Mining Action Alert

Action Alert: Act Now to Stop the Nickel Strip Mine!

Help stop nickel strip mines in the wild and scenic Smith River ecosystem. Making your voice heard by submitting a comment during this critical public comment period, which ends September 28, 2015.

Wild Rivers or Wasteland?

The Southwestern corner of Oregon contains the headwaters of the premier wild rivers in the West.  Alive with salmon, with water sparkling like emeralds as it flows through forested canyons to the ocean, these rivers are important fish and wildlife habitat and provide life sustaining clean drinking water that local communities depend on.

But mining companies want to excavate a series of nickel strip mines in the pristine tributaries of the Wild and Scenic Smith and Illinois Rivers in the heart of California and Oregon’s much loved Wild Rivers Coast. And they want to mine in the coastal streams of Hunter Creek and Pistol River. These devastating proposals would turn these wild and pristine watersheds into a wasteland of haul roads, ore smelters, and piles of toxic mining waste.

The Obama Administration is considering protection for roughly 100,000 acres of public land by withdrawing the land from mining for five years while Congress considers legislation—The Southwest Oregon Watershed and Salmon Protection Act—for more lasting protection. The “mineral withdrawal” will protect against new mining claims and require existing claims are tested to determine legitimacy.