# IMPORTANT! South Fork Salmon is threatened!



## jimismycat (Feb 9, 2015)

River Friends/Public Land Owners,
Please take a few moments to take action and submit comments to USFS re: DEIS open pit gold mine proposal at the headwaters of South Fork Salmon. If any of you have boated this corridor or visited this region, you know what a special place this is and how much is at stake. This is our federal public land (belongs to all of us, not just us Idahoans), please make your voice heard!
Comments are being accepted until October 28, so time is of essence. 
Please visit Idaho Rivers United and Idaho Conservation League for more information.
Thank you!


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## SpudCat (Aug 24, 2020)

Yes! I submitted my letter back in August and have been helping spread the word on social media.

I wrote about this terrible idea in Northwest Fly Fishing magazine back in 2013(?). Sadly, we're still fighting it today.

Beyond the excellent floating opportunities, this is some of the most important wild steelhead, salmon, and bull trout habitat in Idaho. The mining industry has a horrible track record with pollution and spills. Even worse, their site remediation plans are not mandatory. They bond up a small amount of $ as "insurance" which allows them to bail when precious mineral prices fall and not be held responsible. Mining laws in this country are antiquated and insane. Taxpayers are left footing the bill and the natural world suffers.

Make your voice heard, folks!


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## 2tomcat2 (May 27, 2012)

Done and done


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## dirtbagkayaker (Oct 29, 2008)

I just read the full Stibnite plan at https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/105403_FSPLT3_3909029.pdf

I actually been to yellow pine and seen the site we are talking about. Its a mess up there. Seems like a solid plan and good idea to me. Stibnite is going to clean up a mess and reconstruct the creek for salmon habitat. I don't understand how this will negatively effect my foreseeable floating experience. I see how this project has tremendous future benefits for environmental clean up. I've see how mining and timber companies have really stepped up in the last 20 years in Idaho. 

Stibnite's plan looks legit to me. 

What am I missing, why are we wanting to stop this project?


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## dirtbagkayaker (Oct 29, 2008)

SpudCat said:


> Beyond the excellent floating opportunities, this is some of the most important wild steelhead, salmon, and bull trout habitat in Idaho. The mining industry has a horrible track record with pollution and spills.


With all due respect, you don't know what you're talking about up here in Idaho, do you????

What floating opportunities exist exist in the project area? Never been there, have you? Because there are no floating oppertunites in the plan area.... Facts!

The creek in the plan area is so messed up that trout and salmon can't spawn there right now even if they wanted too. The plan restores spawn habit that was destroyed 50+ years ago. Facts!

When was the last time a wild stealhead was recorded on the EFSFS? Serious question....

I just don't think you know what you are talking about, I don't think you've seen the area, and I know you don't understand the wild life in the area or the requirements for fish spawning. The creek in the plan is currently a dead zone for spawning.. That whole area is a mess from old mines. Why not make them clean it up to 2020 standards?

Sure its Federal land in Idaho and its everyone's land but when was the last time you were there? I just feel that if you saw the site and understood the biology, you would change your mind, just my humble option. Maybe, just maybe, Idahoans can mange the land with in its boarders.... Maybe you should come here and see it.... Maybe you should show me a stealhead on the EFSFS and I'll buy you a beer?


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## SpudCat (Aug 24, 2020)

dirtbagkayaker said:


> With all due respect, you don't know what you're talking about up here in Idaho, do you????
> 
> What floating opportunities exist exist in the project area? Never been there, have you? Because there are no floating oppertunites in the plan area.... Facts!
> 
> ...


I'm an Idahoan. Born and raised. And I still live in Idaho. I've spent a ton of time over the last two decades fishing and camping up there, from the glory hole (and above) all the way down the SF to the end of the road. Back up into Big Creek, Johnson Creek, and other tributaries.

Float opportunities are obviously downstream of the project site. Water flows downhill. When spills happen, tailings piles/dams blow out, everything downstream is impacted, particularly water quality. I like to be able to filter/drink water from rivers. I like fish to have clean water, especially anadromous species. The same goes for land-based animals.

There's a lot of functional habitat in the watershed. Sure, the human-caused gradient/waterfalls upstream of the glory hole block spawning access, but I don't think the answer for fixing existing problems is a 15-20 year mining project that involves three massive open pits, piping nearly a mile worth of stream out of the streambed, and only "maybe" fixing the mess if Midas makes enough profit and feels like it when they're done.

The Midas plan ONLY fixes the open pit and the new pits they dig if Midas decides they want to. That old pit (and all the other damage) exists because previous mining projects pulled the plug when prices dropped, left their small pittance of a bond ($) on the table, and left. Taxpayers have spent millions on the remediation. I've talked directly with the folks who put boots on the ground doing that work. Precious metal prices are fickle. Mining operations respond to that.

The odds are overwhelming that Midas will earn some money and pull up stakes without remediating the site or remediating only some of the damage. They are in no way shape or form beholden to actually remediate the site. That's a selling point for basically every mining operation ever on public land: "look at all the environmental work we'll do when we're done!" Yet due to the antiquated mining laws in this country, they are not required to bond up the full price of restoration or actually follow through with that work. It is largely left undone. Taxpayers clean it up. Even more offensive, Midas is a Canadian company. Yeah, I get they have a U.S. subsidiary, but they're a Canadian corporation. So they get to come, make a ton of money, and leave a mess if they feel like it.

I understand biology plenty. I'm a scientist by degree. I've spent a career teaching students about biology and ecology. I understand the wildlife up there just fine. I've seen a lot of it over the years--bear, mountain lion, deer, elk, every brid of prey imaginable, etc. I've caught a lifetime worth of bull trout and cutthroat, steelhead smolts, whitefish too. I've seen plenty of chinook all the way up into the glory hole--and spawning redds too. Steelhead are in there. B-runs even. There's plenty of research and evidence, but I've not personally seen one. I'll give you that. 

If you disagree, that's cool. It's totally your right. But it's presumptuous to assume that I don't know what I'm talking about because our viewpoints differ.

Peace.


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## Idaho_ski_bum (Jun 22, 2018)

Steelhead usually won't be up that high until winter or early spring spawning time, which means LOTS of snow and a LONG drive to get there. I've never seen a steelhead in there, but I know some Yellowpine folks that see them in the East Fork. That area is my go-to for summer fishing and camping. lots of beautiful cutthroat and bull trout fishing. I have caught chinook out of the glory hole below Stibnite and from the tiny creek that leads up to it. Pretty big surprise on a 5wt fly rod. I don't have all the facts or info, but I do know a ton of time and money was spent in the past two decades to get top soil replenished and try to begin to undo the damage done from the mining of the 40's and 50's. My $.02 is don't disturb all of the crap still remaining at the site and allow it to be stirred up again. The downstream will suffer.... and I live in that downstream. Lots of people on the Buzz float on that downstream (Main Salmon) and drink (filtered) water from it. Our ocean-run fish are already fighting a losing battle without one more thing added to the odds against them.


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## Lauren N (Oct 27, 2020)

jimismycat said:


> River Friends/Public Land Owners,
> Please take a few moments to take action and submit comments to USFS re: DEIS open pit gold mine proposal at the headwaters of South Fork Salmon. If any of you have boated this corridor or visited this region, you know what a special place this is and how much is at stake. This is our federal public land (belongs to all of us, not just us Idahoans), please make your voice heard!
> Comments are being accepted until October 28, so time is of essence.
> Please visit Idaho Rivers United and Idaho Conservation League for more information.
> Thank you!



Just a reminder that public comment regarding the Stibnite Goldmine will close tomorrow, so today is the day to make your opinion heard!

Get out there and make your voice heard.


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## jimismycat (Feb 9, 2015)

It's so easy! You don't need to be a fisheries biologist or an environmental ecologist to take appropriate action or to write a compelling letter, just a concerned citizen!

You can submit your comment letter directly to: USFS Stibnite Gold Project

Or even easier, by filling out and submitting the form letters drafted by our friends at IRU and ICL!


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