Tom Miner Basin Grizzly Corridor Dashboard — Yellowstone Boundary & ESA Rule Tracker

2026 ESA "Harm" Rescission

On July 14, 2026 the Fish & Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries finalized a rule removing the regulatory definition of "harm" from the Endangered Species Act — the definition that had treated habitat modification as prohibited "take." The rule takes effect September 14, 2026.

Show zones no longer restricted for habitat modification

Federal Section 7 consultation, jeopardy analysis, and critical-habitat protections are unchanged — the shift applies mainly to non-federal land where habitat modification alone no longer triggers Section 9 take liability. (DOI, NYT)

Nearby: Bear Palmer Logging Project

About 20 km east of Tom Miner Basin, the Forest Service is developing a 4,401-acre commercial logging & prescribed-fire project across the Eagle Creek, Bear Creek, Palmer Creek, and Crevice Creek drainages north of Gardiner — directly on Yellowstone's northern border. It was fast-tracked under an IIJA §40807 emergency determination, which carries no administrative appeal or objection process.

796 ac

inside the North Absaroka Inventoried Roadless Area

16.9 mi

of roads used, 7.7 mi newly built

Show project area on map Approximate boundary — see methodology

Comment period closed June 1, 2026; decision estimated fall 2026–spring 2027. Opponents cite grizzly secure-habitat loss, Canada lynx critical habitat, and no confirmed ESA Section 7 consultation. (Bear Creek Council, USFS project page, MTPR)

Map Layers

Yellowstone National Park boundary Greater Yellowstone grizzly recovery zone Tom Miner–Gallatin connectivity corridor (illustrative)

Land ownership

Federal (NPS / USFS / BLM) State & county managed Private / unmapped inholdings

Nearby developments

Bear Palmer logging project (proposed, approximate)

Reading the map

Yellowstone National Park (legislated boundary)
Federally designated grizzly recovery zone
Illustrative movement corridor
Federal land — Section 7 protections unchanged
Non-federal land — habitat modification alone no longer restricted
Bear Palmer logging project — proposed treatment area (approximate)

Data sources & methodology

What's authoritative vs. illustrative

Authoritative (official GIS data): Yellowstone boundary (NPS Land Resources Division), the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear recovery zone (USFWS / Montana FWP), and land ownership parcels (USGS Protected Areas Database of the U.S., PAD-US).

Illustrative: the Tom Miner–Gallatin connectivity corridor is a generalized representation drawn from published conservation research and land-designation proposals — it is not derived from live GPS-collar telemetry. Individual grizzly location data is not publicly released, to protect bears from poaching and conflict. The Bear Palmer logging project boundary is likewise hand-approximated from public project descriptions (creek drainages, acreage, proximity to Jardine, MT) — the Forest Service's public NEPA project-boundary service (EDW_ActivityProjectAreas_01) does not yet list this project, and no official shapefile/GeoJSON was found on public pages at time of publication.

Live map · click any shaded area for details