A Wyoming energy company says it needs to move natural gas through habitat used by grizzlies, lynx and sage grouse
A pipeline runs through it? The Forest Service calls the Caribou-Targhee National Forest “a world of wild beauty.” It takes in parts of southeastern Idaho, western Wyoming and northern Utah. File photo: USFS
By Kendra Chamberlain. May 29, 2025. At the far eastern reach of the Columbia River Basin, a Wyoming-based energy company has received approval from the U.S. Forest Service to pipe natural gas through 18 miles of national forest from Montpelier, Idaho, to the town of Afton, Wyo., and nearby Star Valley.
The construction would clearcut a 50-foot-wide right-of-way through Caribou-Targhee National Forest land, leaving behind a permanent, 20-foot utility corridor along the proposed route for maintenance of what would be an eight-inch-diameter, low-pressure pipeline.
The Crow Creek Pipeline’s path traverses six areas of the national forest designated as inventoried roadless areas (IRAs).
The Forest Service said in 2018 the project would impact six IRAs, but argued that it wouldn’t require building roads within those areas, though it would build “utility corridors” where none exist.
Area of proposed Crow Creek Pipeline. Map: Stantec Consulting Services
“Normally what happens when that occurs is other people drive on it,” Mike Garrity, executive director of the conservation nonprofit Alliance for the Wild Rockies, told Columbia Insight. “People like to drive on roads on national forest [land] and wildlife avoid roads because they associate roads with people. That’s one of the reasons roadless areas are so important.”
The route will travel through habitat of imperiled species such as greater sage grouse, grizzly bears, lynx and wolverine.
Greater sage grouse seems particularly vulnerable to the project, said Garrity. He said the proposal does not adhere to the national forest’s own greater sage grouse management plan, with construction coming too close to sage grouse leks.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, along with fellow conservation group Yellowstone to Uintas Connection, has filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service for approving the project.
The company behind the proposal, Lower Valley Energy (LVE), currently transports roughly 163 truckloads of natural gas per year the 140 miles from Opal to Afton in Wyoming. The company’s CEO, Jim Webb, said trucking the gas to customers is becoming too difficult as demand for gas has increased, and inclement weather becomes more common.
LVE wants to tie into an existing pipeline in Montpelier, Idaho, and build out the pipe across state lines to Afton. The pipeline would run 50 miles in total, with 18 of those miles traversing national forest land.
“We have just grown to the point that it is no longer feasible and we need reliability. If a road closes it has an effect,” Webb told the Star Valley Independent in 2023. “Once we get the pipeline in, we can get into other parts of the valley and grow.”
The Forest Service approved the project in 2019, but later pulled its decision after meeting with litigation. The agency reissued its approval in late 2024 after completing a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
