Beartooth Proposed Wilderness

Beartooth Proposed Wilderness covers 16,837 acres of mountainous, montane country at the northern edge of the Shoshone National Forest, where the Beartooth Plateau spreads across the Wyoming–Montana border in Carbon and Park counties. The terrain is structured by the high plateau itself — a Precambrian tableland of bare granite, alpine meadow, and small lake basins — punctuated by Beartooth Butte and the cluster of summits called Quintuple Peaks. The hydrology is rated major: Beartooth Creek and its tributaries Laduala Creek and Chain Creek drain the plateau, and the area holds an exceptional density of named lakes — Emerald, Wall, Snow, Beauty, Grayling, Night, T, Native, Becker, Echo, Twin, Little Moose, Snyder, Mirror, Heart, and Crane lakes — each set in a glaciated cirque or kettle. Remnant Glacier and Ice Field surfaces persist at the highest elevations.

Forest community types are layered tightly by elevation. Lower slopes carry Central Rockies Douglas-fir Forest and Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe with big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata). Above this, Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest holds lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and grouseberry (Vaccinium scoparium). At higher elevations, Rocky Mountain Dry Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest and Wet Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest with Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) give way to Northern Rockies Subalpine Woodland and Parkland and Rocky Mountain Limber and Bristlecone Pine Woodland, where whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) and limber pine (Pinus flexilis) anchor the ridges. The plateau itself carries Rocky Mountain Alpine Meadow, Rocky Mountain Alpine Dwarf-Shrubland, and Rocky Mountain Alpine Rocky Terrain, with moss campion (Silene acaulis), alpine forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris), Ross' avens (Geum rossii), purple mountain saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia), and dwarf clover (Trifolium nanum). Streamside Rocky Mountain Subalpine Streamside Woodland and Shrubland with Arctic willow (Salix arctica) and snow willow (Salix nivalis) trace the creeks.

Rocky Mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) and bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) work the crags and ridge faces. American pika (Ochotona princeps) inhabits the talus, calling among the rocky terrain. Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), North American wolverine (Gulo gulo luscus), and brown bear (Ursus arctos) move through the plateau and the surrounding spruce-fir. Black rosy-finch (Leucosticte atrata, IUCN endangered) and gray-crowned rosy-finch (Leucosticte tephrocotis) hold the alpine; Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) caches whitebark pine seeds in the high stands — a mutualism essential for that woodland's persistence. Cassin's finch (Haemorhous cassinii) works the conifer canopy below, and Pacific marten (Martes caurina, IUCN apparently secure) hunts the timber. American pipit (Anthus rubescens) nests on the alpine tundra; horned lark (Eremophila alpestris) holds the meadow edges. In the cold lakes, Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus), Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus virginalis), and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) hold. Watermelon snow (Chlamydomonas nivalis, vulnerable in IUCN terms) tints the ice fields. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

A walk onto the Beartooth Plateau breaks out of timber into a country of bare rock, low cushion plants, and small lakes set in glaciated rock. Beartooth Butte rises distinctively to the northwest. Around Emerald Lake or Becker Lake, the wind is constant and the air is thin; the sound is moving water, calling pika, and the wind across stone.

The Beartooth Plateau, where the 16,837-acre Beartooth Proposed Wilderness Inventoried Roadless Area sits at the northern edge of the Shoshone National Forest, has been used by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Recent discoveries show ancient peoples lived in the mountains of what's now northwest Wyoming, probably in significant numbers, and some or many of these people were most likely ancestors of today's Shoshone [1]. The Mountain Shoshone — often called Sheepeaters, or Tukudeka in the Shoshone language — hunted bighorn sheep in the mountains along with deer, elk, and many smaller mammals, and gathered a large variety of plants for food or medicine [1]. In prehistoric times, there may have been many Mountain Shoshone, as evidenced by dense assemblages of projectile points and other tools found high in the Absaroka Range of northwest Wyoming, with whole villages — including the remains of wickiups — discovered above 10,000 feet elevation in the Wind River Mountains [1]. The Mountain Shoshone manufactured powerful bows from the horns of mountain sheep, tailored clothing from sheepskin, and worked soapstone into bowls, pipes, and small carvings [1]. The Beartooth Plateau itself was within historic Crow territory: long before the Absaroka-Beartooths became a wilderness and before Yellowstone was called "wonderland," they were home ground to the Crow [3].

European-American activity reshaped the region in stages. The fur trade and subsequent exploration brought trappers including Jim Bridger and the Sublette Brothers into the Absaroka country [2]. In 1882 the government substantially shrank the reservation, opening much of the Beartooth Mountains to mining [2]. Very soon, prospectors had located mineral deposits in the high country adjacent to Yellowstone. The New World Mining District, located in the general vicinity of Cooke City, Montana in the Beartooth Mountains, became a historic metals mining district producing gold, silver, and copper [4]. On the Wyoming side, the Beartooth Plateau saw prospecting activity that left evidence of early mining still enduring in isolated pockets — searchers can still find cabin ruins, tailings, and a few crumbling tunnels [2].

Federal protection followed quickly. The Shoshone National Forest was set aside by proclamation of President Benjamin Harrison as the Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve on March 30, 1891 — the first national forest in the nation [5]. In May of 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt added an additional 5 million acres to the Forest Reserve system in northwest Wyoming and southwest Montana, with the Yellowstone Forest Reserve divided into four divisions, including the Absaroka Division to the north of Yellowstone [5]. On July 1, 1908, the lands included within the original Yellowstone National Forest were divided among the Absaroka, Beartooth (now Custer), Shoshone, and other national forests [5]. The Beartooth name carried forward in the Custer-Gallatin to the north, while the Beartooth Plateau within Wyoming became part of the Shoshone National Forest. The Civilian Conservation Corps worked the Shoshone during the Depression; today, the Beartooth Proposed Wilderness sits within the Clarks Fork Ranger District in Carbon and Park counties, protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule and proposed for formal wilderness designation.

Vital Resources Protected

• Alpine Lake and Headwater Integrity. The roadless condition of the Beartooth Proposed Wilderness's 16,837 acres preserves the hydrologically significant network of Beartooth Creek, Laduala Creek, Chain Creek, and the dense complex of glaciated alpine lakes — Emerald, Wall, Snow, Beauty, Grayling, Night, T, Native, Becker, Echo, Twin, Little Moose, Snyder, Mirror, Heart, and Crane lakes. These cold, clear waters depend on undisturbed catchments to maintain the water quality and temperature regime that Arctic grayling and Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout require, and the area's remnant glacier and ice fields are themselves climate refugia whose surrounding watershed function is most vulnerable to fragmentation.

• Climate Refugia and the Whitebark Pine Mutualism. The high plateau holds Rocky Mountain Alpine Dwarf-Shrubland, Rocky Mountain Alpine Meadow, Rocky Mountain Alpine Rocky Terrain, and Rocky Mountain Limber and Bristlecone Pine Woodland — habitats that function as climate refugia for cold-adapted species including American pika, black rosy-finch (IUCN endangered), and Pacific marten. The roadless state preserves the unfragmented canopy of whitebark pine across which Clark's nutcracker disperses seed; this mutualism is the regeneration mechanism for whitebark pine, an IUCN-endangered tree already under pressure from white pine blister rust.

• Large Carnivore and Mountain Ungulate Habitat. The plateau and its surrounding spruce-fir forest provide the unbroken country that grizzly bear, Canada lynx, and North American wolverine require for seasonal movement, denning, and foraging. Bighorn sheep and Rocky Mountain goat work the crags and ridge faces — habitat whose value depends entirely on the absence of motorized access that would otherwise displace ungulates from secure escape terrain.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Disruption of Alpine and Glacier-Fed Hydrology. Road construction across the Beartooth Plateau would alter snow accumulation patterns, meltwater timing, and surface runoff into the dense lake basin network. Cut slopes deliver chronic sediment into the cold lake systems, smothering spawning substrate for Arctic grayling and cutthroat trout, and even unpaved corridors raise summer water temperatures by removing the canopy and ground-shading vegetation that the small streams between lakes depend on. Once the glacier-fed hydrology is altered, the effects propagate downstream through every lake in the chain.

• Loss of Whitebark Pine and Limber Pine Stand Integrity. Cutting a road grade through Northern Rockies Subalpine Woodland and Parkland and Rocky Mountain Limber and Bristlecone Pine Woodland opens the canopy along an edge and creates conditions under which white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle, and other pathogens can move into otherwise isolated stands. Whitebark pine recovery is measured in centuries given its slow growth, late reproductive maturity, and dependence on Clark's nutcracker seed caching across an unbroken canopy — and the bird itself caches less reliably along disturbed edges.

• Carnivore Mortality and Ungulate Displacement. Roads function as both physical barriers and behavioral filters for grizzly bear, Canada lynx, and wolverine: increased human access raises mortality risk, and even unpaved corridors disrupt the seasonal movements that these wide-ranging species depend on. For bighorn sheep and Rocky Mountain goat, motorized access into escape terrain displaces animals from secure habitat, and once that displacement pattern is established, it persists as long as the corridor remains. The alpine zone is small relative to lower-elevation habitats; a single road grade can compromise habitat function across a disproportionate share of the area.

Beartooth Proposed Wilderness covers 16,837 acres of mountainous, montane country on the Clarks Fork Ranger District of the Shoshone National Forest, set on the Beartooth Plateau at the northern edge of the forest. Access is from the Line Creek Plateau and Glacier Lake trailheads, with Island Lake and Beartooth Lake campgrounds providing developed front-country bases along the Beartooth Highway. The area sits at the southern edge of the broader Beartooth Plateau lake country and is one of the densest concentrations of named alpine lakes on the Shoshone.

The trail network gives substantial access onto the plateau. The Beartooth High Lakes Trail (620) is the longest single route at 9.2 miles, traversing the lake basins and connecting many of the named waters. Crazy Creek Trail (568) at 5.1 miles and the Tolman Mountain Trail (613.1C) at 5.0 miles run the longer ridge approaches. The Beartooth Loop/Little Rock Creek Trail (613.1B) covers 4.0 miles; the Green Lake Trail (619) at 3.4 miles and the Beartooth Creek Trail (619) at 2.7 miles work into the eastern drainages. Clay Butte Trail (614) covers 2.9 miles, Beauty Lake Trail (621) and Lost Lake Trail (617) each cover 2.4 miles, Glacier Lake Trail (3) covers 2.2 miles, the Lost Lake Cut-across Trail (631) at 1.3 miles, and the Twin Lakes Trail (625) at 0.8 miles complete the network. Most are designated for horse use; Glacier Lake and Green Lake are also designated for hiker use. Combined, the system offers roughly forty miles of trail in the lake basin and ridge country.

Fishing is a primary use: the area holds an exceptional density of named cold-water lakes — Emerald, Wall, Snow, Beauty, Grayling, Night, T, Native, Becker, Echo, Twin, Little Moose, Snyder, Mirror, Heart, and Crane lakes — along with Beartooth Creek, Laduala Creek, and Chain Creek. Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus), Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus virginalis), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), and lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) are documented in these waters. The lake-to-lake trail system gives walk-in and stock-supported fishing trips a logistical structure not found on most of the forest.

Hunting is supported across the elevational gradient. Wapiti (Cervus canadensis), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), moose (Alces alces), bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), and Rocky Mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) all occupy distinct strata from the lower spruce-fir into the alpine. Dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) and ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) hold the conifer-aspen mosaic. Large carnivores include grizzly bear, American black bear, brown bear, and Canada lynx, which means food storage and bear awareness are required for backcountry camps.

Birding is concentrated at 10 eBird hotspots within 24 km of the area: Beartooth Hwy–Beartooth Pass at 102 species across 353 checklists is the most active, with Rock Creek Vista, Beartooth Plateau (MT), and Beartooth Lake & Campground close behind. The trail system carries birders from spruce-fir holding red-breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis), Canada jay (Perisoreus canadensis), and pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator) into the alpine, where black rosy-finch and gray-crowned rosy-finch hold the talus and rock faces, American pipit nests on the tundra, and horned lark works the open meadow edges. Clark's nutcracker caches whitebark pine seeds at the upper timberline.

Wildflower photography is well supported in season: skyy pilot (Polemonium viscosum), moss campion, alpine forget-me-not, purple mountain saxifrage, and many cushion plants hold the alpine; whitebark pine and limber pine anchor the ridges. Every documented use of the area — the lake-to-lake fishing, the hunting from the high meadows, the bird transects from spruce-fir into the alpine, the photography of the cushion-plant assemblages — depends on the unroaded plateau between the Beartooth Highway and the Wyoming–Montana line.