Room to Roam
The Great Burn and surrounding roadless areas contain high-quality habitat for many wildlife species that need tracts of continuous wildlands—what scientists call ‘large intact blocks’—to survive. Rocky Mountain elk, mountain goat, whitetail and mule deer, gray wolf, cougar, and black bear are notable large species.
Open hillsides left by a history of fire offer extraordinary habitat for elk. The legendary Clearwater herd, widely known for its abundance of trophy bulls, relies on the Great Burn area for summer range.
A place for recovery
Lynx, fishers, wolverines, marten, and native fish whose habitat is rapidly disappearing elsewhere also flourish here. Dozens of other important animal and plant species are found throughout the Great Burn.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has found that the Great Burn and surrounding roadless lands are prime grizzly bear recovery habitat. Recent sightings confirm that grizzly bears are already traveling through the area en route to the Bitterroot Ecosystem Recovery Zone.
Free flowing habitat
The Great Burn is home to forty free-flowing river segments, including nine designated or recommended Wild and Scenic Rivers. The rivers of the Great Burn drain into the Snake and Clark Fork Rivers en route to the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean.
These pristine waters are critical habitat for threatened native bull trout and contain some of the last remaining populations of genetically pure westslope cutthroat trout.
kidding around
The Great Burn is also home to two native herds of mountain goats, one of which spends its summers on the cliffs above Heart Lake. You can help us keep goats and visitors safe by becoming a Heart Lake Ambassador.