Forest Council hailed the study for reaffirming the importance of the Black Ram area, which is currently threatened by Forest Service logging and road building.
Rick Bass, Executive Director of the Council, stated, “the Yaak Valley Forest Council has for years been seeking the protection of the Black Ram region—the wettest and most northwestern region—as a Climate Refuge. What few places like Black Ram that still exist should be protected and studied, not slashed and burned. They hold the key to our and so many other species’ future. It’s climate madness to keep clearcutting them.”
The study documented that protection levels of mature forests and intact watersheds are extremely low—less than 3% region-wide. This level of fragmentation is insufficient for wildlife to move in search of more hospitable conditions as the climate shifts.
Proposed legislation, such as the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) (S.1276), reintroduced in 2021 by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), would protect portions of the Yaak Valley and the greater Northern Rockies.
The scientists’ study demonstrates how NREPA and other forest protection strategies can move forward while also ensuring effective wildfire-risk reduction is in place for communities close to homes and that restoration is strategically targeted on already degraded forests that need help to recover from widespread logging.
Citation:
DellaSala, D.A., Africanis, K., Bass, R., Lamar, L., & Talberth, J. (2025). Identifying Climate Refugia in the Northern Rockies: A Case Study of the Yaak Valley, Montana. Forests, 16(5), 822.
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