As a longtime hunter and angler I can clearly see the chance today for sportsmen to make a significant difference in Colorado’s future.
Wheels currently are in motion that would benefit fish and wildlife habitat on our public lands. A sensible revision of the General Mining Law of 1872 recently passed through the House of Representatives and is gaining momentum in the Senate.
The revision provides public land managers the ability to determine where on our public lands mining operations would be allowed; ensure that our public lands remain public and not sold to private mining companies for as little as $2.50 per acre and collect royalties for the removal of resources from our public lands.
This law, which governs hardrock mining (gold, copper, silver, etc.) on America’s public lands, was signed into law more than a century ago. While the economies, cultures, and politics have changed in the West during the past 135 years, the mining law has not.
More than 270 million acres of federal land are open to hardrock mining under the law, mostly in the Rocky Mountain West. Because the law has not been meaningfully reformed, many of America’s most treasured public lands are at risk, including important wildlife habitat, valuable fisheries and popular recreation sites.
Public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service harbor some of the most important fish and wildlife habitat and provide some of the finest hunting and angling opportunities in the country. For example, public lands contain well more than 50 percent of the nation’s premier trout streams and are strongholds for imperiled trout and salmon in the western United States.
More than 80 percent of the most critical habitat for elk is found on lands managed by the Forest Service and the BLM, alone. Pronghorn antelope, sage grouse, mule deer, salmon and steelhead, and countless other fish and wildlife species are similarly dependent on public lands.
The General Mining Law of 1872, signed by President Ulysses Grant, is the most outdated natural resource law in the nation. Under the law, mining takes precedence over all other public land uses, including hunting and fishing. The secretary of the interior may sell public land to mining companies, often foreign-owned, for as little as $2.50 per acre. Furthermore, mining companies pay no royalties for hard rock minerals – such as gold, copper and zinc – that belong to all citizens.
The legacy of the 1872 law is a trail of abandoned mines, lifeless streams and wrecked landscapes. Estimates of cleanup costs range as high as $72 billion. Many people remember the Summitville Mine debacle in the early 1990s. Most aquatic life and all fish were killed along a 17-mile stretch of the Alamosa River, and taxpayers ended up paying for the cleanup (and continue to pay today).
A new operation at Mt. Emmons near Crested Butte has the potential to destroy an important elk migration corridor at the headwaters of Ohio Creek without proper oversight. Additional impacts to this significant headwaters area could eventually reach downstream to the premier trout waters of the Gunnison River.
Sportsmen in Colorado are mobilizing with great success and having their voices heard on this important topic and look to the leadership of Senators Salazar and Allard to carry the idea of sensible reform forward. A recent letter to Congress was signed by more than 400 hunting and fishing organizations and more than 30 national groups calling for mining reform.
The success of this critical revision of the General Mining Law of 1872 relies on sportsmen and their organized groups in Colorado to speak loudly in support, and we are calling on Senator Salazar to move this reform in the next few weeks through his Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. More information on this important topic for sportsmen in Colorado can be found at .
Harvey Nyberg is a board member of the Colorado Wildlife Federation. Lew Carpenter is regional representative for the National Wildlife Federation.
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