UnderMining A Wilderness

Recognized by President Theodore Roosevelt for its outstanding scenic grandeur, the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in northwestern Montana is crowned by high peaks and dominated by moist coniferous forests. Home to grizzly bear, lynx, wolverine, fisher, mountain goat, bull trout, Westslope cutthroat trout, and harlequin duck, the Cabinet Mountains provide critical habitat and a major wildlife migration corridor.

The U.S. Forest Service is poised to permit an enormous mine that would be constructed beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area. The mine would generate 100 million tons of toxic mine waste and discharge millions of gallons of contaminated water every day into the historic Clark Fork River and Idaho's Lake Pend Oreille. The proposed mine threatens wilderness. water quality, wildlife, and fisheries.

MEIC has been working with a local organization called the Rock Creek Alliance to stop this mine, To learn more about this mine, check out the Rock Creek Alliance web site.

• In the News: Governor, groups: mine on Idaho, Montana border may drain lakes (By CHRISTOPHER SMITH, AP, 12/10/06)
  

• Read more about Sterling, the company behind this mine proposal.

• RECENT DEVELOPMENTS at the Rock Creek Mine (June 2006)
  

PHOTO CREDITS:
Top: The proposed Rock Creek mine threatens water quality and native fisheries in the Clark Fork River-Lake Pend Oreille watershed (photo by Douglas R. Day, Picture Tomorrow)
Bottom: The Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, crucial to the long-term recovery of grizzly bears and other wildlife, has been labeled one of the most endangered wild lands in the U.S. (photo by Douglas R. Day, Picture Tomorrow)