Congress is currently weighing revisions to the 1872 General Mining Law, America’s most archaic legislation. Hunters and anglers are leading a charge to conserve our irreplaceable sporting traditions and natural resources that support them.

Fisher Creek, MT Earthworks

Favorite sportsmen’s destinations continue to be jeopardized by a dangerously outdated, 136-year-old hard-rock mining law. Forty percent of western headwaters are degraded by mining operations. Mining claims on western public lands have increased by 80 percent since 2003. Congress is currently weighing revisions to the 1872 General Mining Law, America’s most archaic legislation. Hunters and anglers are leading a charge to conserve our irreplaceable sporting traditions and natural resources that support them.

Sportsmen United for Sensible Mining (SUSM), a coalition of organizations and individual grassroots partners spearheaded by the National Wildlife Federation, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and Trout Unlimited, has devised sensible solutions that address the challenges of hard-rock mining reform and bring mining law into the 21st century. Hundreds of sportsmen’s groups from across the country have endorsed SUSM’s recommendations for common-sense reform of the 1872 Mining Law.

On November 1, 2007, the House of Representatives passed HR 2262, the Hardrock Mining Reform and Restoration Act. Under the bill, which passed the House with bipartisan support and a final vote of 244-166, sales of public lands to mining corporations would end. Royalties of up to 4 percent would be assessed to existing mines and 8 percent to new mines, with proceeds funding cleanup of abandoned mines. New permitting and environmental guidelines also would be enacted.

This issue is especially important to hunters and anglers because 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 fishing opportunities in the country. For example, public lands contain well over 50 percent of the nation’s blue-ribbon 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. Antelope, sage grouse, mule deer, salmon, steelhead, and countless other fish and wildlife species are similarly dependent on public lands.

Additional Information:

• Sportsmen United for Sensible Mining Website
• Read Sensible Solutions: Balancing Hardrock Mining with Fish and Wildlife Resources in the West.