September 15, 2023
- S. Department of Interior
Office of the Secretary
1849 C St. NW
Washington DC 20240
Bureau of Land Management
Oregon State Office
Attn: Barry Bushue
1220 SW 3rd Avenue
Portland, OR 97204
Bureau of Land Management
Vale District Office
Attn: Manager Wayne Monger
100 Oregon St. Vale, OR 97918
Bureau of Land Management
Nevada State Office
Attn: Jon Raby
1340 Financial Blvd.
Reno, NV 89502
Bureau of Land Management
Winnemucca District Office
Attn: Sam Burton, Manager
5100 East Winnemucca Blvd.
Winnemucca, NV 89445
Re: Nomination of McDermitt Caldera Sagebrush Sea Area of Critical Environmental Concern
To the Bureau of Land Management and Department of the Interior:
Attached you will find a petition submitted pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act formally nominating contiguous public land of the McDermitt Caldera in the Vale District Malheur Field Office and the Winnemucca District Stillwater Field Office as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), and request for any other land protection actions deemed necessary to prevent further irreparable loss of this landscape’s outstanding public lands values including a federal Mineral Withdrawal.
We urge you to amend the applicable land use plans (the Southeast Oregon Resource Management Plan (RMP) and the Winnemucca RMP) to protect the region’s mining boom- imperiled sagebrush ecosystem, and the essential and irreplaceable Greater Sage-grouse population that inhabits the bi-state region of the McDermitt Caldera; the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout restoration watersheds and habitats of other rare and imperiled aquatic species; fragile headwater springs highly vulnerable to flow loss; significant and little-studied biodiverse plant and animal communities; extraordinary cultural sites, traditional uses and sacred places; the site of historical events in the US Snake War of extermination; the unique geological locale where the Yellowstone hotspot originated; the landscape’s untrammeled scenic beauty and sweeping vistas and outstanding wild lands values; clean air; dark night skies; and quiet, peaceful open spaces. ACEC designation is also required to protect people and terrestrial and aquatic biota from toxic material exposure due to existing and foreseeable mining and minerals processing – including both past mercury contamination and new potential lithium and uranium mining generated toxics.
It is also necessary to protect the significant private, state, and federal investment in land acquisition for conservation purposes associated with the Western Rivers Conservancy purchase of the Disaster Peak Ranch. It will help ensure more transparent, fair and unbiased agency processes, and may also aid in protection of public free speech rights in a public land matter where aggressive corporate mining interests are attempting to throttle constitutionally protected speech of both indigenous and white protestors.
The fate of Sage-grouse is inextricably linked to preservation of large blocks of relatively intact shrub-steppe habitats. Functional populations require a landscape of hundreds of thousands of acres to persist. This landscape and the unique caldera region habitat is on the eve of immense foreseeable mining-caused destruction.
The McDermitt Caldera region’s importance has gained national media prominence, in significant part due to the raging controversy over Thacker Pass Peehee mu’huh, which holds great cultural significance for Tribes across the region. Mining development is right now taking place within an area identified by Tribes as a Traditional Cultural Property in the southern Caldera, a place that elders compare to Arlington cemetery. The Caldera is a living landscape that is used to this day by indigenous people. It is the site of two massacres. The US cavalry massacre of indigenous Paiute people during the Snake War is part of the forgotten, but bloodiest, US Indian War. A Lithium Nevada SLAPP lawsuit currently threatens indigenous and white mine protestors constitutional rights and freedom of speech.
The Sagebrush Sea of the McDermitt Caldera is a recognized Sage-grouse stronghold. It is home to very high densities of sagebrush-dependent migratory birds and many other animals of concern including the climate change-threatened Pygmy Rabbit and White-tailed Jackrabbit. It is part of an identified BLM restoration landscape with high biodiversity values that could be threatened by agency actions termed “restoration” if great care is not taken. Many of the Caldera’s sagebrush communities have high ecological integrity, representing an ecosystem where all natural components are present, and their interactions are sustained. Its exceptional wildlife and wild lands values have been recognized for over 25 years in federal agency scientific ecological assessments.
This region provides crucial connectivity and a bridge between the Owyhee and Sheldon-Hart Sage-grouse populations. It contains significant intact expanses of unburned sagebrush habitat in a region that has suffered large-scale sagebrush wildfire losses, making remaining sagebrush here even more essential for the species persistence. The Sage-grouse range is contracting and shrinking northward, as demonstrated by habitat and population losses in the Double H Mountains. Now active mining at Thacker Pass is further severing the bird’s habitat. Scattered populations in the Lahontan Basin to the south have nearly vanished. Remaining larger blocks of mature and old growth sagebrush recognized as Focal (stronghold) habitat in the northern Caldera are being fragmented and perforated by lithium and uranium exploration drilling activity. An immense new exploration project (Jindalee HiTech) is now proposed there, with NEPA analysis scoped under a mere EA. Jindalee documents can be found at the eplanning site.
We request that BLM officials and the Interior Department:
- Accelerate review of this petition. An emergency situation, and environmental and cultural crisis now exists due to a sudden mining boom frenzy over lithium, and recent resurrection of a controversial uranium mining project long thought dead. Foreseeable mineral processing pollution threatens the community in Nevada and Oregon including the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Reservation, as well as other downwind areas including public lands and waters of the Owyhee region.
- Consider this petition and its scientific, observational, photographic, historical and other information including records of NDOW, ODFW and other agencies referenced herein as supporting evidence for designation of an ACEC, Mineral Withdrawal, or other protective action in both Oregon and Nevada.
- Conduct a long-promised Mineral Withdrawal for Sage-grouse Focal/stronghold habitats and other irreplaceable Caldera values.
- The Interior Department should also consider review of this Sagebrush Sea Caldera landscape for potential National Monument designation to preserve this landscape.
- Include this ACEC proposal as part of the project record files and scoping comments on the Jindalee mega-exploration drilling proposal (267 drill holes and sumps, 30.2 miles of new roads), and place this petition in the project files for Notice-level exploration or any other mining activity across Caldera public lands.
Urgent agency action is needed now to protect an irreplaceable biodiversity hotspot, sacred sites and traditional uses and foods, archaeological sites and wild lands in this gravely threatened region. If BLM is unable to address this ACEC proposal and Mineral Withdrawal in an integrated manner in both states immediately, we request that each state office move ahead separately. There are at least three active Notice-level drilling projects in Oregon, the specter of uranium mining and processing that could poison the community, and an immense new Jindalee sagebrush habitat-destroying drilling proposal NEPA process has recently been scoped in the northern Caldera.
Please let us know if you need any additional assistance, clarification or other information to move this petition forward.
Sincerely,
Katie Fite
Public Lands Director
WildLands Defense
PO Box 125
Boise, ID 83701
Patrick Donnelly
Nevada Director
Center for Biological Diversity
9345 S. Durango Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89113
pdonnelly@biologicaldiversity.org
Kevin Emmerich, Co-founder
Basin and Range Watch
PO Box 70
Beatty, NV 89003
emailbasinandrangewatch@gmail.com
(Petition Amended 10/16/2023)
PETITION TO DESIGNATE THE MCDERMITT CALDERA SAGEBRUSH SEA AREA OF CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN (ACEC) AND TO CONDUCT A MINERAL WITHDRAWAL OR OTHER PROTECTIVE ACTIONS ON AN EXPEDITED BASIS
OVERVIEW
Sagebrush Sea Caldera ACEC Proposal and Request for Emergency Consideration Summary
WildLands Defense submitted a quickly assembled ACEC proposal for the McDermitt Caldera region with a July 2023 Protest of the Vale BLM Southeast Oregon Resource Management Plan Amendment (SEORMP) and FEIS, and with the September 15 Jindalee project scoping deadline. This now updates the ACEC submission with expanded biological, cultural, historical, social, archaeological, wild lands, hazardous material, geological, aesthetic and other information documenting the many relevant and important values of this landscape in both Oregon and Nevada. This ACEC submission expands documentation of the Caldera’s local, regional, national and global significance as a prize biodiverse natural wild land area. It provides additional scientific information about ongoing, imminent and foreseeable threats to all these values. It explains how jeopardized this landscape now is – facing permanent loss from a suddenly appearing mining boom that could convert this region into a gutted, polluted wasteland.
This expanded petition information buttresses the scientific evidence of the Caldera’s outstanding relevant and important values we have already provided. It details the gravity of the threats and potential scale of ecological loss from rapidly expanding mining boom disturbance. The underlying BLM Land Use Plans (2002 era Southeast Oregon RMP and 2023 proposed amendment, and 2015 Winnemucca RMP) fail to adequately recognize and protect these extraordinary values. This petition also explains the severity of existing and foreseeable cumulative threats to public lands values in the Oregon and Nevada region. The Wild West-style mining boom is resulting in piecemeal environmental destruction and inadequate, disjointed, or no environmental analysis (as with 5-acre “Notice” level drilling that destroys much more than 5 acres of land). Right now, lands Tribes consider to be a Traditional Cultural Property and equivalent to Arlington National Cemetery are being irreversibly destroyed by Lithium Nevada’s Thacker Pass mine construction. BLM’s inaction holding up the paperwork to finalize this designation under the National Historic Preservation Act is aiding and abetting cultural erasure.
This unique and irreplaceable biodiverse sagebrush landscape and its imperiled biota face grave threats of habitat disturbance, degradation, fragmentation and permanent loss. There are rapidly expanding threats to Sage-grouse, Pygmy Rabbits (recently petitioned for ESA listing), White-tailed Jackrabbits, Burrowing Owls, mature and old growth sagebrush communities with high densities of nesting sensitive migratory songbirds, rare plants and complexly interspersed native plant community assemblages, splendid soil biocrusts, fragile watersheds and jeopardized perennial flows and aquatic habitat for Threatened Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (LCT), sensitive Lahontan Redside Shiner, Tahoe Sucker and a recently discovered remote isolated population of Columbia Spotted Frog. The King’s River Pyrg, an endemic springsnail, has also been petitioned for ESA listing. Now litigation has been filed over USFWS failure to respond to the petition. It’s found only in a dwindling hand full of springs in the southern Montana Mountains and northern Double H Mountains. The Caldera (including in Oregon) is a significant part of a “restoration landscape” recently announced by BLM for Sage-grouse and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout habitat and population persistence actions.
The Caldera region is also an exceptionally quiet and peaceful area of Sagebrush Sea public lands. Intensive, worsening, low level military War Plane overflights and training activity in Military Operating Areas (MOAs) associated with Mountain Home Air Force base plague nearly the entire Northern Great Basin Sage-grouse population habitat in the tri-state Oregon-Idaho-Nevada region to the east – including all its wildest public lands in the Idaho Owyhee Wilderness areas, Oregon Owyhee WSAs east of Highway 95, Nevada’s South Fork Owyhee WSA lands and portions of the USFS managed Santa Rosa, Mountain City and Jarbidge Ranger Districts of the Humboldt Toiyabe Forest. To the west, public lands under military airspace associated with the Klamath National Guard Kingsley Field also suffer loud war plane overflights that extend across portions of the Northwestern Great Basin Sage-grouse population habitat in the Sheldon-Hart Refuge region. The McDermitt caldera and adjacent Trout Creek and Oregon Canyon Mountains lie outside these intensive military war game zones. They are a place of increasingly rare tranquility in a prize sagebrush landscape.
This landscape still has strikingly dark and star-filled night skies. Its dark skies now face imminent light pollution and light blight from Thacker Pass facilities and other foreseeable mine developments and mineral processing activity.
There have been limited cultural/archaeological inventories across much of the Caldera and adjacent lands. The frantic pace of a lithium mining boom and piecemeal 5-acre Notice-level and other mining exploration activities on public lands are causing – or imminently threaten to cause – significant irreparable damage and harm to cultural materials and archaeological sites, to continuing traditional indigenous uses, and to lands Tribes consider a Traditional Cultural Property. Ranchers who altered grazing patterns when Lahontan Cutthroat Trout were listed now or for riparian improvement, now see BLM allowing the same watersheds to be torn up by mining.
There is stress in the local community, as the mining boom has awakened old wounds and trauma. This southeast Oregon and northern Nevada landscape is considered a sacred landscape by tribal elders. It contains important traditional medicinal and food plants including a high density of root plants (geophytes).
Thacker Pass summer 2023.
The Thacker Pass lithium mine by the southern Caldera area, fast-tracked during covid when BLM and Tribal offices were closed, is right now resulting in irreversible desecration and destruction of lands of great cultural significance. At Thacker Pass, the Lithium Nevada Plan of Operation entails:
- excavation of an open pit roughly 2.3 miles long by about half a mile at the widest
· removal of 17.2 million tons of rock and ore per year (phase 2)
· direct surface disturbance of 5,694 acres (total project size is 17,933 acres)
· on-site sulfuric acid plant – using 5,800 tons of acid per day during phase 2
· ultimately pumping up to 1.7 billion gallons of water per year
· estimated mine lifetime of 41 years and 5 years of reclamation.
It’s estimated that as much as 500 tons of earth will be moved to extract one ton of lithium, and that 11,300 gallons of diesel will be used per day. The Thacker Pass lithium mine site public lands are right now being bulldozed to oblivion, posted with No Trespassing signs, and are off-limits to the public for 40 or more years. There are many new chain link fences. Public access through the site is only guaranteed on a hand full of roads. Private security guards have at times attempted to restrict passage to the Montana Mountains.
Public lands at the Thacker Pass lithium mine site face 40-45 years of No Trespassing and security guards. This is de facto privatization.
In the northern Caldera McDermitt Creek watershed of Oregon, Jindalee is proposing greatly expanded lithium exploration activity across a 7200-acre project area within an even larger 9200-acre claims block. Jindalee seeks to drill 267 new bore holes and construct up to 30.2 miles of new “temporary” roads. See Jindalee EPO “Exploration Plan of Operations” (attached).
Map of roads and drill sites from Jindalee EPO documents. This project has been scoped under NEPA by Vale BLM as a mere EA. This mega- drilling project follows on top of earlier drilling and road footprint expansion that started with a 2018 NEPA-less 5-acre Notice which has been modified several times – ultimately resulting in more than 5 acres of habitat being bulldozed or devegetated. A new water well for the use in the new phase of expanded drilling was authorized by BLM under the old Notice-level activity. During recent scoping, Vale BLM failed to provide the public with the entire EPO for review and withheld EPO Appendices necessary to enable informed public comment.
Foreign mining companies often spin off US companies to carry out mining activities on our public lands. Recently, this is also being done to position corporations with US arms to receive huge US government subsidy handouts. For simplicity’s sake, we will refer to Lithium Nevada, and Jindalee. Media articles often use Lithium Americas. Lithium America’s Caldera mining arm is Lithium Nevada. Jindalee’s US arm is HiTech.
The Thacker Pass mine faced litigation by four environmental groups Western Watersheds Project, Great Basin Resource Watch, Basin and Range Watch and Wildlands Defense, by Tribes (Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and the Burns Paiute Tribe), and by local landowner Bartell Ranches. The lawsuits failed to stop the development of the Thacker Pass lithium mine. The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court ultimately ruled in BLM’s favor. Mine construction is proceeding. A later, separate round of tribal litigation over the Thacker Pass mine is now at the Ninth Circuit, and includes the Summit Lake Tribe along with Reno-Sparks and Burns Paiute.
In June 2023, Vale BLM held a Southeast Oregon Resource Advisory Council (RAC) Meeting in McDermitt, along with a brief site visit to some of the Jindalee claims area.
Besides Jindalee HiTech, there are at least two other Notice-level projects underway in Oregon– Aurora Energy Metals (Oregon Energy LLC) lithium and uranium claims and FMS lithium claims. The control of the FMS claims is unclear. On-line sources show conflicting information about who now controls them. First an Aurora prospectus claimed to control the Oregon FMS claims and more recently Chariot claimed control of FMS claims. LiVE also holds claims here.
There have been two Native American massacres in the Thacker Pass landscape. The name Peehee mu’huh (rotten moon) originates from the first massacre, an inter-tribal hostility.
The second massacre was an 1865 US cavalry attack on a Paiute camp where children, women and men were brutally murdered. The BLM Thacker Pass mine EIS never mentioned these massacres. Documentation of the cavalry massacre was presented by tribes during litigation. The Interior Department’s own land surveyor records, newspaper reports, eyewitness accounts of the massacre in Big Bill Haywood’s autobiography, and other solid historical information were all submitted to the court. BLM swept the massacre document revelations aside.
In February 2023, Tribes submitted the Thacker Pass/Peehee mu’huh Traditional Cultural Property Eligibility Statement , “Peehee mu’huh: A Living Monument to Numu History and Culture Traditional Cultural Property Eligibility Statements For the Thacker Pass Traditional Cultural District and September 12, 1865 Thacker Pass Massacre Site. Statement of Eligibility submitted to the Department of the Interior by the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and Summit Lake Paiute Tribe” to BLM. They believed BLM had acted on the submission. Now it’s been reported that BLM never transmitted the Traditional Cultural Property documentation to the National Park Service, the official custodian of such records. The Guardian explains this further. Time after time, in local, national and international media, elders and tribal members have stated that Lithium Nevada’s mining destruction at Thacker Pass is like digging up Arlington Cemetery.
Parker 1993 described a Traditional Cultural Property as:
“a place, that is eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places because of its association with cultural practices and beliefs that are (1) rooted in the history of a community, and (2) are important to maintaining the continuity of that community’s traditional beliefs and practices. Examples of places important to maintaining the traditional beliefs of a community are sites important to maintaining ceremonial practices, or important to the continuation of traditional subsistence practices and may include the habitat ranges of birds, fish, and other animals whose continued presence and use are essential to continue on-going cultural traditions”.
The northern Caldera area in Oregon is continuous with several beautiful BLM Wilderness Study Areas (Disaster Peak which extends into Nevada, and Twelvemile, Fifteenmile, and Oregon Canyon WSAs) and an area of Land with Wilderness Characteristics (LWC). These outstanding wild areas now face extensive intrusive foreseeable visual and noise pollution from mining activity, pernicious toxic air pollution from both mining and mineral processing, mining-linked weed infestation and outward expansion, aquifer drawdown drying up their waters, and large-scale loss of crucial seasonal habitat ranges that are essential for supporting viable populations of iconic native species like Sage-grouse and Mule Deer. These animal’s survival relies on interconnected WSA and non-WSA lands that the miners seek to turn into gaping open pits and waste heaps.
Sage-grouse and Mule Deer are specific BLM-recognized attributes of the WSAs that contribute to their outstanding values. Sage-grouse survival depends on an intact landscape and ecosystem. Seasonal habitats span WSA and non-WSA lands. Mobile wildlife species occupy WSA lands for a portion of the year, but populations would collapse without lower elevation blocks of sagebrush to survive winter months or fulfill nesting and other needs. Other species, like Golden Eagles, may nest on cliffs in WSAs but rely on jackrabbit prey from sagebrush in the heart of the McDermitt Basin that would be obliterated by full-bore mining. The WSAs face degradation and fragmentation of fragile watersheds, pollution from dust and from mineral processing, potential depletion of ground and surface waters and contamination from mining-linked pollutants, and loss of outstanding wilderness and recreational values. Adjacent mining activities and mine development would degrade and impair the outstanding WSA values that BLM itself recognized in its Oregon Wilderness Study Area Report. Oregon WSAs in Malheur County are included in the proposed Malheur County Wilderness bill of Senators Wyden and Merkley (specific areas included appear to be in flux and now both a Wilderness and Monument track are being pursued but Caldera lands, under dire mining threat, may be omitted). Segments of McDermitt Creek and some other area streams are also included in these Senators proposed Oregon River Democracy Act.
Hazardous materials and contamination from past mercury mining have caused pollution, and sickness in members of the community and the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Reservation. Tribal members tell of cancer-stricken relatives exposed to hazardous materials while working in mines or living nearby. Mercury waste spoils were hauled into the townsite and Reservation for roads. Known sites have been remediated to various degrees by EPA. The region’s polluted old mine sites include the Opalite and Bretz mercury mines in the McDermitt Creek watershed in Oregon, In Nevada, the Cordero mercury mine site lies on the eastern Caldera margin by the west side of the Quinn Valley, and there are mine spoils/calcine piles. The townsite and Fort McDermitt Reservation suffered mercury exposure from use of mine spoils on roads and around buildings. The Reservation is also plagued with water problems that never seem to be solved.
Caldera soils and rocks contain mercury, uranium and other radioactive elements in numerous locations. The mineral deposits that new mining exploration or development, road construction and other activity would disturb may contain numerous hazards to humans and aquatic and terrestrial biota, and risks pollution of culturally significant sites and food plants by toxic and hazardous minerals (mercury, uranium, arsenic and other radioactive elements and compounds). Mining disturbs protective erosion and weed-preventing living soil biocrusts and excavation results in billowing dust clouds. Once these very powdery soils and their protective living biocrust skin are bulldozed or otherwise disturbed by mining activities, they produce copious amounts of dust, and also suffer significant runoff erosion during high intensity rainfall events or snowmelt. Runoff from summer thunderstorms or other rainfall events is common with the region’s volatile high desert weather.
Pollution from processing lithium and uranium threatens to poison this region’s air and water. There is a brewing miner scheme to transport uranium from Oregon down into Nevada, where mining controls are perceived as more lax, for processing. Notice-level exploration actions and now Jindalee’s mega-exploration project activity may expose hazardous minerals, and result in their off-site transport in dust or runoff deposited on indigenous food plants, or vegetation consumed by native herbivores like Sage-grouse and Pronghorn, and harm rare plants.
The Caldera is roughly 28 miles (45 km) long north–south and 22 miles (35 km) wide from east to west. It is a geologically unique area, the birthplace of the Yellowstone hotspot and a complex geological environment born in the eruptions of an extinct super-volcano. It was a major Miocene eruptive center 16-19 million years ago. The Caldera also contains paleontological values and has become a magnet for rockhounds. The Montana Mountains were part of a peninsula jutting into the northern extent of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan. The caldera is a sky island of sorts, with high points, buttes, ridges and panoramic views. This region may have served as a climate refugium during past harsh climate extremes in the West.
This landscape meets the criteria for ACEC designation in both states, as described herein. A buffer should be considered for this ACEC, that may include portions of the Trout Creek Mountains and portions of the Oregon Canyon Mountains that could also qualify as an ACEC. Much of those land areas are WSAs not directly threatened by massive mining proposals – but WSAa would suffer serious intrusive impairment from mine development in this beautiful landscape.
A Mineral Withdrawal in the Caldera is essential to ensuring survival and connectivity of Sage-grouse and other wildlife populations. Nearly all McDermitt caldera lands were recognized as the highest quality habitat essential for the long-term survival and persistence of Sage-grouse populations in the West by BLM and USFWS. They were designated as “Focal” or stronghold habitat by BLM in the 2015 Sage-grouse plans and are considered “Priority” habitat. The McDermitt Creek basin and nearly the entire area is an identified Sage-grouse stronghold. This is a nationally significant value (globally significant for species conservation purposes), as only a small fraction of the Sage-grouse’s remaining range, “the best of the best”, was deemed worthy of Focal habitat status by BLM in its 2015 Sage-grouse plans. Mineral Withdrawals of Focal habitat were found to be an essential regulatory control to ensure the bird’s survival.
Numerous watersheds are restoration habitat for ESA-listed Threatened Lahontan Cutthroat Trout in the McDermitt Creek watershed. Many other species of significant conservation concern live here – Pygmy Rabbit, White-tailed Jackrabbit, rare bats, Kit Fox, Golden Eagle, California Bighorn Sheep and many others. Its sagebrush habitats are home to a high density of nesting migratory birds including Sagebrush Sparrow, Brewer’s Sparrow, Sage Thrasher, Gray Flycatcher, Lark Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Green-tailed Towhee, and Western Meadowlark. Many of these are BLM sensitive species, or are Oregon and Nevada state species of concern, and require larger blocks of intact sagebrush for nesting.
The sudden lithium mining boom is eating away at these outstanding intact habitats and species homes. It is destroying and desecrating a sacred cultural landscape and archaeological sites. Yet basic systematic and adequate biological, cultural, archaeological and other inventories necessary to understand the full scale and scope of public lands values that will be destroyed by hard rock mining in this landscape have not even been conducted.
Indigenous people in the northern Great Basin used and traveled over vast areas of the Sagebrush Sea in what is now southern Oregon, northern Nevada, southern Idaho and eastern California. As many as 22 tribes have ancestral and cultural ties to the threatened Caldera landscape. The mining boom’s assault on unceded ancestral lands is causing worry, stress, trauma and dissension in Tribal communities.
The controversy over Thacker Pass has now made mining in the McDermitt Caldera an international indigenous rights and social justice issue. It’s also exposed the major environmental toll, pollution and loss of biodiversity associated with hard rock mining and a “clean energy transition”. Greenwashing of lithium mining destruction of Caldera lands is rife.
Protecting these public lands as an ACEC and with a Mineral Withdrawal would protect biodiversity, help prevent the extirpation and potential extinction of rare plant and animal species, and save portions of a sacred cultural landscape – a living landscape still used by the people for many traditional purposes. It would also would preserve the integrity of wild and wilderness-worthy lands, and ensure the landscape’s endurance for future generations.
We request that the Vale and Winnemucca BLM and the Interior department in Washington DC offices evaluate this petition as an Emergency ACEC and withdrawal action, due to the large-scale lithium and uranium hard rock mining boom and its medusa-headed disturbance footprint. The irreversible ecological and cultural site damage already unfolding shows the urgent need for action.
Petition photos: Katie Fite, McDermitt Caldera and immediate Oregon-Nevada borderlands Sagebrush Sea landscape.
Lithium Claims Abound and Are Exploding across the West
There are an enormous number of lithium claims and many active lithium projects in various stages of Notice-level or other exploration across public lands. Claims staking and development is a free-for-all, with mining industry publications and press releases periodically raving about the latest and greatest lithium find.
Public lands are plagued with the burden of the pick and shovel era Mining Law of 1872. There is no adequate federal regulatory control of the lithium rush. BLM still has failed to complete a federal Mineral Withdrawal – a key element of the 2015 Greater Sage-grouse ARMPAs (Approved BLM Resource Management Plan Amendments) that it deemed essential to preserve viable Sage-grouse populations and ensure the species survival. This is especially alarming in the case of the Caldera, because the US Fish and Wildlife Services 2013 Conservation Objectives Team (COT) report which undergirded the ARMPAs had warned of the threat:
“this area faces threats from lithium and uranium exploration and extraction. Along with infrastructure that may come with this potential development, it may be appropriate to characterize mining and infrastructure as substantial and non-imminent threats to this portion of the population”. USFWS 2013 Sage-grouse COT report p. 84.
The threat of mining and infrastructure is now no longer “imminent”. Lithium mining and exploration is actively destroying the bird’s sagebrush habitat. The failure of BLM to adopt a Sage-grouse Mineral Withdrawal, promised in the 2015 Sage-grouse plans and relied upon by US Fish and Wildlife Service in the determination that ESA listing of the bird was “Not Warranted”, demonstrates a major agency regulatory failure. The end result, now tragically playing out in the irreplaceable Sagebrush Sea stronghold, is that there are no adeqaute regulatory measures in place to protect Sage-grouse and all the other rare and important species that rely on this habitat.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has mapped active lithium projects in the West. See CBD Lithium Claims Tracker website.
There is no BLM assessment of high value habitats, cultural locales or other values vs. degraded habitats and few values – instead western public lands face lithium claims chaos.
This is a close-up Google Earth map showing the keyhole-shaped Caldera, and the distinctive unique bowl or basin area in Oregon in the McDermitt Creek watershed in the north.
Nevada Division of Minerals open site data shows an estimated 21,425 active, filed, and submitted placer claims in Nevada alone, as of September 8, 2023, presumably for lithium or lithium brine in 18 different hydrographic basins.
A dizzying number of lithium miner press releases and articles in the mining press boast about their particular claims site region containing huge amounts of lithium. The CBD Lithium Tracker website map shows the high density of claims near Tonopah – another area that has been claimed to have huge deposits and many prospective miners and speculators.
“Where are you going to put the lithium mines? Nobody has any … clue,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s left up to the market and venture capital. We’re pinning our entire future and the welfare of all future generations of humans on that. It’s crazy.”
There are 130 active lithium projects already in this free-for-all boom. There has been no BLM process to determine relative adverse ecological, cultural, pollution or other impacts of lithium mining in one area vs. another. The abundant projects counter the agency and industry tone of desperation for mining anywhere, any place.
ACEC Legal and Regulatory Background
The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) is the “organic act” for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In FLPMA Congress declared that it is the official policy of the U.S. Government to manage all public lands “in a manner that will protect the quality of scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archeological values; [and] that, where appropriate, will preserve and protect certain public lands in their natural condition.”1
To carry out this policy, FLPMA requires BLM to “give priority to the designation and protection of areas of critical environmental concern,” or ACECs, in the development and revision of land-use plans. follows:
The statute defines “areas of critical environmental concern” as:
“Areas within the public lands where special management attention is required (when such areas are developed or used or where no development is required) to protect and prevent irreparable damage to important historic, cultural, or scenic values, fish and wildlife resources or other natural systems or processes, or to protect life and safety from natural hazards”.
BLM regulations direct the agency to consider the designation of ACECs based on two primary criteria: relevance and importance. “Relevance” is defined as the presence of “a significant historic, cultural, or scenic value; a fish or wildlife resource or other natural system or process; or natural hazard.”4 “Importance” requires “substantial significance and values.”5 “This generally requires qualities of more than local significance and special worth, consequence, meaning …”.
Each area that meets the relevance and importance criteria must be identified as a potential ACEC and “fully considered” for designation and protection in resource management planning. “Designation is based on whether or not a potential ACEC requires special management attention in the selected plan alternative.”
BLM’s ACEC Manual sets out more specific requirements for the designation and management of ACECs. It specifically requires that each area recommended for consideration as an ACEC, including those externally nominated, be considered thoroughly by BLM through collection of data on relevance and importance, and evaluated by an interdisciplinary team.
Once the relevant and important values are identified, along with a need for special management attention, BLM is required to ensure protection of these special values. If any nominated ACEC is not designated, the analysis supporting the conclusion “must be incorporated into the plan and associated environmental document.
Management prescriptions for ACECs must be “fully developed” in the relevant RMP.
Guidance on this issue specifically includes size requirements and mineral withdrawal. Section 1613.22.B.2 of the ACEC Manual (“Size of area to receive special management attention”) states that an ACEC must be as large as is necessary to protect the important and relevant values. In addition, the Manual recognizes mineral withdrawal as an appropriate management prescription
Under FLPMA, the BLM State Director formally designates ACECs through the resource for protecting ACEC values.
BLM regulations state:
“A resource management plan may be changed through amendment. An amendment shall be initiated by the need to consider monitoring and evaluation findings, new data, new or revised policy, a change in circumstances or a proposed action that may result in a change in the scope of resource uses or a change in the terms, conditions and decisions of the approved plan.
The environmental consequences of a plan amendment must be considered through the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) environmental review process. The
amendment process must include public involvement, interagency cooperation, and “any other data or analysis that may be appropriate.”17 “If the amendment is being considered in response to a specific proposal, the analysis required for the proposal and for the amendment may occur simultaneously”.
As described herein, the BLM’s Vale SEORMP and the Winnemucca RMP substantially failed to evaluate and effectively protect the exceptional, nationally significant, and irreplaceable relevant and important values of the Caldera landscape which spans artificial state lines and multiple state and federal management jurisdictions. Now there is urgent need for BLM and the Interior Department to act to protect these extraordinary public lands values from permanent and irreversible destruction and loss.
We are providing detailed biological and other information with this petition, because when powerful corporate interests are pushing to exploit public lands, agencies often brush aside or try to minimize the severity and scale of development harms. We will be providing updated submissions in support of Caldera protections as new information emerges.
Existing BLM Land Use Plan Limitations: SEORMP and Winnemucca RMP Allocations Are Based on Out-dated Environmental and Scientific Baselines, and Lack Adequate Regulatory Mechanisms to Prevent Degradation and Irreparable Harm Caused by Mining
Vale SEORMP’s Outdated Resource Allocations, Imbalance and ACEC Shortfall
The 2023 proposed Vale FEIS and SEORMP (Southeast Oregon RMP) amendment includes mention of the new and rapidly unfolding large-scale lithium and uranium mining threats in the Caldera. The prolonged 2010 to 2023 SEORMP amendment process did not culminate in substantial and sufficient steps to protect what now in 2023 are known to be the extremely significant outstanding biodiversity, cultural, climate stress buffering and other values of the Caldera public lands. The amendment process was inexplicably prolonged – with BLM finally issuing a Final EIS and proposed decision for an amendment in 2023 – 13 years after BLM entered into a settlement agreement with the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) to conduct new analysis for some of the underlying 2002 RMP elements. The 2023 SEORMP FEIS Executive Summary p. ES-iii describes:
“This document responds to commitments the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) made in a 2010 settlement agreement to analyze, through an RMP amendment, a range of alternatives that address three key issues- lands with wilderness characteristics; off-highway vehicle area designations (Open, Limited, and Closed); and livestock grazing issues related to meeting Standards for Rangeland Health and voluntary grazing permit/lease relinquishment processes
The old RMP’s allocations, didn’t take into account current climate stress and the severity of threats to sustainability of public lands values, and only some management components are addressed in the prolonged amendment process. Thus, many 2002 SEORMP allocations continue to jeopardize the sustainability and integrity of sagebrush habitats, cultural sites, and other public land values. The 2002 allocations fail to balance public lands uses in a 2023 context of climate change stress, terrestrial and aquatic species population declines and habitat losses, rapid-fire weed spread, new information on significance of cultural values, and now the sudden “critical minerals” boom that has descended on the bi-state caldera region.
This portion of the undeveloped Oregon and Nevada borderlands country had been thought to be secure from large-scale mining, oil and gas or other development threats because sought-after resources were not present. More recently, it was believed that the caldera’s wild lands importance and Sage-grouse habitat values would protect the land. This has not been the case. Now this arid landscape faces extreme levels of lithium and/or uranium mining disturbance and large-scale permanent loss.
Vale BLM failed to consider any new ACECs in the protracted 2010-2023 period it spent amending the RMP, despite ever-mounting evidence of climate change stress; aridification; large-scale wildfires dealing major blows to Sage-grouse, Pygmy Rabbit and other populations (the 2012 Nevada-Oregon Holloway wildfire burned portions of the Caldera and surrounding lands – coming to within one mile of the similarly immense Long Draw wildfire in Oregon that same year), and other fires across the broader regional landscape); the chronic and cumulative effects of livestock grazing (including grazing disturbance interacting with climate stress causing flammable weed expansion (as described in Reisner et al. 2013 and Williamson et al. 2020), incremental road expansion, and other increased or new threats. These threats serve to irreversibly expand flammable weeds, impact watershed stability and sustainability, and cause loss of resilience and resistance. Meanwhile, ongoing declines and degradation of Sage-grouse and many other sensitive species habitats have continued.
The last time consideration of an ACEC that might provide for sustainability or help protect public land ecological and cultural values from an onslaught of mineral activity now targeting the Sagebrush Sea landscape of southeast Oregon was in 2002. The baseline information used in the process was already several years old by the time of the 2002 Decision Record.
Moreover, BLM West-wide rejected adoption of new ACECs in the 2015 Sage-grouse RMP amendment (ARMPA) process, despite substantial public comments and submissions in support of ACEC designations.
The 2023 SEORMP FEIS states:
ACECs are parcels of public land that require special management attention to protect unique features or values … Currently, there are 28 ACECs covering approximately 206,920 acres in the planning area (Map SMA 1 in Appendix M) of which 17 RNAs”.
None of the 2002 RMP designated ACECs are located in the Caldera, despite its long known outstanding ecological values. There is a tiny ACEC (Dry Creek) to the north in the Oregon Canyon mountains. BLM has neglected management oversight of even the existing ACECs. Only five ACECs have management plans. SEORMP 2023 FEIS 3-267, FEIS Table 4-1 shows BLM monitoring of some existing ACECs has not occurred since 2006 or 2007.
In Oregon, ACEC designation is essential because the 2002 SEORMP and the proposed 2023 FEIS and SEORMP amendment fail to adequately protect irreplaceable public lands biological values – ranging from Sage-grouse stronghold habitat, to beautiful peaceful open space to cultural sites and indigenous food sources. The proposed 2023 SEORMP amendment failed to consider or adopt the Mineral Withdrawals allocated under the 2015 Sage-grouse amendment process, wherein withdrawals were found necessary for species survival.
Winnemucca RMP ACEC and Allocation Deficiencies
The 2015 Winnemucca RMP was also developed in a protracted process, with its environmental baseline and ACEC value analysis dating from 2006, yet the Winnemucca RMP ROD (Record of Decision) wasn’t issued until 2015. Scoping documents show that the Nevada Division of Wildlife (NDOW) recommended the entire Lone Willow Sage-grouse PMU, which includes the Montana Mountains, for ACEC status in 2005, but the recommendation never moved forward and was inexplicably withdrawn. PMU = Population Management Unit used by Nevada to delineate and track local area Sage-grouse populations. The Lone Willow PMU includes all the Nevada portion of the Caldera – the Montana Mountains to the Oregon state line. In addition, it includes the Double H Mountains to the south of the Montana Range, and the Bilk Creek Mountains to the west outside the Caldera. Like the SEORMP amendment, the Winnemucca RMP was developed over such a prolonged period that by the time the RMP was finalized in 2015, threats to public lands values had greatly expanded, but this was not adequately addressed in plan allocations. It failed to balance and protect public lands values in a manner that considers current threats to sustainability, species habitats and population viability, and cultural sites.
In 2005, NDOW had proposed a Lone Willow PMU ACEC and an Owyhee ACEC to protect essential and irreplaceable Sage-grouse and other wildlife habitat values. The BLM’s ACEC Relevance and Importance Evaluation Report for 29 ACECs shows these both were dropped in 2006. After only two meetings with limited BLM staff not even covering many areas of expertise, BLM cast aside all but four proposed new ACECs. See ACEC evaluation report p. 6. A table lists BLM ACEC rejection rationales of a few words. For the proposed Lone Willow PMU, BLM’s report merely states “dropped by NDOW”. There apparently was no independent BLM consideration of the Lone Willow PMU merits, despite its long-time recognition as a premier Nevada Sage-grouse and wildlife habitat, and one of the most important and productive wildlife areas in Nevada.
Two of the four ACECs carried forward for the EIS were tiny areas. Despite the RMP process dragging on for 9 more years, all while major wildfires consumed large portions of Great Basin sagebrush habitats including the Winnemucca-managed lands burned in the Holloway and other mega-fires, and while documented ongoing declines in Sage-grouse and other sensitive species continued, not a single additional acre was evaluated for ACEC designation.
As with Vale managed lands, Winnemucca lands face climate stress, major wildfires have significantly altered habitat quality and quantity, and new ecological research has shown how very vulnerable Sage-grouse are to disturbance. The significant noise and visual disturbance harms that mining, both non-renewable and renewable energy, and other intensive development inflicts on Sage-grouse and sagebrush habitats are now better understood.
Caldera federal land management thus continues under out-dated Land Use Plan “resource” allocations that are woefully out of step with current scientific information and the on the ground reality of landscape threats and species endangerment. BLM’s failure to evaluate and adopt ACECs that provide protections for high value vulnerable public lands and resources demonstrates a significant and continuing agency management and regulatory failure.
Disconnect between Climate Change Threats and Existing BLM RMP Land Use Allocations, Analysis, and Management Is Nearly Universal
Brice et al. 2020 conducted a review and content analysis review of BLM’s Resource Management Plans West-wide. They found large-scale failure to address myriad climate change impacts and stresses on public land values, and effects on sustainability. Table 3 of Brice et al. 2020 lists broad scale climate change threats to:
Conservation: Species distribution shifts upslope, changes in abundance, increased threat of invasive species, habitat loss and ecosystem services. Also-decreased summer water availability, poor air quality (fires, pollen season longer), decreased ability of forests to sequester carbon. Pressure on water from mining, grazing energy development, grazing-caused loss of streamside vegetation and increased erosion, oil and gas extraction can contaminate water [so can mining].
Cultural values: Increased disturbance and damage to historic sites, traditional practices and cultural knowledge may erode. [There are many other effects – ranging from loss of traditional food plants to loss archaeological information from soil erosion exacerbated by climate-related drought and extreme weather events].
Biological soil crust: Change to community structure and function, warm/dry climates host late-successional species and have more nitrogenase activity.
Mammals: Species distribution may shift poleward or upslope. Decline in some species abundance (bats, pika, small mammals), habitat loss, chronic heat stress, changes in food availability and other stressors.
Birds: Decreased population recruitment, fecundity, survival, and range. Loss of habitat (songbirds, Sage-grouse).
Brice et al. 2020 discuss species classified as “highly threatened by climate change, including pika (Beever et al. 2016), salmonids (cold-water fish; Isaak et al. 2010), sage grouse (Homer et al. 2015), and spotted owl (Peery et al. 2012). Only two RMPs mention potential [climate] impacts to these species (see John Day Basin and Lakeview RMPs, Table 2)”.
Note that the 2012 Great Basin Rapid Ecological Assessment climate analysis, papers by Larrucea and Brussard 2008 and other more recent papers have all identified the Pygmy Rabbit as being significantly threatened by climate change, as discussed later in this ACEC petition.
Brice et al. 2020 describe aspen being threatened by climate stress. The Caldera contains aspen pockets at higher elevations and along upper riparian corridors, by spring and stream headwaters and draws in the Montana Mountains, and by riparian or snowbank areas on the bordering slopes of the Trout Creek and Oregon Canyon Mountains. Aspen (including regrowth after the Holloway fire) help shade and protect areas in headwaters of Lahontan Cutthroat Trout streams. Climate stress threatens aspen clones reliant on snow deposition areas. Livestock browsing can hinder aspen recruitment in headwaters and near spring sources. Dust from mining activity may accumulate on snowbanks, causing earlier snow runoff and accelerated site drying.
“Regarding vegetation … common effects include distributions shifting upslope, changes in abundance, greater threats from invasive species, habitat loss, loss of ecosystem engineers, threats to the thermal suitability of many species, and anthropogenic land use exacerbating the effects of climate change (Rowe et al. 2010, Isaak et al. 2010, Muhlfeld et al. 2015, Friggens and Finch 2015, e.g., Beever et al. 2016, Mathewson et al. 2017, Roberts et al. 2017, Budy and Gaeta 2017, Behl and Benkman 2018)”.
“The literature describes myriad predicted changes to sagebrush steppe, pinyon–juniper woodlands, and other shrublands, many of which have the potential to negatively impact a wide range of wildlife and plant species that depend on those communities for all or part of their life cycles (Davies et al. 2011, Coates et al. 2016)”.
“Protection of aquatic species on BLM lands in a changing climate is likely to depend on the reliability of water sources and streamflows. Although some climate projections suggest an increase in precipitation, droughts are predicted to be more frequent and last longer (Snyder et al. 2019), increasing the chance that seeps and springs will periodically go dry”.
Referring to the near-universal failure of BLM RMPs to seriously consider climate change effects in making land use allocations, Brice et al. 2020 state: “The disconnect between the literature and BLM RMPs is particularly striking since conservation and maintenance of vast areas of intact, unfragmented, roadless habitat is key to the BLM’s mission. Dickson et al. (2017) showed that, as the largest land manager in the western USA, the BLM has a key role to play in sustaining movement of organisms and enabling fundamental ecological processes among protected areas and across jurisdictional boundaries. These values are prioritized in BLM planning (FLPMA), and yet there is a stark contrast between the myriad impacts identified in the literature and those planned for in BLM RMPs in the IMW.” [IMW=Intermountain West].
This again demonstrates regulatory failure of BLM to effectively balance competing uses on public lands in making basic resource allocations, and failure to effectively act to put protections in place to protect and sustain long-identified critical biological and other values that are now suddenly facing enormous threats of both climate change and permanent mining destruction loss. An essential and irreplaceable stronghold population of Greater Sage-grouse spans two states. The Caldera population, besides being irreplaceable in its own right, provides crucial connectivity between the Owyhee region and Sheldon-Hart region strongholds. Yet management is splintered between two state Fish and Wildlife agencies, and two state and district BLM offices whose management plans failed to effectively act to preserve irreplaceable wildlife and other values now in the mining boom’s crosshairs. This is despite agencies being forewarned in the 2013 USFWS COT report (discussed below).
The 2015 Great Basin Sage-grouse ARMPA ROD p. I-16 describes the need for habitat connectivity for Sage-grouse population persistence:
“Recently completed analysis by Crist et al. (2015) highlights the importance of certain key “priority areas” across the species range as well as the importance of connectivity between priority areas as a component of successful GRSG conservation. Generally, these priority areas coincide with PHMAs across the landscape. It is important to note that BLM-administered SFAs [Sage-grouse focal Areas] also coincide with a number of the areas identified by Crist et al. (2015) as important for maintaining connectivity between the network of conservation areas that are of greatest importance to the integrity of the conservation strategy”.
CALDERA NOW CONFRONTS IRREVERSIBLE DESTRUCTION OF OUTSTANDING SAGE-GROUSE AND BIODIVERSITY VALUES
Alarming Extent and Siting of Lithium and Uranium Claims across the Caldera
The Thacker Pass Mine by the southern edge of the Caldera is right now being developed – with bulldozing of Sage-grouse Priority habitat, industrial development in a Pronghorn movement corridor, predicted future loss of groundwater and an array of other threats to King’s River Pyrg survival anticipated, coupled with destruction and desecration of a sacred cultural landscape, and permanent scarring of lands that were supposed to receive BLM VRM 2 (Visual Resource Management) viewshed protections (largely retain the existing character of the landscape) under the Winnemucca RMP.
In the north, in the McDermitt Creek Basin, Jindalee HiTech is now seeking approval of an immense new lithium exploration project under a mere EA. These activities would tragically rip apart the McDermitt Basin’s heart. Targeted lands contain near-continuous mature sagebrush habitat. Noise, visual disturbance, weeds emanating outward from exploration roads and bore hole sites and other impacts would severely degrade the value of the remaining sagebrush habitat. The basin heart where the huge exploration project is planned is surrounded by a high density of Sage-grouse leks.
Mapping with the April 2023 Jindalee Draft EPO plan shows what the miner seeks to do to this Sage-grouse stronghold, and to Pygmy Rabbit, migratory songbird, and other rare species habitats in the heart of the McDermitt Basin:
The black outline is Jindalee’s proposed 2023 exploration “EPO” area (approx. 7200 acres in map above). It is surrounded by Sage-grouse leks rimming the Basin that is ground zero for immense exploration disturbance impacts. The magnitude of the noise and visual disturbance from mining activity would be visible and audible over a huge surrounding area – due to the amphitheater-like basin setting. Mine development would have a massive disturbance footprint on wildlife, on wild lands recreation, and Wilderness quality over vast surrounding areas. A major vehicle noise disturbance footprint would also surround the entire access route from the western Quinn Valley up to the actual exploration and/or open pit strip mining site (through approx. 10-12 miles of largely sagebrush habitat). Note that the Jindalee claims block extends over a larger area of around 9200 acres, including south of McDermitt Creek (see ONDA Claims Map below). Note the several streams that are surrounded or bordered by claims.
An excellent map prepared by the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) shows the location and extent of Caldera mining claims (as of a few months ago). Claims almost enclose and box in the caldera landscape, encompassing over half its lands, overlap the critical sagebrush stronghold habitat, and are in close proximity to many well-populated leks and critical winter, breeding, brood rearing seasonal Sage-grouse habitats.
The dark green on the above map is Sage-grouse Focal and “Priority” stronghold habitat. The area to the north outside the caldera is cut by canyons and does not have the unique Caldera landscape habitat features. Much of the Oregon Canyon Mountains have burned and have little mature sagebrush. The black outline is the 7200-acre Jindalee project site. The yellow line is the Disaster Peak County access road that heavy equipment and mine trucks would use traversing public lands. Nearly all the access route runs through mature sagebrush communities that are home to a broad diversity of wildlife and their essential seasonal ranges. Further, the road from the McDermitt townsite to the start of public lands runs through 4 or 5 miles of private lands in a valley area very heavily used by birds of all types. The birds are attracted to seasonal wet areas, shrub cover and foods such as silver buffaloberry thickets, pastures and powerline perches. Large flocks are present in late summer and spring. This road would become a killing field for birds, with high levels of avian vehicle-caused mortality in the Quinn Valley, if mining development proceeds.
There is ever-mounting scientific evidence of Sage-grouse sensitivity to noise and visual disturbance. See Coates et al. 2023, detailing harms of noise and lights and other visual disturbance from two Ormat geothermal plants near Austin Nevada (McGiness Hills) and Tuscarora Nevada discussed below. Such disturbance would also impact the access route across public lands to the Jindalee mine site.
The ONDA Claims Map reveals that nearly all lower and mid elevation unburned Sage-grouse habitat areas in the Caldera have been claimed for minerals – primarily lithium, but there are uranium claims too, and speculators are talking up uranium mining. The claimed areas are within 4 miles of nearly all Sage-grouse lek locations. Most Sage-grouse nesting occurs within 4 miles of leks.
A BLM Jindalee NEPA scoping map shows FMS and Aurora 5-acre Notice-level mining exploration projects in the McDermitt Creek watershed in Oregon. This map doesn’t show the full extent of Jindalee claims, which extend south of McDermitt Creek and into Nevada. Nevada Jindalee claims are shown on the ONDA Claims Map. They sandwich in much of the recently purchased Western Rivers Conservancy/Disaster Peak Ranch private land (white color along McDermitt Creek purchased for fish and wildlife purposes). The western area of the Jindalee Nevada claims block comes very close to the northern extent of Lithium Nevada’s big band of north-south running claims on the west side of the Montana Mountains in Nevada. Jindalee claims south of McDermitt Creek also come to within a mile or so of an outlier of FMS Lithium claims in Nevada.
In the eastern part of the McDermitt Creek watershed, Aurora Energy Metals (Oregon Energy LLC) is already drilling bore holes under a 5-acre Notice, as a prelude to a scheme to extract both lithium and uranium. FMS has also filed an Oregon 5-acre Notice. A 2023 Aurora Energy Metals business prospectus states that Aurora has bought and now controls the claims labeled FMS Lithium in Oregon shown on the above project map and ONDA Claims Map, referring to them as the “CALD” claims. It also states that that Aurora seeks to expand exploration for lithium and uranium to the north and west.
Aurora drilled approx. 6 holes in fall 2022. Agency records show they were allowed to extend some drilling into what was supposed to be a winter drilling exclusion period. Aurora Energy Metal executive Greg Cochran in a Proactive Investors Youtube video envisions the mine of the future with a conveyor belt or pipeline to jet lithium or uranium slurry or crushed rock material from Oregon down across the state line to private land in Nevada that Aurora purchased for mineral processing and waste heaps. The scheme appears to be seeking less restrictive permitting in Nevada for the polluting processing and tailings waste associated with highly controversial toxic uranium mining. Aurora’s Cochran envisions the mine of the future at 4:00 minutes to 6:00 minutes in a “Proactive investors “video. The same scheme is repeated more recently here at 17-20 minutes in a “Mining Network” video, with Cochran again describing the company’s purchase of land in Nevada, thus enabling Aurora to essentially “permit a quarry in Oregon”, which he describes as fairly straightforward, and then locate the processing plant for uranium and/or lithium and mine tailings down in Nevada.
Nevada pollution controls and other environmental regulations are believed by miners to be weak. This articulated miner effort to move radioactive and other minerals into Nevada for processing and tailings waste purposes rings major alarm bells about lithium and uranium processing pollution impacts to the region. What are the risks of environmental pollution and hazardous matierials exposure of the human population, fish and wildlife, and domestic animals that would result from this Caldera mining scheme?
The miners recognize that no matter how harmful or full of loose ends a project may be, its likely to get green-lighted in Nevada. In fact, during a Thacker Pass community meeting on state mine permitting, a question was asked of the state environmental department by the public: Has NDEP ever denied a mine permit? The response was No. (Fite, on-line NDEP meeting attendance). NDEP = Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.
FMS is shown on BLM’s project mapping as moving forward with Notice-level activity. In August 2023, another Australian Lithium driller, Chariot Corporation, issued a mining prospectus. Chariot now claims to control FMS claims both in Oregon and Nevada and calls it the “Resurgent” project. Chariot’s prospectus mapping includes all the FMS claims both in Nevada (Resurgent North) and Oregon (Resurgent East). Chariot states that FMS has agreed to sell all its claims to Chariot, and that is what the company’s mapping shows. Given competing company claims of holding FMS claims (who controls FMS claims – is it FMS? Aurora? Chariot? Others?), for simplicity’s sake here, we continue to refer to “FMS claims” as shown on ONDA and BLM maps. The situation with the FMS claims illustrates the mining boom scramble, confusion and speculation now rife in the Caldera.
The ONDA Claims Map shows a very large belt of north-south running FMS claims in Nevada. The FMS claims occupy a large block of irreplaceable lower elevation Wyoming big sagebrush habitat below the eastern slopes of the Montana Mountains around Jordan Meadows. Numerous Sage-grouse leks with high numbers of birds are found by the eastern slopes of the Montana Mountains, in close proximity to the FMS claims in nesting and wintering habitat. Leks with an abundance of birds are located on low sagebrush side slopes and benches on the east face of the Montana Mountains directly overlooking the FMS claims. There is a wide-open unobstructed path for drilling exploration or full-bore mining motorized noise and visual disturbances to travel right up to overlooking leks. It’s a straight line for noise and visual disturbance travel from the lands below that are peppered with FMS claims.
A drastic change would occur in the soundscape, viewshed and human disturbance footprint with mining development below east face of the Montana Mountains, or with mining activity in the McDermitt watershed basin by Jindalee or other miners to the north. As with the McDermitt Basin, a primary public lands access route, the Crowley Creek Road, runs right through the FMS claims belt. Mining disturbance here would dramatically escalate road traffic noise impacts – just as it would all long the access route through public lands to the McDermitt watershed claims.
View from the sage slopes of the east face of the Montana Mountains in low sagebrush lek habitat -looking east towards Salient Peak in the tan area. The tan area contains LiVE company lithium claims. Nearly all the green sagebrush habitat in the Jordan Meadows area of the broad green belt below in the photo’s center and foreground are FMS claims in the area east of the Crowley road. In the background, the tan area by Salient Peak has burned in wildfires (separate from the Holloway and Long Draw fires). Those lands are now heavily infested with cheatgrass. Beyond Salient Peak and the tan ridge lies the agricultural Quinn River Valley where Sage-grouse have been extirpated. Then the blue colored Santa Rosa Range rises in the background. Historic lek sites by the valley on the west side of the Santa Rosa Range have also been wiped out. Leks and sagebrush habitat remain on the eastern side of the Santa Rosa Range. NDOW terms this population the Santa Rosa PMU. But those leks and bird numbers in the Santa Rosa PMU took a big hit with the 450,000-acre 2018 Martin wildfire. To the north of this photo on both sides of highway 95 north of McDermitt, Vale BLM destroyed mature Wyoming sagebrush in a “fuels treatment” project around 15 years ago and replaced it with crested wheatgrass. Weeds have invaded.
Following the 2012 Long Draw fire, only a band of often lower quality habitat remains in Oregon connecting the Owyhee Northern Great Basin Sage-grouse population with this population – and a main heavily traveled Highway runs through it. The caldera area is the easternmost extent of the Northwestern Great Basin Sage-grouse population.
Looking north within the Jindalee claims block at the sagebrush sea in the McDermitt Basin in the northern caldera, a crucial continuous block of sagebrush habitat. It’s also home to a high density of nesting sensitive sagebrush songbirds, and Sage-grouse focal/stronghold habitat. Bare clay soils areas on shallow ridges provide unique habitat for rare native plants. The Oregon Canyon Mountains with WSA lands rise in the background. Sage-grouse leks here are often on lower mid-slope bench areas at the transition between big sagebrush and low sagebrush vegetation communities. Leks overlook the McDermitt Creek Basin and the Jindalee mining-targeted site.
Shallow ridgeslope clay soil rare plant habitats in the McDermitt Creek Basin are ground zero for very high density Jindalee proposed drilling and severe roading disturbance. White locoweed in bloom.
Bitterbrush on the lower basin slopes.
Minimally fragmented mature sagebrush habitat targeted by McDermitt Creek area Lithium drilling notices.
Undeveloped Lithium Nevada claims extend up on to the southern and western Caldera in the Montana Mountains. The claims run north of the Thacker Pass mine site nearly to the Oregon border. They are comprised of large blocks of mature and/or old growth big sagebrush and low sagebrush communities that have a very high density of nesting sensitive sagebrush songbirds. Areas recovering from the Holloway Fire are in the northern part of this claims area. The Lithium Nevada claims run through numerous headwater spring and meadow complexes providing critical Sage-grouse brood rearing and summer habitat. There are great wildflower blooms producing insects for early sage-grouse brood rearing. A high density concentration of mesic areas in the Montana Mountains provides critical summer brood rearing habitat very important for Sage-grouse productivity, and to buffer Sage-grouse from climate change stress, as described in Lundblad et al. 2022. This also ties into the letter of Jim Jeffress to USFWS (discussed below) describing how ideal the habitat in the Montana Mountains is.
Windswept low sagebrush ridges provide fall-winter Sage-grouse use too. The bellwether Montana-10 lek is also threatened – including by foreseeable expanded access road activity. Very significant amounts of public funds have been spent in protecting meadow complexes in this area because of the very high value Sage-grouse and other wildlife habitat. It is all Sage-grouse Focal habitat, and a highly scenic area with sweeping views of over 20 high desert mountain ranges, and an abundance of forbs and wildflower displays. Approx. $300,000 of Nevada Ruby pipeline mitigation funds were spent on a single large meadow exclosure project (Fourth of July meadow). Development of these Lithium Nevada claims would destroy vital stream headwater areas. What good is the Ruby oil and gas pipeline project wet meadow “mitigation” if the wet meadows are dried up by hard rock mining? Or if the Sage-grouse population the mitigation was undertaken to enhance is wiped out?
A 2017 letter of Jim Jeffress, retired NDOW biologist, to USFWS Marcy Todd lays out the extraordinary values of the Montana Mountains threatened by lithium mining. He describes the exceptionally important Sage-grouse habitat in the Montana Mountains, expresses concern about any mining activity there, and states that the Montana Mountains hold one of the highest, if not the highest, densities of Sage-grouse across their range.
He extols the Montana Mountains as “the most unique and notably well-balanced sage grouse habitat site in Nevada”. This landscape, with its topography and close configuration of all the habitat elements Sage-grouse need, is as close to ideal as you can get for Sage-grouse. Now not only this extraordinary area for the birds, but also the area’s outstanding biodiversity, cultural, wild lands and geological values are greatly threatened by a suddenly appearing hard rock mining boom.
Amidst the lithium boom, a hazardous uranium mining scheme, long thought dead, is now being revived and expanded in Oregon. The fragile sagebrush ecosystem in the boom’s crosshairs spans artificial state lines. More than half the Caldera land area has been staked with claims. Nearly all the Caldera lands were allocated for Mineral Withdrawal protection as Sage-grouse Focal habitat (the “best of the best” remaining habitat), in the 2015 BLM Sage-grouse plans, or ARMPA (Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment) process. BLM has never yet carried out the Withdrawal.
In adopting the 2015 Sage-grouse ARMPAs, BLM determined that Mineral Withdrawals were essential to protect the last remaining stronghold habitats of the bird from hard rock mining disturbance and loss, and to ensure Sage-grouse population persistence. The BLM’s promised Mineral Withdrawals with the 2015 plans undergirded Interior Secretary Sally Jewell’s USFWS finding that there would be adequate regulatory mechanisms in place to protect and preserve Sage-grouse habitat and populations – and thus ESA listing was not necessary.
The 2015 ARMPAs across the range of Sage-grouse were undertaken to “conserve, enhance and restore” sagebrush habitats for Sage-grouse and other sensitive and imperiled sagebrush species. Lands identified for protection with federal Mineral Withdrawals were identified as Focal habitats. BLM recognized that these were the last remaining Sage-grouse strongholds, and that Mineral Withdrawals were critical to ensure preservation of Sage-grouse habitats and the bird’s population persistence.
The Connelly et al. 2004 Sage-grouse Conservation Assessment details the extraordinary loss and degradation of sagebrush habitats that has taken place across the West with white settlement, and the ever-expanding threats to the bird’s survival – which continue up to the present. Knick and Connelly, eds. 2011 Studies in Avian Biology chapters further expand on sage-grouse science and the array of threats and grim trends in sagebrush habitats. Habitat conditions have continued to deteriorate since these detailed scientific analyses of Sage-grouse biology and the plight of the sagebrush ecosystem laid out the problems in detail. Populations continue to decline, often with a roller-coaster trend where population highs get lower, and subsequent lows plunge to new depths. Sage-grouse are continuing to suffer a long-term, downward population trajectory. Now lithium mining is poised to take out populations long thought secure. As long-time AP reporter Scott Sonner head-lined, the Caldera lithium boom is colliding with Sage-grouse, and with tribal cultural values.
West-wide, sagebrush habitats have continued to face “death by a thousand cuts” of incremental habitat losses from expanded human development and exploitation of all types – from transmission lines to expansion of habitat-damaging livestock facilities (fences, water developments) and continuing federal agency vegetation “treatments” that degrade, alter or destroy sagebrush and lead to flammable weed infestations within the habitats upon which the birds rely.
The Oil and Gas boom of the past two decades continues to consume habitat in Wyoming, Utah, Montana and Colorado. Ever-increasing human-caused wildfires and climate-exacerbated wildfires have burned millions of acres of sagebrush across vast areas in the western part of the bird’s range. The Caldera experienced the 2012 Holloway mega-fire in both Nevada and Oregon. Just to the north and east in 2012, the Long Draw fire in Oregon consumed critical habitat areas in both the Oregon Trout Creek Sage-grouse population “(PAC” – Priority Area for Conservation -how Oregon categorizes local populations) and the Oregon Owyhee Louse Canyon PAC. This trend is mirrored across the Great Basin.
BLM post-wildfire and other rehabilitation actions in the Great Basin region have been a major failure for sagebrush wildlife. No matter how much herbicide BLM sprays, cheatgrass (and increasingly medusahead) or other flammable weeds almost always win out in a few years. Even in areas where sagebrush is re-establishing after fires, the rate of recovery is often very slow. An example of this is the lack of recovery in low sagebrush communities consumed in the Holloway and Long Draw fires. See Baker Chapter in Knick and Connelly, 2011 eds. Studies in Avian Biology examining the very long-term fire recovery rates of different species and sub-species of sagebrush.
Sagebrush habitat recovery, if successional processes actually take place and if sagebrush plant community succession is not truncated by cheatgrass dominance, requires many decades in a best-case scenario. Centuries may be needed for low sagebrush community recovery. In areas densely invaded by flammable weeds like cheatgrass, plant succession is largely ended. The failure of BLM post-fire rehab planting efforts to produce critical Sage-grouse habitat element recovery is discussed in Arkle et al. 2014. Witness the bleak crested wheat and/or cheatgrass lands of the Long Draw Fire readily visible from Highway 95 on the east side of the Oregon Canyon Mountains, or near Basque and the Whitehorse-Denio road.
Both unburned and burned sagebrush habitats in the Great Basin have undergone significant expansion of flammable annual weeds like cheatgrass and other annual bromes, or medusahead or bulbous bluegrass that thrive in disturbed areas and under increased temperatures caused by climate change stress. Flammable weeds like medusahead are now invading many more areas – so far this weed appears absent in the Caldera, but it now dominates vast Vale-managed areas in the northern Owyhee region. Hotter temperatures from climate change stress favor these weeds expanding. Grazing disturbance acts synergistically with climate change stress. See Beschta et al. 2012, Williamson et al. 2020.
This USGS map of exotic grasses shows the Caldera and some adjacent lands as a small area of green between Sheldon-Hart and the Owyhee region, surrounded by areas of higher cheatgrass concentration. This accentuates the vulnerability of remaining caldera habitats, bordered on all sides by cheatgrass, to increased cheatgrass spread and site dominance. This weed threat highlights the need to minimize and prevent new disturbances to limit expanded infestation. See USGS data map. The Caldera is a vulnerable relative island of higher quality habitat. The location is key for providing connectivity and a linkage bridge between the Western Great Basin and Northern Great Basin Sage-grouse populations. Some areas of the Holloway and Long Draw fire burned lands now contain high amounts of cheatgrass. Re-establishing sagebrush requires intensive special management attention, focus and the right weather conditions. As we discuss herein, if the Caldera Sage-grouse population blinks out, it will result in a further range contraction for the bird, in an area where the range is already contracting northward.
Sage-grouse habitats West-wide face “death by a thousand cuts”. The lands identified as Focal habitats in the 2015 Great Basin ARMPA ROD are the areas where biological analyses determined there are higher density Sage-grouse populations and that include all the critical seasonal habitat elements necessary for the bird’s survival. Persistence of populations in Focal habitats is necessary to ensure the species survival. Connectivity between populations is also essential. Below is 2015 ARMPA mapping showing Focal habitats designated for Mineral Withdrawals under the 2015 sage-grouse plan decisions.
Great Basin ARMPA ROD Figure 1-3.
The Great Basin ARMPA ROD p. 1-18 recommended locatable mineral withdrawal from the Mining Law of 1872. The BLM Great Basin ARMPA Focal Habitat map shows the crucial role of the McDermitt Caldera in connecting the Western Great Basin Sage-grouse population that also includes Sheldon and Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuges, and the Northern Great Basin population in the tri-state Owyhee region. Note that the area of Sheldon and Hart Mountain Wildlife Refuges to the west and USFS lands in the Humboldt-Toiyabe Forest are gray and not colored purple on this BLM map as they are managed by US Fish and Wildlife Service or USFS, not BLM.
Diagonal striping in dark purple on map = Focal Habitat in this enlarged map from the Great Basin ARMPA ROD. The underlying topography is visible in the large gray non-habitat of the lower elevations of the Lahontan Basin salt desert shrub valleys, and several small mountain ranges that are now uninhabited or minimally inhabited by Sage-grouse south of the Caldera. On top of the natural habitat limitations, grazing, BLM exotic grass seedings, wildfires, cheatgrass invasion, and hard rock mining, have taken an ever-growing toll to the south. A bit of sagebrush habitat and a small population remains in the Jackson Mountains. More land areas recently burned around the Pine Forest Range, as habitat further shrinks. The mapping also shows the southern half of the Double H Mountains and the southern Bilk Creek Mountains as gray = no longer Sage-grouse habitat. Yet 20 years ago this was considered important habitat. The range of Sage-grouse is contracting northward with this habitat loss in the past 20 years.
Only small, dwindling numbers of birds remain in patches of habitat in the Lahontan Basin. The Montana Mountains are becoming the southern border of Sage-grouse range in this area – range contraction in action. The enormous ecological disturbance footprint of the development of the Thacker Pass mine is highly likely to ensure the permanence of Sage-grouse range contraction from the northern Double H Mountains.
The 2012 Holloway Fire made all remaining sagebrush here even more essential for sagebrush wildlife. The extent and severity is shown in Map Figure 1 in Sage-grouse vital rates after fire, Foster et al. 2018a.
Blue color indicates unburned areas within the Holloway fire perimeter in this study of Sage-grouse habitat use and post-fire response in the Oregon region of the Caldera and Trout Creek and Oregon Canyon Mountains. It burned a big part of the Bilk Creek and Trout Creek Mountains in the West, the NW portion of the Montana Mountains, part of the northwestern Montana Mountains and a big swath of the Oregon Canyon Mountains. Foster et al. 2018a states:
“Our results indicate that sage-grouse continue to use fire-affected habitat in the years immediately following wildfire and sage-grouse experienced lower nest survival and adult female survival than other populations during the same period”.
Foster et al. 2018b describe acute effects of the fire on the population.
The Bilk Creek Mountains in Nevada, outside the caldera, are the long southern lobe of the Holloway Fire area west of the Kings River Valley in the fire map above. Portions of the Bilk Creek Range have repeatedly burned in the past two decades. On the south side of Thacker Pass, the Double H Mountains are nearly devoid of sagebrush and leks appear to be extinguished. The McDermitt Creek basin is largely the western portion in Oregon just north of the Nevada line. The Holloway fire burned western and northwestern portions of the Basin.
The west face of the Montana Mountains plunging down to the narrow agricultural band of the Kings River Valley – looking southwest to a portion of the tan burned Bilk Creek Range and beyond. Rock outcrops and cliffs on this west face provide Golden Eagle and other raptor nest sites and are unoccupied Bighorn Sheep habitat. The valley was part of the northern extent of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan. Over 20 ranges are visible from up in the Montana Mountains.
The remaining unburned lands contiguous with the Holloway Fire in the Caldera are an essential and irreplaceable block of sagebrush habitat. There were no imminent development threats until the lithium boom hit. In the “critical minerals” frenzy now gripping the West, frantic claims staking and NEPA-less public comment-less 5-acre Notice level exploration is taking place under BLM mining regulations and the 1872 Mining law.
In the 2015 Sage-grouse ARMPA process, BLM, and USFWS in its ESA listing finding, highlighted the fire-threatened Great Basin region Sage-grouse populations in the western part of the bird’s range vs. the Oil and Gas energy-development-threatened birds in the eastern part of the range. USFWS recognized fires as a major threat to Great Basin Sage-grouse and other sagebrush-dependent wildlife. Where disturbance causes flammable alien grasses to invade, the stage is set for more fires – dooming sagebrush recovery. A population vulnerable to both fire and mining development is doubly threatened.
Population Declines, and the BLM ARMPA Sagebrush Habitat Mineral Withdrawal Machinations – the Bleeding Continues
Population Declines
Legal and political hurdles, and continuing unexplained BLM delays, have thwarted completion of the Mineral Withdrawal for the Caldera that was deemed essential for Sage-grouse in 2015. This is despite a withdrawal EIS being again scoped in 2021. Since 2015, mineral claims have been expanding.
In the intervening years since the 2015 ARMPAs determined a Mineral Withdrawal of crucial habitats was essential for Greater Sage-grouse species survival, the bird’s habitats and populations have suffered continued declines and a downward population trajectory– with the often rather cyclic population highs getting lower, and the population lows getting lower. State and federal agencies have often attempted to excuse away the continuing downward population trajectory, blaming it on weather and cyclic populations – as described in Connelly et al. 2019.
Wyofile reported“Scientists blast inaction on, denial of sage-grouse troubles”, Sage-grouse biologist Clait Braun explains:
“Instead of causes such as weather or natural cycles, grouse numbers are diminishing due to a loss of habitat, Braun believes. “The habitat is declining in size and declining in quality,” he said. “That’s what the bird numbers show. That’s really the bottom line.
“Sage grouse may exhibit some cycles in some areas,” he said, but “the long-term trend is down — you can’t get away from that. On population graphs, each peak is less than the previous peak.”
The Connelly et al. 2019 paper described how state and federal agencies were in denial about downward Sage-grouse population trajectories and failing to act. These declines occurred both across areas that had suffered wildfires, as well as areas that had not. At least two authors of this paper were retired biologists, not under political pressure to minimize Sage-grouse imperilment.
Mineral Withdrawal Machinations
A Notice of Proposed Withdrawal was initially scoped by BLM under NEPA in 2015 when the ARMPAs were finalized. A modified Sage-grouse Mineral Withdrawal Draft EIS was subsequently released on 12/30/16. The Trump administration then withdrew the withdrawal EIS on 10/11/17. Environmentalist litigation ensued, and the Trump administration withdrawal was ruled unlawful.
The federal court ruling in the litigation challenging the Trump administration withdrawal of the Mineral Withdrawal EIS lays out the many years of agency reports (NTT, COT) and other agency evidence that demonstrated the necessity of a Mineral Withdrawal to preserve sagebrush habitat. In Western Watersheds Project v. Bernhardt. Case No. 1:16-cv-00083-BLW, the Court refers to Sage-grouse Focal Areas being essential for the long-term health of Sage-grouse, based on the scientific information and BLM and USFWS’s own documents. The court cited the NTT (National Technical Team) Report, a science-based BLM Sage-grouse habitat management directive which preceded the USFWS COT Report:
“[t]here is strong evidence from the literature to support that surface-disturbing energy or mineral development within priority sage-grouse habitats is not consistent with the goal to maintain or increase populations or distribution.” (SFA_18392.). Ruling p. 5.
“With regard to lek buffers, the NTT Report found that the BLM’s existing 0.25 mile “No Surface Occupancy” buffers around sage-grouse leks and 0.6 mile seasonal timing buffers were inadequate to protect sage-grouse, stating that “protecting even 75 to >80% of nesting hens would require a 4-mile radius buffer” and that even a 4-mile buffer “would not be large enough to offset all the impacts” of energy and mineral development”. p. 6.
The Court cites the COT report: “There is an urgent need to ‘stop the bleeding’ of continued population declines and habitat losses by acting immediately to eliminate or reduce the impacts contributing to population declines and range erosion,” and that “[t]here are no populations within the range of sage- grouse that are immune to the threat of habitat loss and fragmentation”, and the need to conserve all existing PACs. p. 6.
“In an October 2014 memorandum to the BLM and Forest Service, the FWS identified a sub-category of the PACs as sage-grouse “stronghold” areas that have the “highest densities of greater sage-grouse and other criteria important for the persistence.” (SFA_14530.) These strongholds were the basis for the “Sagebrush Focal Areas” (SFAs) in the 2015 Plans … and were designated as “a subset of priority habitat most vital to the species persistence within which [the FWS] recommend[s] the strongest levels of protection.” pp. 6- 7.
“The FWS explicitly relied on the BLM and Forest Service’s conservation efforts, including the proposed withdrawal, in finding that the listing of the sage grouse as a threatened or endangered species “is not warranted at this time.” 80 Fed. Reg. 59936”. p. 10.
“The record establishes that mining causes both direct habitat loss by physically removing vegetation within the footprint of the mining operation and associated infrastructure, and functional habitat loss beyond the mine’s physical footprint. This functional habitat loss falls into two categories: habitat fragmentation and behavioral avoidance”. (SFA_9915; 75 Fed. Reg. 13927.)” p. 63.
Regarding behavioral avoidance by Sage-grouse of mining-disturbed areas:
“Behavioral avoidance occurs when disturbances or activities cause sage grouse to avoid otherwise suitable habitat. (SFA_9915.) Such activities and disturbances include noise, such as from blasting or from roads, visual disturbances, pollutants, and areas with increased predators/predation risks due to human-made structures, such as powerlines and fences. p. 64.
The court also referred to mining-caused habitat fragmentation and connectivity loss:
“Loss of connectivity can increase population isolation and result in the loss of genetic diversity and extirpation from stochastic events, such as drought or wildfire. (SFA_9911.) Human development, such as mine pits, powerlines, and roads, results in habitat fragmentation and decreased connectivity. (SFA_9945.) “Small decreases in lek connectivity [can result] in large increases in the probability of lek abandonment.” (SFA_9911.) “Therefore, maintaining habitat connectivity and sage-grouse population numbers are essential for sage-grouse persistence.” (Id.) p. 68.
The ruling discussed the compounding adverse effects of energy/mining habitat destruction, referencing “the compounding effects of these projects in areas that have already been ravaged by wildfire or have already tripped hard triggers”.
In finding the Trump administration withdrawal of the Mineral Withdrawal EIS was unlawful, the Court ordered the BLM to consider “whether the withdrawal is needed for sage-grouse conservation,” and that “such proceedings shall include re-initiation of the NEPA process.”
BLM published a 8/13/2021 Federal Register Notice to Reinitiate Proposed Withdrawal; Sagebrush Focal Areas for another attempt at a Sage-grouse Mineral Withdrawal NEPA process.
There was also an effort in the Trump administrations to amend the 2015 Sage-grouse ARMPAs in with a Supplemental EIS, but a District Court in Idaho issued an order granting a motion for a preliminary injunction preventing the BLM from implementing the Trump ARMPA EIS changes. The court decided that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that the BLM violated NEPA when adopting the 2019 Greater Sage-Grouse plans. As a result, the actions contained in the 2015 RODs remain in effect. Interestingly, the plaintiff preliminary injunction brief in this case stated that the Trump 2019 Sage-grouse plans would have retained Mineral Withdrawals in Oregon.
The lithium/uranium frenzy in the McDermitt region is the nightmare type of prime Sage-grouse habitat destruction scenario that the ARMPA Mineral Withdrawals were designed to prevent.
BLM in 2021 failed to segregate lands proposed for a temporary withdrawal for two years during the NEPA process, yet it had segregated lands for two years in 2015. As a result, mining claims in the Caldera further proliferated since 2021, as lithium fever grew. The general BLM eplanning page for Withdrawal-related documents is here .
The map above shows the BLM 2021 EIS scoping for a proposed Oregon Sage-grouse Mineral Withdrawal. Crucial Caldera lands are again proposed for withdrawal, but the EIS has still not progressed past scoping. Note that much of the habitat west of Highway 95 shown as connecting to the Owyhee landscape/ Louse Canyon PAC to the east is depauperate – due to the 2012 Long Draw fire, sterile BLM crested wheat seedings and other degraded conditions.
The faint reddish yellow color in this map is the complete 2021 proposed Nevada
Mineral Withdrawal area. The Nevada proposed habitat withdrawal areas are only located in the northernmost parts of the state. All the habitats further south that had previously deemed essential and irreplaceable habitat by NDOW circa 2012 were not included in either the 2015 or 2021 withdrawal proposals. Priority habitats to the south are often in the grips of extensive gold and other mining, are threatened by new proposed transmission lines or foreseeable renewable energy projects, and suffer continued grazing impacts and BLM “treatments”, including those that often cause significant collateral damage to sagebrush.
A close-up of the Lone Willow PMU and the adjacent Santa Rosa PMU area from the 2021 Nevada proposed Mineral Withdrawal map. The Caldera lands are the best habitat remaining in the Lone Willow PMU – as the Bilk Creek Range has suffered extensive fire loss with often poor sagebrush recovery and rehab failures..
The above map shows the entirety of the proposed 2021 Mineral Withdrawals. It highlights the importance of this landscape and portions of the Trout Creek and Oregon Canyon Mountains for Sage-grouse population survival. It demonstrates the national and global significance of Caldera lands.
Later in 2021, BLM announced it was considering a broad amendment of management elements of the ARMPAs across the bird’s range – a Notice of Intent to amend all the RMPs that had been amended in 2015 – basically amending the Sage-grouse ARMPA amendments. Continued sagebrush habitat loss, population declines, weak or inadequate elements of the 2015 ARMPAs, BLM failure to effectively implement many ARMPA elements, and the 2019 revision effort apparently prompted BLM to scope new ARMPA revisions.
In 2016, Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley introduced Oregon Mineral Withdrawal legislation that did not move forward. A Wyden Press Release states: “Wyden, Merkley Introduce Mineral Withdrawal Bill Legislation helps farmers and ranchers, protects high desert”, and referred to high desert mining threats:
“This is deeply troubling because these mining operations are dangerous – to the existing local economies as well as to the overall environment,” Wyden said. “Blocking mining in these areas protects the local potential for continued creation of jobs in agriculture and recreation, and the growth of small businesses”.
The long-promised Mineral Withdrawal appears mired in a political tug-of-war, agency bureaucratic processes and foot-dragging. Meanwhile, a Sage-grouse habitat emergency and crisis has developed and exists right now in the Caldera – due to the sudden mining boom, the lack of environmental protection for public lands under the 1872 Mining Law, BLM’s industry-friendly mining regulations, out-dated and lax BLM habitat management, and the overall lack of adequate regulatory controls in place to protect the bird.
The USFWS 2015 ESA “not warranted” finding for ESA listing of Sage-grouse was based on the elements of the ARMPAs, including the Mineral Withdrawals in the Great Basin ROD, being implemented so that adequate regulatory controls for habitat and population protection would be in place. See 10/2/2015 USFWS finding: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 12-month Finding on a Petition To List Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) as an Endangered or Threatened Species. The USFWS found: “The Federal Plans designate the most important sagebrush habitat as SFAs where locatable mineral withdrawal is recommended”.
“Within the areas of greatest conservation importance (SFAs), DOI will recommend withdrawal from locatable mineral entry. We support the recommendations for mineral withdrawal in SFAs that would remove potential impacts on approximately 4 million ha (10 million ac) of sage-grouse habitat”.
The proposed withdrawals and identification of Focal habitat in the Caldera demonstrates that the lands chosen for a Sage-grouse Mineral Withdrawal are of irreplaceable value and significance.
With the 2015 proposed withdrawal, BLM stated “under FLPMA, the first step of the withdrawal process implementing that recommendation is for the Secretary (or Deputy or Assistant Secretary) to ‘‘propose’’ a withdrawal. 43 U.S.C. 1714(b). Upon publication of such a proposal in the Federal Register, the lands are immediately segregated from location and entry under the Mining Law as specified in the notice for a period of two years. That segregation temporarily has essentially the same effect as a withdrawal; that is, it closes the lands to location and entry under the Mining Law, subject to valid existing rights”.
Despite well-documented continued declines in Sage-grouse numbers and ever-increasing habitat loss, since 2015, and the bird’s survival being in greater jeopardy in 2021, when BLM initiated the new withdrawal process in 2021, it failed to put a temporary withdrawal in place. From 2021 to the present, even more claims have been staked in Focal habitat here.
2021-2022 USGS Sagebrush Habitat Reports
USGS reports on the status of Sage-grouse habitats and populations were released in 2021 and 2022 around the time of BLM’s announced new Sage-grouse planning for “amendments to the amendments” to RMPs that were scoped under NEPA. The reports admitted more habitat and population declines. A National Audubon Society Press Release describes:
“Greater sage-grouse populations have declined significantly over the last six decades, with an 80% range-wide decline since 1965 and a nearly 40% decline since 2002 …. Although the overall trend clearly shows continued population declines over the entire range of the species, rates of change vary regionally”.
See Coates et al. 2021 Figure 1, graph of ever-declining Sage-grouse population, and discussion of a 40% decline since 2002.
The trajectory of the bird abundance index in Coates et al. 2021 Figure 1 is apparent. The Coates report proposes an “early warning system” for Sage-grouse populations in trouble. Well, the 2011 NTT Science Report and the USFWS 2013 COT report provided ample early warnings about potential mining threats, and the COT report specifically identified and warned of a potential mining threat to the Sage-grouse population in the region. BLM long knew it needed a Mineral Withdrawal to ensure Sage-grouse survival, and still has failed to deliver. Now a mining frenzy awash with speculation is unleashed in the Caldera.
A USGS Remington et al. 2021 report on the declining sagebrush ecosystem and some species of concern is discussed in more detail below, in relation to sagebrush migratory birds and other threatened biota. The Doherty et al. 2022 USGS Report on p. 17 identifies the Caldera (and Lone Willow PMU and Trout Creek PAC) as a “conservation anchor” habitat (darker blue colors in map below) for preserving Sage-grouse populations.
“Identifying anchor points (that is, areas of spatial congruence) between core sagebrush areas (CSAs) and growth opportunity areas (GOAs) and existing (as of 2020) agency prioritizations within the sagebrush biome”.
The Caldera’s pivotal geographic location is identified as a habitat “conservation anchor”. The Lone Willow PMU/Trout Creek PAC population are shown in darker blue in the above map.
Sage-grouse Research on the Holloway Fire Impacts Highlights Need to Protect All Remaining Sagebrush Expanses
The Foster 2016 thesis research project focused on Sage-grouse habitat use and population response after the Holloway fire in Oregon. It was the basis for the 2018 Foster papers described earlier. Foster’s thesis analysis includes:
“These results indicate that female greater-sage grouse do not respond to wildfire related habitat disturbance through emigration, and rather continue to attempt to exist and reproduce in habitats disturbed by wildfire during the immediate years following a fire. While, due to site-fidelity, sage-grouse are not able to leave wildfire affected seasonal ranges, within those seasonal ranges they still attempt to utilize habitat components which most closely match their life-history requirements”. Foster thesis abstract.
“This reduction in demographic rates likely explains observed sage-grouse population declines following wildfire and indicates that these population declines are not the result of sage-grouse emigration away from fire-affected leks, but rather a true decline in the number of individual sage-grouse on the landscape following large-scale wildfire”. Foster thesis abstract.
“…this behavior [site-fidelity] appears to have an acute fitness cost to individuals, with reduced nesting success and survival of individuals utilizing fire-affected habitats …”. Foster thesis p. 150.
“On the Oregon side of the fire, 77 sage-grouse leks were located within, or in close proximity to, the fire boundary (ODFW, unpublished data)”. Foster Thesis p. 73.
Foster Thesis p. 87 highlights the critical importance of “remnant intact habitat”, and p. 85 provides other studies showing the birds exhibit strong site fidelity to breeding and nesting areas – including Dalke et al. 1963, Wallestad and Schladweiler 1974, Emmons and Braun 1984, Dunn and Braun 1985, Connelly et al. 2011.
Foster thesis, map Figure A-1.1 map, p. 15 shows the extent and severity of the Holloway fire in both Oregon and Nevada. Foster thesis pp. 35-36 details how the birds used post-fire habitats:
“Consistent with our hypotheses, sage-grouse selected for high proportions of intact sagebrush land cover during the winter, although at a scale smaller than anticipated. Sage-grouse during our study exhibited variable migratory behavior, as is typical of the species (Dalke et al. 1960, Connelly et al. 1988, Connelly et al. 2011a), and exhibited considerable site fidelity to all seasonal ranges between 2013 and 2014. At the population level, sage- grouse exhibited patterns of third-order resource selection within fire-affected seasonal ranges consistent with previous observations of resource selection by populations in undisturbed habitats (Connelly et al. 2011b).”
The Foster thesis p. 57 again highlights the great importance of intact sagebrush habitat: “During the breeding season sage-grouse exhibited peak selection for locations which were characterized by 100% intact sagebrush land-cover within a 1-km2 area. This result is comparable to findings across the range of the species that sage-grouse select for sagebrush cover in nesting and early brood-rearing habitats (Aldridge and Boyce 2007, Doherty et al. 2010, Dzialak et al. 2011, Connelly et al. 2011b, Fedy et al. 2014)”.
“Our result suggests that sage-grouse in the Trout Creek Mountains are more likely to exploit persistent forb resources as they become available at progressively higher elevations over the course of the summer (reflecting plant phenology), rather than exploiting lower elevation mesic sites. This indicates that protection of mesic areas alone may not be enough to ensure adequate late summer habitat availability for sage-grouse, and that protection and restoration of
high elevation summering areas may be important for the conservation of some populations”.
“Taken together, these findings support the hypothesis that at the population level, sage-grouse inhabiting disturbed seasonal ranges, are unable to shift habitat selection at the seasonal range scale due to high site-fidelity but do attempt to select habitat components at the site scale to meet their life-history requirements. However, considerable variation in habitat selection patterns existed in our study between individual sage-grouse, especially for habitat components affected by the fire. Wildlife species inhabiting ecosystems with long disturbance intervals relative to the species’ lifespan are likely not well adapted to disturbance, as illustrated by life history characteristics that include high survival, high site fidelity, and low emigration rates (Hansen and Urban 1992, Drapeau et al. 2016). This lack of adaptation to environmental disturbance events (climate, fire, etc.) may manifest as variability in habitat selection response to disturbance between individuals. In other words, while the majority of individuals may make optimal habitat selection choices at site scale, other individuals may make a range of non-optimal habitat choices within landscapes recently impacted by disturbance”. Foster thesis pp. 38-39.
Related information includes Steenvoorden et al. 2019 research on the importance of unburned islands of suitable sagebrush vegetation and an absence of cheatgrass, with these habitat attributes characterizing refugia vital to Sage-grouse population persistence:
“Based on current knowledge about fire refugia and the ecological requirements of sage‐grouse, we test two hypotheses: (a) unburned islands within fire perimeters as well as unburned areas outside fire perimeters mitigate the negative effects of fire on male lek attendance of sage‐grouse by allowing stable or positive population trends …, and (b) postfire habitat composition surrounding leks will influence population trends after fire … Assessing the importance of unburned islands as potential fire refugia for the persistence of wildlife species is of key importance, as there are still major knowledge gaps in understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of wildlife populations within postfire vegetation mosaics (Robinson et al., 2013)”. In
“Cheatgrass cover showed a strong and statistically significant negative effect on postfire male attendance at all scales …”.
“Our results show that male attendance of sage‐grouse at leks is negatively affected by fire when leks are located in burned areas inside fire perimeters. In contrast, leks in unburned islands or in areas far outside of fire perimeters showed predominantly stable or increasing population trends. Our results further demonstrate that vegetation height of unburned sagebrush habitat and elevation is positively associated with sage‐grouse population trends, whereas cover of cheatgrass shows a negative association. These findings support the hypothesis that unburned islands may serve as fire refugia for sage‐grouse, mitigating the negative effects of fire on lek attendance.”
The remaining unburned sagebrush serves as a refugium for Sage-grouse survival.
Anthony et al. 2021 analyzed Sage-grouse extinction risk in relation to fire-caused habitat loss:
“Habitat loss and fragmentation due to wildfire are primary threats to sage-grouse in the western portion of their distribution (Coates et al., 2015, 2016). Our examination of the demographic and population response of a sage-grouse population to a mega-wildfire
suggested both acute and potentially longer-term negative effects on sage-grouse populations. We observed strong evidence of an annual population decline during 3 of 6 years following the fire, with more uncertainty observed in 2015 when populations may have been increasing, and 2017 and 2018, when populations may have been declining. These dynamics were driven largely by female survival and to a lesser extent nest and chick survival. Approximately, 75% of the study area burned during the Holloway fire (Foster et al., 2018) and <5% shrub cover remained in burned areas (compared to 20% in unburned areas, Anthony et al., 2020). Anthony et al. 2021 p. 4.
The authors suspected that habitat carrying capacity decreased after the Holloway mega-fire due to loss of vast amounts of sagebrush and the strong site fidelity of the birds.
“The continued decline in λ since 2016 suggested the loss of 186,972 ha of sagebrush habitat and slow regeneration of sagebrush plants post-fire may prolong recovery of sage-grouse after a mega-wildfire (Steenvoorden et al., 2019). Mean estimates of λ during 2016–2018 were much lower in the Trout Creek study area (0.75) compared to a study in Oregon during the same time period that was not affected by fire (0.93; Olsen et al., 2021)”.
“Within the Holloway fire perimeter, only 25% of the landscape was unburned, leaving substantially less cover for sage-grouse post-fire (Foster et al., 2019). Annual and perennial
grasses have reoccupied the burned areas, and some mammalian predators might avoid areas with high cheatgrass canopy cover (Holbrook et al., 2016). However, sagebrush is slow to recover post fire (15–100 years depending on species), and the low vegetation structure following the fire may increase predators’ ability to detect sage-grouse, especially where topographic ruggedness is high (Dinkins et al., 2014). Thus, post-fire restoration efforts may want to target increasing the number and size of available sagebrush patches to increase sage-grouse survival (Steenvoorden et al., 2019)”. Anthony et al. 2021 p. 9.
Anthony et al. 2020 investigated how fire changed the thermal environment for Sage-grouse in the Trout Creek, Bilk Creek, Oregon Canyon and Montana mountains.
This series of Oregon Sage-grouse research papers highlights the critical importance of retaining and protecting all currently intact blocks of sagebrush habitat across the McDermitt caldera and surrounding lands as a sagebrush refugium. The studies also show the fidelity of the birds to this specific land area. The birds are basically homebodies in this landscape. It appears they won’t just move away to some promised land if habitat is destroyed or disturbed beyond their tolerance by mining. Besides, where is there suitable unoccupied habitat to move away to? This helps demonstrates that large-scale Caldera mining can’t be adequately mitigated.
Similar results were found in a before-and after comparison of nesting in the landscape area of the Rush fire in NE California. Dudley et al. 2022 found nest survival overall decreased after the fire but decreased more within burned areas – where nest survival was reduced from 52% to 19%.
The Caldera population is surrounded by large expanses of burned areas, crested wheat seedings lacking sagebrush, and lower elevation salt desert shrub or cheatgrass – with the range already contracting northward from the Humboldt Basin, and little suitable habitat in much of the area to the north. This makes the population more vulnerable to serious declines or extirpation if confronted with significant mining disturbance habitat fragmentation and/or loss. Adverse mining effects will be magnified in the context of a population that has already suffered large-scale fire effects, and where habitats take many decades to fully recover. Alarmingly, as the ONDA Claims Map shows, lithium or uranium claims now cover over half the land area of the caldera. The mining boom claims are in areas very close to the highest concentrations of Sage-grouse leks, amid crucial remaining mature sagebrush habitats vital for the bird’s seasonal habitat uses and survival, or within critical winter habitats.
The blocks of mining claims shown on the ONDA Claims Map are located in terrible places for the birds, sites where mining exploration and disturbance would be highly visible and audible to lekking, nesting, brood rearing and wintering birds and/or would destroy these same essential habitat types. The specific locations of the claims blocks increases the gravity and enormity of the threat that the mining boom poses to the entire population – huge new development threats amid crucial habitat following on top of the major habitat loss and population effects of the Holloway Fire.
Caldera Habitat Spans Two States, Resulting in Splintered Management. Its Remoteness Has Led to a Lack of Systematic Biological, Cultural and other Studies
The functional Sage-grouse habitat spans two states – thwarting integrated management. There are two separate state wildlife agencies, and two separate BLM Districts involved in management oversight.
The remoteness from Oregon and Nevada population centers has resulted in the Caldera lands often “falling through the cracks”, with few adequate systematic biological, cultural and other inventories. Boise is the closest large population center to much of the region. There is an urgent need for Oregon and Nevada to work together and produce mapping and analysis that shows current lek and other vital habitat locations in both states in relation to lithium and uranium claims (see ONDA Claims Map) and access routes so that the public and decision makers can understand how catastrophic mineral boom claims development would be.
The Importance of the Sage-grouse Population of the Caldera Landscape Has Long Been Recognized by Federal and State Agencies, and the 2013 USFWS COT Report Plea to “Stop the Bleeding”
In the lead-up to a court-ordered 2015 deadline decision on Sage-grouse ESA listing, USFWS prepared a 2013 Conservation Objectives Team report (COT Report) describing and delineating Priority Areas of Conservation (PACs) identified as key habitat areas for Sage-grouse. It identified functional Sage-grouse populations and then-known threats to the PAC habitats and populations. The COT report identified loss and fragmentation of sagebrush habitats as a primary cause of the bird’s decline (COT at 10 and discussed the great difficulties of sagebrush habitat restoration. It recognized how non-renewable energy development [bearing many similarities to hard rock mining] including when “mitigated” may result in long-term population declines and/or extirpation (COT at 11), and that fire and invasive weeds were primary threats in the western portion of the bird’s range (COT at 1).
NDOW biologists have long recognized the Montana Mountains as a premier Sage-grouse habitat and population area in Nevada. This is described in numerous NDOW documents spanning the past 20 years discussed below. See also letter of Jim Jeffress to USFWS, and Thacker Pass Declaration of Terry Crawforth, a Kings River Valley resident and a past Director of NDOW filed in Thacker Pass litigation.
The COT Report identified the Lone Willow PMU, Caldera area and Trout Creek-Oregon Canyon Mountains population as part of the broader “Western Great Basin” population. Map Figure 2 below from the COT report shows how crucial the area is for habitat connectivity linking the Northern Great Basin Owyhee Sage-grouse population and the Sheldon-Hart population, which are placed in different Management Zones (MZs).
COT report mapping identifies the “Western Great Basin” PAC (#31), and the “Northern Great Basin” PAC (#26a) which includes the tri-state Owyhee region. Note that these “PACs” differ in land area than Oregon state “PACs”. The caldera is located on the eastern border of the Western Great Basin PAC. Note that “PAC” encompassing a smaller local population is also applied to a portion of the Montana-Bilk-Trout Creek-Oregon Canyon population by ODFW.
Population threats to the Western Great Basin population area were identified in COT Table 2, and included fire, conifers (absent here), weeds/annuals, grazing, free roaming equids (absent here).
“In developing conservation objectives for the sage-grouse we identified the following
uncertainties that limit our ability to prescribe a precise level of threat amelioration needed to
conserve redundancy, representation and resilience to ensure long-term conservation of sage-grouse, especially on a range-wide level:
- The lack of robust, range-wide genetics-based connectivity analyses;
- The ability to successfully restore lower-elevation and weed-infested habitats is currently limited by a lack of complete understanding of underlying ecological processes, and in some areas because alteration of vegetation, nutrient cycles, topsoil, and living (cryptobiotic) soil crusts has exceeded recovery thresholds (Knick et al. 2003; Pyke 2011). Additionally, resources for restoration activities are often limited; and,
- The effect of climate change on the amount and distribution of future habitat is
largely unknown.
In light of these significant uncertainties, impacts to sage-grouse and their habitats should be
avoided to the maximum extent possible to retain conservation options. This approach will
ensure that potentially unidentified key components to long-term viability of sage-grouse are not
lost, and that management flexibility and the ability to implement management changes will be
retained as current information gaps are filled. Implementing an avoidance first strategy should
reduce or avoid continuing declines of sage-grouse populations and habitats, as well as limit
further reduction in management and restoration options”. COT report pp. 30-31.
The COT Report emphasized the need to “stop the bleeding”, and halt Sage-grouse population declines and sagebrush habitat loss.
“Achieving these objectives will conserve redundancy and representation of the species and its habitats across its range.
- Retain sage-grouse habitats within PACs. This must be a priority. Restoration of these habitats, once lost, is difficult, expensive, and based on current knowledge, success may be limited”. COT report p. 37.
The above map is an enlarged area of the 2013 COT Report map Figure 4. It shows the major toll of the 2012 fires (black color is fire perimeter in primary PAC habitat, orange is non-PAC area burned in Long Draw fire) in the eastern portion of MZ V in this region, with the Long Draw fire extending eastward into the bordering Oregon Owyhee area of MZ IV as well. As described with the Foster 2016 thesis research and other post-Holloway research papers, unburned islands of sage within the fire perimeter are critically important.
The 2012 fires have made all remaining unburned sagebrush habitat even more critical to the birds’ survival. There has been very poor recovery of low sagebrush in burned areas of the 2012 fires. In many places, low sage sites are now infested with cheatgrass and have no young sage plants, and seed sources are long gone. In deeper soil higher elevation sites, a decade after the fire, rabbitbrush shrubs are returning to mountain big sagebrush ecosites, and snowberry and serviceberry are often regrowing from rootstocks. Suitable big sagebrush Sage-grouse nesting and wintering habitat cover and complexity will take many decades more to recover. Cheatgrass invasion truncates natural plant succession, preventing establishment of native shrubs, forbs and grasses. Cheatgrass provides continuous fine fuel that elevates wildfire risk, resulting in fast-moving fires that flash across the landscape. Livestock grazing disturbance exacerbates cheatgrass growth following fires (Williamson et al. 2020). Hotter temperatures caused by climate change stress favor cheatgrass.
The 2013 COT report highlighted the significance of the 2012 fires. It referred to the bi-state population here as “Lone Willow”, and forebodingly referenced potential future lithium and uranium exploration and extraction:
“The Lone Willow portion of the Western Great Basin population (connected with Oregon) was
affected by a very large wildfire in 2012. The Holloway Fire burned approximately 214,000
acres in Nevada and 245,000 acres in Oregon of which about 140,000 acres in Nevada and
221,000 acres in Oregon were considered important or essential sage-grouse habitat. The Miller
Homestead fire in Oregon included an additional 162,000 acres of sagebrush habitat within its
perimeter, 149,000 acres of which was identified as a PAC for the Western Great Basin
population. Fire and annual grasses should be characterized as substantial and imminent threats
within this portion of the population. Additionally, this area faces threats from lithium and
uranium exploration and extraction. Along with infrastructure that may come with this potential development, it may be appropriate to characterize mining and infrastructure as substantial and non-imminent threats to this portion of the population”. COT report p. 84.
Now in 2023, 10 years after the USFWS COT report, mining has become an enormous threat to this population. Mature sagebrush habitat is actively being destroyed at Thacker Pass by Lithium Nevada. Tribal, environmental and rancher litigation efforts in opposition failed to stop the Thacker Pass mine. Jindalee Hi-Tech has already undertaken significant new habitat fragmentation and disturbance in Oregon under NEPA-less Notice exploration activity. See attached WLD letters to Vale BLM with photos of existing Jindalee HiTech exploration destruction and fragmentation of Sage-grouse Focal habitat under NEPA-less Notice-level drilling activity.
The COT Report also included concerns about the condition of riparian and mesic habitats in the broader Western Great Basin population:
“Sites rated as FAR Functioning At Risk – a subjective BLM riparian condition category] are in danger of becoming “Nonfunctional” if the stresses and disturbances causing these conditions are allowed to continue. The dominant causal factors for riparian and wetland sites not being rated as PFC is grazing and trampling from livestock and wild horses … but reducing threats alone is not likely to ensure long-term persistence in some areas … Additionally, for this population to retain its resiliency, significant efforts are needed to ensure post-fire habitat recovery and prevent dominance of non-native vegetation. Overall this population is considered potentially at risk”. COT report p. 85.
Prior to the 2013 COT report, the 2011 BLM National Technical Team NTT Report p. 14 stated:
“Priority sage-grouse habitat areas. Propose lands within priority sage-grouse habitat areas for mineral withdrawal.
Minerals: The primary potential risks to sage????grouse from energy and mineral development are: 1) Direct disturbance, displacement, or mortality of grouse; 2) Direct loss of habitat, or loss of effective habitat through fragmentation and reduced habitat patch size and quality; and 3) Cumulative landscape????level impacts (Bergquist et al. 2007, Walston et al. 2009, Naugle et al. 2011).
There is strong evidence from the literature to support that surface-disturbing energy or mineral development within priority sage-grouse habitats is not consistent with a goal to maintain or increase populations or distribution. None of the published science reports a positive influence of development on sage????grouse populations or habitats”. NTT P. 18-19.
The NTT report recognized that a significant buffer to protect the birds from development disturbance was essential:
“Protecting even 75 to >80% of nesting hens would require a 4 mile buffer” NTT pp. 20-21. The report recommended “excluding mineral development and other large scale disturbances from priority habitats where possible, and where it is not limit disturbance as much as possible.” In summary, the NTT recommended that BLM recommend Priority Habitats be withdrawn from mineral entry, closed to future leasing for fluid minerals, coal, and leasable minerals, and closed to mineral materials sales”.
A map of the 2018 Martin Fire and adjacent fires to the east in Elko County from the Nevada Sagebrush Ecosystem Council website, shows Nevada Sage-grouse PMU names, the extent of those fires, and the bite they took out of the Northern Great Basin population in Nevada.
With the lithium and uranium boom descending, portions of the habitat is at grave risk of being torn asunder – with mining activity destroying and fragmenting habitat in many direct, indirect and cumulative ways. Since the COT report in 2013, the adjacent Northern Great Basin population to the east has suffered the 450,000 acre Martin fire on the southeast side of the Santa Rosa Range, and this and other 2018 fires extend across portions of the Nevada Owyhee region impacting the Great Basin Sage-grouse population.
Critical Attributes of Sage-grouse Winter Habitats
Hagen et al. 2011 examined Sage-grouse winter habitat use and landscape context in three areas of the Oregon high desert (not the Caldera). The findings help highlight the importance of all the remaining blocks of sagebrush habitat in the Caldera landscape. Land areas studied had suffered significant fire impacts, and the authors noted winter use of low sagebrush. Extensive areas of Caldera low sagebrush burned in the Holloway fire, greatly reducing availability of this typically higher elevation shallow soil habitat type with its very long-lived, and very slow to recover small sagebrush plants much-used by Sage-grouse.
“Our findings support the growing evidence suggesting that 70%–80% of a landscape needs to be composed of sagebrush cover to have a high likelihood of use and population persistence by sage-grouse (Doherty et al. 2008, Knick and Hanser 2011).
Contrary to most studies of habitat use by sage-grouse during winter (Eng and Schladweiler 1972, Beck 1977, Hupp and Braun 1989, Robertson 1991, Battazzo 2007), we found that sage-grouse use of low and mixed sagebrush habitats was high on all 3 study areas, and sage-grouse used these habitats equal to or in higher proportion than their availability”.
The 2012 Holloway and Long Draw fires burned large areas of low sagebrush, significantly reducing low sagebrush availability for winter habitat and sustenance. This makes the remaining deep soil big sagebrush habitats at middle and low elevations even more vital for winter survival. In the spring aftermath of the deep snow winter of 2022-2023, there were large amounts of Sage-grouse scat sign around the base of mature and old growth Wyoming and Basin big sagebrush in sage expanses in the McDermitt Creek area, and within Jindalee, FMS, and Aurora claims blocks. K. Fite April 2023 field observations.
Jindalee Mcdermitt Basin exploration drilling demolition of Sage-grouse winter and nesting habitat.
In March-April 2022, there was much winter grouse scat in Wyoming big sagebrush areas where Jindalee exploration had driven cross-country drilling a few months prior – killing mature and old growth sage. The area currently targeted by Jindalee for 267 drilling bore holes and 30 miles of new roads is identified by ODFW as critical winter habitat, and in the aftermath of the 2012 fires that consumed so much low sagebrush (winter habitat on windswept ridges), the McDermitt Basin’s big sagebrush that is a winter use area, particularly in hard winters, is even more essential. But this is the Basin heart site targeted for extensive new lithium mining drilling disturbance and 30 miles of new roads in the Jindalee project. FMS and Aurora claims pepper other areas. There are leks surrounding, and some within, claims blocks.
Arkle et al. 2014 described BLM sagebrush habitat rehab ineffectiveness following fires for wildlife.
“Given current fire frequencies, climate trajectories, and anthropogenic stressors, conservation and protection of ‘‘what’s left’’ is increasingly important, especially in landscapes containing a mix of dwarf sagebrush and big sagebrush steppe with minimal human development and low non-native plant dominance. With respect to sage-grouse habitat, our ability to ‘‘fix what’s broken’’ after large wildfires is currently limited in Wyoming big sagebrush habitats of the Great Basin”. Arkle et al. p. 15.
Lithium Nevada summer 2023 obliteration of Sage-grouse winter habitat at Thacker Pass. Note dust, despite darker soil bands indicating water has been spread for attempted dust suppression in some areas. Large volumes of water are used in dust suppression in these extremely dusty lithium soils. It appears impossible to very effectively mitigate dust pollution though. In windy conditions, funnels of dust rise skywards.
2015 ARMPA FEIS Information on Caldera Sage-grouse Populations
Sage-grouse Nevada – Northeast California 2015 ARMPA DEIS
The 2015 Sage-grouse plans are found at the BLM’s eplanning site here.
From the Nevada and Northeastern California 2015 Greater Sage-grouse Final Resource Management Plan Amendment EIS:
“SFAs—The most restrictive allocations include requirements to avoid and minimize additional disturbance in SFAs, which are a subset of lands within PHMAs, with the highest habitat value for GRSG. Surface disturbance from fluid mineral development is avoided by imposing NSOs, without waiver, modification, or exception. In addition, these areas will be recommended for withdrawal from mineral entry under the Mining Law of 1872, subject to valid existing rights, to address the risk of disturbance due to mining”. P. 1-20.
Historic Sage-grouse habitat in northern and central Nevada. The Lone Willow PMU area is west of highway 95 and north of state route 140.
2015 “Current habitat” mapping shows receding and contracting range in the loss from a series of isolated ranges in the Lahontan Basin, and significant reductions elsewhere. The caldera is becoming the southern extent of the Sage-grouse range in this region. FEIS Figure 3-2.
Mint Green above shows the Lone Willow PMU – part of the “South-Central OR-Northcentral NV population, in a critical linchpin location for connectivity between “Lake Area: Northeastern CA/Northwestern NV Management Zone-V and Northcentral Nevada, Management Zone-IV. FEIS Figure 3-3.
Leks were listed as 36 active leks, 18 inactive leks with 54 total leks. FEIS Table 3-6. p. 3-21. Table 3-7 p. 3-21 shows some high abundance leks are present in this population, with 16% of the population leks having 51+ males.
“The smaller but viable populations in south-central Oregon/north-central Nevada have fewer leks overall, but lek size distributions are similar to those of the most robust Lake Area Oregon, northeastern California/northwestern Nevada and central Nevada populations. These distributions generally correlate to wildland fires, annual grass invasion, and conifer encroachment influences among subpopulations”. [There are no conifer problems in the caldera].
FEIS Figure 3-6 – fires 1992-2014.
Since this 2015 FEIS map was produced, the 2018 Martin Fire burned 450,000 acres east of the Santa Rosas, and other fires burned in the Bull Run/Independence Mountains area.
FEIS Table 3-9 p. 3-26 shows 11 active, 9 inactive leks burned, and Table 3-8 p. 3-25 indicates 503,981 acres were burned in the Lone Willow PMU lands.
“Management Zone V: This MZ consists of five populations/subpopulations in three states (Connelly et al. 2004) and all or portions of ten PMUs in northwestern Nevada and northeastern California. It represents the westernmost extent of the GRSG range in California and contains a mix of habitat issues that have had long-term effects on GRSG populations. The range of GRSG in this region has continued to shrink over the last three decades, while some populations in the MZ are relatively stable. When considered in its entirety, including south-central Oregon, population changes from 1965 to 2004 are statistically undetectable (Connelly et al. 2004). Of the seven MZs, MZ V is characterized as one of those supporting the highest densities of GRSG”. FEIS at 3-33.
FEIS p. 3-36: “The south-central Oregon/north-central Nevada subpopulation contains 455,500 surface acres and 393,000 acres of PPH and PGH in Humboldt County, north of Highway 140 and west of Highway 95. It is denoted as the Lone Willow PMU and includes the Bilk Creek and Montana Mountains. The subpopulation is continuous into Oregon and also includes the Trout Creek Mountains and the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge”.
“Though relatively small, the subpopulation includes 36 active leks. Twenty-one percent of active leks have greater than 21 males and 16 percent have greater than 50 males, similar to other larger subpopulations considered as strongholds in the sub-region. It contains one of the most densely populated winter ranges identified in Nevada”.
“Fire activity is high, with nearly 25 percent of the area burning every decade. In 2012, the Holloway fire burned approximately 214,000 acres in the Nevada portion and another 245,000 acres in Oregon … The COT report (USF WS 2013a) characterizes fire and annual grasses as substantial and imminent threats in this portion of the subpopulation, along with mining and infrastructure as substantial and not imminent”.
The preceding ARMPA Nevada DEIS Chapter 3 describes generalized Sage-grouse habitat use:
“Females have been documented to travel more than 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) to their nest site after mating (Connelly et al. 2000a), but distances between a nest site and the lek on which breeding occurred is variable (Connelly et al. 2004). Average distance between a female’s nest and the lek on which she was first observed ranged from 2.1 miles (3.4 kilometers) to 4.8 miles (7.8 kilometers) in 5 studies examining 301 nest locations (Schroeder et al. 1999)”. DEIS p 9.
It also describes the complexity of the landscape area required to fulfill the bird’s seasonal needs:
“GRSG use different components of their sagebrush habitat for breeding, nesting, brood rearing, and wintering. Key habitat components include adequate canopy cover of tall grasses and medium height shrubs for nesting, abundant forbs and insects for brood rearing, and availability of herbaceous riparian species for late growing-season foraging (BLM 2004d). Understory, height, density, cover, and patchiness of the sagebrush-dominated ecosystem are important to GRSG”.
“The negative impacts of habitat fragmentation on GRSG include reductions in courtship site persistence, courtship site attendance, winter habitat use, recruitment, yearling annual survival, and female nest site choice (USFWS 2010d). Invasive plants are also a serious range-wide threat to GRSG habitat. Once established, invasive plants reduce and eliminate vegetation essential for GRSG food and cover. Invasive species can out-compete sagebrush and increase wildfire frequencies, further contributing to direct loss of habitat. Sagebrush restoration techniques are limited and have generally been ineffective (USFWS 2010a)”.
NDOW’s habitat categories at the time of the DEIS were explained:
“The NDOW habitat categorization mapping then incorporates the best available data (including lek observations, telemetry locations, survey and inventory reports, vegetation cover, soils information, and aerial photography) into a statewide prioritization of GRSG habitat. This mapping delineates GRSG habitat into the following five categories:
Category 1. Essential/Irreplaceable habitat. The lek and associated nesting habitat is categorized as essential and irreplaceable habitat. The interrelationships between the vegetal characteristics of a given area, female nest site selection, and movement patterns of the population that drive males to establish a lek in areas of female use is spatially and temporally dynamic and has yet to be successfully recreated (USFWS 2013a). However, focusing solely on the lek location and a certain buffer around the lek does not always adequately represent those areas that are crucial to the long-term survival of particular populations, especially those that are migratory”. DEIS p. 16. The latter is very important in understanding the flaws with hard-core adherence to abundance-based “core area” mapping.
The DEIS describes the Lone Willow PMU:
“The South-Central Oregon/North Central Nevada subpopulation contains 480,390 surface acres and 400,000 acres of GRSG habitat in Humboldt County north of Highway 140 and west of Highway 95. It is denoted as the Lone Willow PMU and includes the Bilk Creek and Montana mountains. The subpopulation is continuous into Oregon and also includes the Trout Creek Mountains and the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge. Though relatively small in size, the subpopulation includes 36 active leks, with 9 of these supporting 21 to 50 males and 1 population supporting more than 50 males, similar to other larger subpopulations considered as strongholds in the sub-region. It contains one of the most densely populated winter ranges identified in Nevada. Fire activity is high with total burned acreage of nearly 25 percent of the area by decade. In 2012, the Holloway Fire burned approximately 214,000 acres in the Nevada portion and another 245,000 acres in Oregon. VDDT modeling indicates that 30 percent of sagebrush habitats support 10 to 30 percent sagebrush cover, which is considered suitable habitat … The COT Report (USFWS 2013a) characterizes fire and annual grasses as substantial and imminent threats within this portion of the subpopulation along with mining and infrastructure as substantial and non-imminent”.
Mining is now a new substantial threat actively destroying and fragmenting habitat in the Lone Willow PMU, with the finalized Thacker Pass FEIS and ROD and failure of environmental, rancher and tribal litigation in opposition all failing to halt the mine’s development and associated Sage-grouse habitat destruction. Immediately adjacent across the Oregon state line, and impacting the same functional bird population, is the existing Jindalee 5-acre Notice exploration level exploration disturbance that has already taken place. Now there is scoping for 267 drill holes and 30 miles of new roads, and also Aurora Energy Notice and FMS Notice drilling gearing up. Mining activity threats and irreversible habitat destruction are now unfolding and further expansion is imminent, and more Nevada mining highly foreseeable.
2022 Jindalee bore hole waste-water sump with falling down wildlife exclusion fencing located in Sage-grouse breeding and winter range in McDermitt Creek Basin.
The NV-NE CA ARMPA DEIS also shows that the small highly fragmented habitat areas across the Lahontan Basin that were identified as the “Northwestern Interior” population in the 2013 COT report may have already been nearly extirpated by the time of the DEIS – with 9 leks surveyed and no birds found. See ARMPA DEIS Table 3.5 “GRSG Habitat within Nevada and Northeastern California Population/Subpopulation Areas”.
Both the ARMPA DEIS and FEIS include analysis and mapping from the BLM Central Basin and Range Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) Comer et al. 2012 which described predicted climate change stress across the region:
“Dramatic climate envelope shifts are forecasted for GRSG, with only a relatively small proportion of the current distribution forecasted to retain the climate regime close to that currently supporting this species (see Figure 3-8, Bioclimate Change Summary: Greater Sage-Grouse). Green areas indicate where current climate envelope distributions “overlap” with forecast. Blue areas indicate potential contraction, where current climate characteristics supportive of GRSG habitat will be replaced by significantly different climate regime. Pink areas indicate where current climate regime for GRSG habitat is forecasted to occur outside of the current distribution by 2060. More generally, species that rely on sagebrush habitat have higher loss in climate envelope compared with other species. In particular pygmy rabbit, sage sparrow, and Columbian sharp-tailed grouse are projected to experience severe climate-related loss by 2060”. DEIS citing Comer et al. 2012 p. 17.
This is an enlargement of the bioclimate envelope predicted change map from Comer et al. 2012. The caldera, barely on this map, contains green and a bit of pink coloration. Blue = predicted range contraction. Green= predicted overlap. Pink = predicted expansion. FEIS Figure 3-8. P. 3-41. The Montana Mountains and Oregon caldera, Oregon Canyon Mountains and Trout Creek Mountains appear to contain green “overlap”, with a small bit of pink “expansion” habitat. This indicates that much caldera habitat was considered less threatened by climate change than many other areas are.
The Comer et al. 2012 REA p. 17 predicts: “Much of what is currently the vast “sagebrush sea” within this ecoregion could see increasing predominance of salt-desert scrub”. Nowadays, the future actually seems more likely to be cheatgrass.
The cultural importance and significance of Sage-grouse to Native American Tribes is also identified in the ARMPA DEIS: “Sage-Grouse also play prominent roles in some oral traditions. For example, the GRSG has a significant role in Northern Paiute oral traditions. Fowler (2002) and Kelly (1938) collected several variants explaining how the GRSG saved fire during the world flood. The GRSG, the only bird (or animal in other variants) to survive the flood, protected a fire on a mountain top, so that the succeeding animals and humans could have it when the flood waters receded”. DEIS at 145.
Other Information on the Lone Willow PMU and Montana Mountains Sage-grouse Population and Holloway Fire Effects
Sage-grouse information from a 2014 Winnemucca BLM EA Kings Valley Clay Mine EA located in part of what is now the Thacker Pass lithium mine area at pages 64-66 states:
“The entire Project Area lies within the Lone Willow Greater Sage-grouse PMU. During the late
summer of 2012, the Holloway wildfire consumed approximately 183,000 acres of PPH and
PGH in the Lone Willow PMU. This fire included approximately 950 acres of PPH and PGH
within the 10-mile assessment area. Whereas the Holloway Fire consumed sage-grouse habitat
north and west of the Project Area, approximately 5,950 additional acres of PPH and PGH were
burned in the Long Canyon fire to the northeast. These fires have fragmented contiguous, intact
habitat. The vastness of the fragmentation creates an impediment for Greater Sage-grouse to
migrate into other areas where suitable habitat may be available.
Regarding impacts of the Holloway Fire:
Due primarily to the fire and drought conditions, estimated lek attendance in the Lone Willow PMU has decreased 83 percent since 2012 (NDOW 2013c). The five-year population trend for the Lone Willow PMU has shown a decrease of approximately 75 percent. The importance of the sagebrush habitat surrounding the boundaries of these fires is markedly increased; protection of this remaining habitat is of critical importance to Greater Sage-grouse. Loss of prime habitat from these fires has resulted in increased competition for limited resources for those Greater Sage-grouse that survived”. Clay Mine EA p. 73.
The Clay Mine EA also stated: “The habitats within the assessment area can support numerous wildlife species. No formal surveys for mammals, insects, and reptiles were conducted”. This is the story of mining and BLM “treatment” projects in the Caldera. Projects slide by without systematic baseline inventories for many species of wildlife and other values.
“Due to the brevity of other surveys conducted, the opportunity to observe other wildlife species was minimal. Mammals detected in the Project Area during a survey performed in July, 2011 included blacktailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus) and a single golden-mantled ground squirrel (Spermophilus lateralis). An apparently active coyote (Canis latrans) den and two kit fox (Vulpes macrotis) dens were also identified (JBR 2012)”. Clay Mine EA p. 73.
Limited on the ground biological surveys and field observations for many species also characterize the recent Jindalee April 2023 EPO – where some common and sensitive birds animals present aren’t observed.
“NDOW identifies the entire [Clay Mine] Project Area as being within occupied pronghorn antelope winter habitat, with the southern half of the Project Area as being within a pronghorn antelope movement corridor.” Final Clay Mine EA p. 73. This Pronghorn habitat is now being bulldozed away and movement blocked with numerous chain link fences and incessant human disturbance as the Thacker Pass mine construction proceeds. The Clay Mine EA admits:
“The Greater Sage-grouse population of the Lone Willow PMU has been steadily decreasing over the past two to three years, and the loss of PPH and PGH habitat resulting from the Holloway Fire has greatly increased the value of PGH to Greater Sage-grouse in the Project Area. A loss of PGH under these circumstances would have a greater impact than if the PGH habitat were being removed from an area supplying ample quantities of good quality Greater Sage-grouse habitat”.
“The noise model analyzing expected noise created by the Proposed Action is described in detail
in Chapter 4.10. The model indicates that Project-related noise levels near the active leks to the
north would be approximately 37 dBA Leq. Measurements indicate that existing ambient noise
levels may exceed the predicted noise levels at times when human activity occurs in the area, or
when weather conditions result in higher ambient noise (J.C. Brennan & Associates 2013”).
The Clay Mine EA p. 65 showed how serious fire effects were:
“Due primarily to the fire and drought conditions, estimated lek attendance in the Lone Willow PMU has decreased 83 percent since 2012 (NDOW 2013c). The five-year population trend for the Lone Willow PMU has shown a decrease of approximately 75 percent. The importance of the sagebrush habitat surrounding the boundaries of these fires is markedly increased; protection of this remaining habitat is of critical importance to Greater Sage-grouse. Loss of prime habitat from these fires has resulted in increased competition for limited resources for those Greater Sage-grouse that survived”. This unburned habitat is much of the McDermitt Creek Basin (Jindalee, FMS, Aurora claims), much of the Lithium Nevada claims band in the western Montana Mountains and the rest of the Montana mountains and the FMS claims area in the sagebush expanse below the eastern Montana Mountains face.
The Clay Mine EA Table 4 and text describe “sustainable” populations in the Northcentral region NDOW Planning areas. Since then, fires have burned large areas of the Santa Rosa PMU part of the planning area (Martin Fire of 2018), and there was a recent fire in the Pine Forest Range that consumed more sagebrush habitat.
Lithium Americas SEC Report and Jindalee Claims Block Mystery, and Mineral Withdrawal Provides an Opportunity for Lithium Nevada to Live Up to Its Publicly Stated Habitat Commitments
A 2016 Lithium Americas Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Report (Carew and Rossi 2016) contains a map showing corporation-controlled claims in much of the Oregon area where Jindalee is now conducting exploration, and where Jindalee executive Dudfield has said Jindalee “discovered” the lithium. The mystery here is: Why would Lithium Americas let go of Oregon lithium claims just as it was gearing up for lithium mining in the region?
The SEC Report Figure 3.1 “Project Location and Boundaries” includes the Lithium Nevada claims in Nevada and Oregon. The text refers to claims in “Miller” [Malheur] County.
Review of the SEC map above shows the Thacker Pass area labeled as “Phase 1”. Then progressing north, there are 4 other “phases” labeled in Nevada. Phases 2 to 5 are all located within Sage-grouse Focal habitat.
The blue Lithium Americas claims block in Oregon “Miller” county claims block, quite similar to the 2023 Jindalee claims block where 5-acre notice level activity has been taking place, shows what appears to be a diagonal north-south route. This corresponds to what was a pre-drilling faint two track along a fence line that now has been bulldozed in as a road. It also shows also east-west routes that figure prominently in Jindalee exploration schemes. This map appears to foretell 7 years ago what’s been incrementally happening on the ground in the Jindalee claims area under the Vale BLM Notice-level exploration. Note the eastern unlabeled claims block colored blue in the SEC filing. This perhaps corresponds to some current “LiVE” claims on the ONDA Map.
During the Thacker Pass EIS process, various community meetings were held with Lithium Nevada. In meeting contacts with the community, Lithium Nevada representatives were asked – when the company stated that they were conserving Sage-grouse by siting the lithium mine where they did – why didn’t they relinquish the claims they held up in the Montana Mountains? These are the claims shown as Phases 2, 3, 4 plus an unnumbered northern area in the SEC Report map above. The company’s response was essentially “if we give up the claims in the Montana Mountains, someone else will stake new claims”. Terry Crawforth, pers. comm. to Fite. Lithium Nevada public statements about not mining up in the Montana Mountains are referenced in the BLM Thacker Pass Scoping Report p. C-36. The Thacker scoping report also describes how creating an ACEC would therefore not conflict with the company’s stated aims.
Lithium Nevada has also represented during litigation that it was conserving Sage-grouse by mining in a less harmful area. Designation of a Sagebrush Sea ACEC and Mineral Withdrawal here would provide Lithium Nevada with an opportunity to live up to its past assertions of Sage-grouse conservation through mine siting. Agency actions requested in our petition present an opportunity for Lithium Nevada to relinquish the Montana Mountains Focal habitat claims and have an Interior Department Mineral Withdrawal terminate them.
Thacker Pass – the Tip of the Iceberg of Foreseeable Mining-Caused Sagebrush Habitat Destruction in the Caldera Region – General Overview
Thacker Pass EIS documents are found at the BLM eplanning site here. Project maps are here.
The Thacker Pass FEIS 4-1 map above illustrates the mine location. The dark green line traces the border of the Sage-grouse PMU 9. (A useful mental image in looking at all these maps is PMU is the shape of the roots of a molar tooth). This is useful for understanding how the mine severs Pronghorn migration habitat connectivity at the pass as steep topography confines Pronghorn movement to largely the pass area, and how the Double H Mountains will become further isolated and sagebrush species ranges contract.
Some Montana Mountains Sage-grouse leks in relation to the Thacker Pass mine. The FEIS review of lithium mine impacts and consideration of its effects to Sage-grouse populations was a serious cause for biological concern, as no complete picture of the larger habitat and population was provided. The Thacker Pass EIS didn’t even discuss the first round of Jindalee exploration that was already taking place in the Oregon Caldera area. This was ignored in the Thacker Pass cumulative effects analysis.
The Thacker Pass lithium mine Scoping Report p. 36, and 7, 12 and C-34 shows that EIS public comment requested an ACEC be designated under a wildlife protection alternative as part of the EIS process. Public comments describe how the Montana Mountains met the Relevance and Importance criteria.
Comment: A Montana Mountains ACEC would meet 43 CFR § 1610.7-2’s criteria for ACEC designation (relevance and importance). The relevance criterion is met because there are significant fish and wildlife resources currently present in the Montana Mountains (Lahontan cutthroat trout and greater sage-grouse leks and habitat). The importance criterion is met because the Montana Mountains have state and regional importance as wildlife habitat (Lahontan cutthroat trout, greater sage-grouse) that go well beyond the Montana Mountains’ local importance to wildlife. Appendix C, C-34.
A Double H Mountains ACEC was also proposed. “Double H Mountains Wildlife Mitigation Alternative. Immediately to the south of the Project lie the Double H Mountains. They include important habitat for wildlife, including the Double H bighorn herd. To mitigate for the proposed Project’s wildlife mortality, destruction of wildlife habitat, and noise impacts to wildlife, the Double H Mountains should be protected as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern managed to protect wildlife and cultural resources”. Appendix C, C-34.
These ACEC proposal comments were summarily ignored by Winnemucca BLM, and not evaluated in the Thacker EIS process.
Great Basin Resource Watch (GBRW) et al. Thacker Pass Final EIS comments reflected information in NDOW project comments and letters and described the gravity of the mine impacts on the bellwether Montana-10 lek and other leks in the mine vicinity.
“The Montana-10 lek is one of the 3 largest leks in the caldera, and it is close proximity to the Thacker pass. Noise studies associated with mine development determined that the lek would be vulnerable to mine noise impacts. The life of the Thacker Pass mine disturbance is expected to be at least 45 years … other leks may also suffer harm.
The stream-lined Thacker Pass FEIS process short cut systematic collection and analysis of baseline data on sensitive and important native biota. No project-specific Sage-grouse population and use studies were conducted in advance”. The same thing is now happening with the Jindalee drilling project – there has been no pre-drilling study of just how the bird’s use the project area.
Birds on the Montana-10 lek.
During the Thacker Pass process, Lithium Nevada representatives repeatedly denied that Sage-grouse used any of the Thacker Pass mine project site habitat. GBRW et al. comments cite NDOW letters show Lithium Nevada’s Sage-grouse assertions to be false:
“There is one active lek (Montana-10) within 0.96 miles of the Project area, and three active lek sites within 3.1 miles of the Project area (Figure 4.5-10, Appendix A). NDOW lek observations have documented birds displaying at this lek within 0.75 miles of the proposed Project area (NDOW 2020). GRSG have been documented within the Project area during field surveys and by NDOW, who reported 63 tracking locations generated by at least 30 radio-marked birds (NDOW 2018).
The Montana-10 lek is one of the three largest leks in the Lone Willow PMU. Mapping shows six active and two inactive sage-grouse leks within or adjacent to the Project area. See Figure 4.5-10. The FEIS does not disclose whether sage-grouse leks occur south of the PMU, but there are active sage-grouse leks in the southeastern portion of the PMU”.
Nearly the entire Project area occurs within moderate to high quality sage-grouse winter habitat and the northwestern portion of the Project area where the pit mine will be located, is high- quality brood-rearing habitat. Figures N.2, N.3; see also G-18. The most high-quality sage- grouse habitat is in the north of the Project area where the open pit will be located. See G-18 (describing habitat).
While the Winnemucca RMP, as amended, caps disturbance in high-value sage-grouse Priority Habitat Management Areas (PHMAs) at 3 percent and the project and PMU scale, disturbance in the Project area already surpasses that threshold. The Project will disturb 1.2 percent of PHMAs within the PMU and will raise disturbance in the Project area from 4.4 percent to 12 percent. Although the Project area already exceeds the 3 percent project-level disturbance cap, BLM seems to believe it may disregard that cap because the Project involves lithium mining.
has also elected not to apply several Required Design Features (RDFs), including measures to address noise from the Project, because it claims that those measures do not apply to locatable mineral developments. Indeed, BLM appears to contend that it cannot constrain the manner of development at Thacker Pass at all to protect sage-grouse. GBRW comments at 10.
Additionally, GBRW FEIS comments p. 11 refer to the mine dooming hope for Double H Sage-grouse use, even if habitat were ever to sufficiently recover there:
“The FEIS also fails to consider reasonably foreseeable effects to sage-grouse from the Project. For instance, it does not consider effects to sage-grouse from cutting off the southeastern part of the PMU from the rest of the PMU, either to sage-grouse populations in the PMU or to sage- grouse population in the PAC of which the PMU is part. The FEIS does not consider effects in light of the effects of wildfire that eliminated 48 percent of the sagebrush habitat in the western portion of the PMU”.
Nearly all Double H sagebrush has been lost in fires, and extensive areas are dominated by cheatgrass. Early Thacker Pass mapping showed one or two apparently extinguished leks in proximity to mine site development. It’s doubtful any leks remain. Habitat appears to have contracted substantially. The construction and operation of the Thacker Pass mine will further isolate any remaining Double H birds.
Additional Nevada Information Relevant to Caldera Area Importance
A Winnemucca BLM 2017 program overview report describes the Lone Willow PMU as having “the highest quality sagebrush habitat” in Nevada, and mentions anti-collision markers placed on fences in some areas of the Montana Mountains:
“In coordination with the BLM Wildland firefighters, the district was able to complete over 60 miles of fence line in 2016. The majority of fence marking has been targeted within Montana Mountain range located within the Lone Willow PMU. This area is a Sagebrush Focal Area (SFA) having the highest quality habitat for sage-grouse within Nevada”.
There is a high density of fences in many areas, including both the McDermitt Creek Basin and Montana Mountains. Photos below are of a Sage-grouse fence mortality collision site in McDermitt Creek Basin in Oregon. Fite, spring 2023 field obs.
A 2019 Nevada Sagebrush Ecosystem Council report shows that the Lone Willow PMU tripped a population decline trigger. A 2020 report indicates it was a hard trigger. Fall 2020 Adaptive Management Trigger Summary. p. 3.The NDOW 2023 Upland Game Bird Stamp Program Report p. 35 graph depicts the declining long-term Sage-grouse trends in Nevada.
“Humboldt County – Four mornings of aerial survey were conducted. Two mornings of survey were conducted in the Lone Willow PMU where 80 leks were checked with 28 being active. In the Santa Rosa PMU, 46 leks were surveyed of which 12 were found to be active. One morning of survey was conducted in the Black Rock PMU where 20 leks were checked with 5 being active”. NDOW 2023 Report at 10.
See also State of Nevada Semi-annual Sagebrush Ecosystem Report September 2023 showing declining lek attendance numbers.
The NDOW 2022 Upland Game Bird Stamp Report p. 7 states:
“Humboldt County – Four mornings of aerial survey were conducted. During the survey, 82 leks were visited in the Lone Willow PMU of which 25 were active. In the Santa Rosa PMU, 79 leks were checked and 18 were found to be active”.
The NDOW 2022 Small Game Status Report reflected low Sage grouse recruitment:
“The pooled statewide production estimate obtained from analysis of the wings collected in 2021 was 1.09 chicks per hen, which was 10.7 percent less than the previous season’s average of 1.22 chicks per hen (Table 2). The long-term (25-year) average estimated production is 1.50 chicks per hen. There were some regional differences in productivity observed during 2021. Eastern Region (mostly Elko County in northeastern Nevada) chick recruitment was estimated at 1.30 chicks per hen while Western Region (Humboldt and Washoe County) values were determined to be much lower at 0.94 chicks per hen. From a population management unit (PMU) standpoint, sample sizes were small with the exception of the North Fork PMU (n=124) in the Eastern Region and the Lone Willow PMU (n=187) in the Western Region”. NDOW Report p. 36.
This wing data appears to reflect a significant number of birds still hunted and wings turned in for the Lone Willow PMU, especially with a 2-day season. It also shows a dwindling number of NDOW hunt units open (p. 33), and a graph of trend lek declines (p. 35).
Longstanding Agency Knowledge of High Value of the Lone Willow PMU
The Lone Willow Sage-grouse PMU’s importance has long been known. As biologist concern for the loss of sagebrush habitat and the destruction of the sagebrush ecosystem has grown, and in the wake of petitions filed by environmental groups seeking ESA listing, state wildlife agencies across the West produced new management plans for Sage-grouse populations.
NDOW 2004 Greater Sage-grouse Conservation Plan for Nevada and California
The NDOW 2004 Greater Sage-grouse Conservation Plan for Nevada and California compiled information concerning the Lone Willow PMU and populations across the state..
The 2004 Conservation Plan states:
“Figure 9 depicts these core population areas; however, it should be noted that not all of the PMUs have population estimates established for them, mostly because of the lack of data. It should also be noted that the Lone Willow PMU in northern Humboldt County is probably misrepresented in Figure 9 because the population estimates used for this map have been extrapolated solely from lek count data. The Lone Willow PMU has had little lek monitoring from the ground because of access issues in the springtime. Most of the monitoring is conducted aerially and only once per year; however, mark-recapture studies in the Lone Willow PMU (described later within this section) have revealed that this area supports a high population of sage-grouse”. NDOW 2004, p. 22.
There were 127 known Lone Willow PMU leks in 2004. Note that in later years leading up to a court-ordered 2015 deadline for USFWS to issue a new Finding on ESA listing of the Sage-grouse, western state wildlife departments conducted very intensive lek searches and inventories, often finding additional leks.
The Conservation Plan stated:
“Based on these PMU population estimates, the current estimate of sage-grouse within Nevada and eastern California is between 68,000 and 88,000 birds. This estimate does not include the birds within 17 PMUs for which population estimates are not yet available; however, the low-end estimate is consistent with the population estimate of 68,453 generated independently by the Partners in Flight Breeding Bird Survey and documented in the North American Landbird Conservation Plan (Rich et al. 2004)”.
A NDOW 2006 Report, Table 2, shows “production” of the Montana Mountains PMU and other PMUs in the Western Region of Nevada. Wing data indicated high production in the Lone Willow PMU. It also indicates a considerable amount of hunting took place in Lone Willow then, too:
Additionally, the Conservation Plan described OSU research underway (apparently the Rebholz study discussed below) to examine chick survival, and a hunting effects study that had recently been concluded which estimated very high numbers of birds in the Lone Willow PMU.
“North Central Local Plan Area
The Lone Willow PMU in north-central Humboldt County historically and presently supports a large sage-grouse population. Prior to 2001, NDOW estimated that the population of sage- grouse in this area was approximately 3,000 birds based on lek counts and hunter harvest information. It was also estimated that approximately 200 hunters visited the area annually and harvested between 350 and 400 birds. In 2000, NDOW collected 438 wings from hunter- harvested birds, reflecting a harvest rate of approximately 15 percent of the estimated population. The most recent population estimates from lek count data are 1,900 to 2,400 birds.
The harvest rate and the questionable accuracy of the population estimates caused some concern that hunter harvest may have an impact on this particular sage-grouse population. In turn, NDOW initiated an intensive mark-recapture study that began in 2001 and will be concluded in 2004. The following preliminary results have been recorded:
- ” 817 sage-grouse have been captured and marked with either a leg band or telemetry collar and leg band during the summer months
- ” The nine-day fall hunting season was used as the random recapture sample.
- ” The Lincoln Index calculation estimated 11,070 sage-grouse in the Lone Willow PMU in 2003, which is substantially greater than the original population estimate size of 3,000 birds in 2000”.
NDOW 2006. Upland and Migratory Game Bird, Rabbit and Fur-bearing Animal Report
The NDOW 2006 report Sage-grouse wing data at 22 showed Sage-grouse production highest in the western region of Nevada in the Lone Willow PMU.
“Major factors that have influenced sage-grouse populations in the western region include urbanization, mining and wildland fires that have significantly altered vegetation types.
It referenced birds observed across the NDOW western region at that time in lek counts:
“Production is measured by young/hen in all of the Population Management Units (PMUs). Production during this past year continues to be highest in the Lone Willow PMU. This ratio has fallen over the last two years which has been the general case for all units in the western region.
In the Western Region, lek counts were conducted this spring from both the ground and the air. Biologists observed over 4,400 sage-grouse during these surveys”.
How does this compare to numbers and occupancy of leks today – and what has been the trend on the same leks over time? Such information is critical to understanding the status of the Sage-grouse. population in both states. It is impossible for the public to untangle various changes in leks – intensity of searches, methods of search, accessibility, may vary from year to year, and some leks may have blinked out, while some previously unknown leks may be found.
Montana Mountains bird in 2023. Snow cover affected lek counts in some areas.
Rebholz Lone Willow PMU Montana Mountains Research
An OSU thesis project Rebholz 2007 focused on Sage-grouse nesting habitat use in the Montana Mountains portion of the Lone Willow PMU.
“Nevada has various sagebrush communities that support sage-grouse, and most have been affected by the same factors degrading sage-grouse habitat across their geographic range. Population declines were reported as early as the 1930s (Girard 1937, Rassmussen and Griner 1938). The mean decline statewide is 50%; however, some local sage-grouse populations have declined as much as 80% (Nevada Wildlife Federation 2002). These declines are thought to be caused by reduced reproductive success (Klebenow 1985). Despite a similar history of habitat loss that impacted populations throughout the rest of the state (Nevada Wildlife Federation 2002), sage-grouse populations in northern Nevada remain relatively stable.
The Montana Mountains in northwestern Nevada support one of the highest densities of sage-grouse in Nevada and reproductive success appears to be high …”. Rebholz 2007 p. 10.
Rebholz describes Sage-grouse use of dense sagebrush and other shrub cover for nesting, and the high value of the habitat.
“Nests were generally laid in areas with 15.6% (SE ± 1.0) mean grass cover, 30.2% (SE ± 1.3) sagebrush cover, and 37.2% (SE ± 1.5) total shrub cover and were typically placed under shrubs (1-m plot) with greater canopy and more grass cover than the surrounding general location (10-m) (Table 3). Sixty percent of sagebrush cover at 1-m plots was ≥40 cm. Successful nest sites (1-m plot) had more grass cover …”. Rebholz p. 18.
Rebholz described very high Montana Mountains bird numbers:
“Banding efforts and hunter harvest data suggested the Montana Mountains support one of the highest densities of sage-grouse in Nevada and Oregon (Nevada Division of Wildlife, unpublished report 2006)”. Rebholz p. 31.
Thesis results were later published in Rebholz et al. 2009, a paper on Sage-grouse nest site characteristics and nesting success that calculated extremely high numbers of birds in the Montana Mountains:
“Despite a similar history of habitat loss that impacted populations throughout the state, the Montana Mountains in northwestern Nevada support one of the highest densities of sage-grouse in the state and reproductive success appears to be high. Based on harvest data collected from marked birds between 2001 and 2005, population estimates in the Montana Mountains were between 7,264 and 13,625 and annual production has been as high as 3.02 chicks per hen (E. Partee, Nevada Division of Wildlife, unpublished report)”.
There are large leks on the east face of the Montana Mountains that were central to the Rebholz study (T. Crawforth, pers. comm. to Fite). These leks are adjacent to and/or overlooking the large north-south block of FMS claims shown on the ONDA Claims Map. They were a focus of the Rebholz study. Much of this area has not burned in large fires. However, since the Rebholz research, it has suffered various BLM “fuels treatments” that fragmented sagebrush and increased cheatgrass, so some areas now have reduced mature sagebrush.
The high concentration of important leks and productive habitat in the Montana Mountains illuminates how drastically impacted the Sage-grouse population would be by lithium or uranium mining in the Montana Mountains large Lithium Nevada claims band, or by the eastern face of the Montana Mountains and the large band of FMS claims running through the Jordan Meadows-Crowley area. The sagebrush in the broad flat expanse along the Crowley Creek-Jordan Meadows road is of critical importance to wintering Sage-grouse. Retired NDOW biologist Jim Jeffress describes snowshoeing into this area in a deeper snow winter and encountering a very high density of birds using the big sagebrush cover above the snow. Jeffress, pers. comm. to Fite. Mining traffic on this road, or outright mining destruction of the sage expanse would be a disaster for Sage-grouse.
2010 Greater Sage-grouse Range-Wide Core Habitat Mapping
Preceding the 2010 USFWS “Warranted but Precluded Finding” for Greater sage-grouse, Doherty et al. 2010 compiled and mapped Sage-grouse population data range-wide, and identified high abundance population centers. This resulted in the ascendance of “core area” mapping of high breeding density areas as a focus of Sage-grouse conservation efforts, and what also can be seen as triage of smaller populations in areas where birds were less abundant.
At this time, the full brunt of accelerated oil and gas development in Wyoming in the eastern part of the bird’s range had not yet played out on the land. Doherty et al. 2010 at 5 state:
” Data. Knowledge of high-abundance population centers for priority species represent a starting point to frame regional conservation initiatives, and can direct management to landscapes where actions will have the largest benefit to regional populations
(Groves et al. 2002, Sanderson et al. 2002)”.
Red color in the Doherty maps indicates highest abundance. Note the Management Zone (MZ) divide between population categories. MZ V is Western Great Basin population with the Caldera in its eastern area) and MZ IV (Northern Great Basin population), with Highway 95 basically the dividing line. The Caldera landscape is a vital area for Sage-grouse population abundance. Since this data was compiled, there have been major fires, energy developments and continuing chronic grazing impacts and livestock facility development in many of the “best” habitats for populations range-wide.
Up in the Montana Mountains in lekking time.
Winnemucca BLM 2012 Montana Mountains Fuels EA Describes Landscape Significance for Wildlife – As It Proceeds with Analysis to Kill Sagebrush and Fragment Habitat
A Winnemucca BLM 2012 Fuels EA states:
“The planning area is part of the Lone Willow sage-grouse population management unit (PMU) and includes 237,000 acres of sage-grouse winter habitat, 215,000 acres of nesting habitat, and 128,000 acres of summer habitat (NDOW Sage Grouse Habitat GIS layer 2011). Sixty-four leks are documented as occurring within the planning area …”.
The EA is DOI-BLM-NV-WO10-2011-0005-EA, Montana Mountains Cooperative Fuels Treatment Project. The project area did not include the Bilk Creek Mountains or the Double H Mountains). Thus, soon after Rebholz identified the importance of the higher density nesting cover here, Winnemucca BLM took action to reduce the sagebrush cover that had supported the high bird density.
“The need for this Plan is to protect critical sagebrush obligate species habitat including Sage-grouse and Pygmy Rabbit habitat and protect threatened species habitat for Lahontan cutthroat trout that are at substantial risk from wildfire due to drought conditions and from hazardous fuels at a landscape level”. The “protection” was focused on various methods of destroying denser sagebrush cover in a manner that very strongly resembled livestock forage projects – reducing the type of shrub cover that the Rebholz thesis had found the birds used for nesting.
“The Montana Mountains contains some of the most important Threatened and Endangered and sensitive species habitat within the state of Nevada. Threatened species present include Lahontan cutthroat trout. Candidate species present include the greater sage-grouse and sensitive species present include pygmy rabbits, burrowing owls and others”. Fuels EA p. 6.
While claiming to restore lands, the Winnemucca Fuels EA actions instead aimed to fragment and/or kill sagebrush totaling 10,000 acres.“Treatment” methods included: Mechanical – Dixie harrow, mastication pulled by large tractor. Herbicides used include Imazapic, glyphosate, Tebuthiuron. Tebuthiuron persists for a decade or longer suppressing sagebrush and other woody shrubs for extended periods of time. This facilitates cheatgrass invasion as previously cool, shaded and protected shrub understory areas becomes hotter, drier, windier and readily invaded by cheatgrass after shrubs are killed by the chemical. Areas of past Winnemucca BLM Montana Mountains “treatments” have visibly expanded cheatgrass. Fite, field obs. of mowed off sage and other treated areas.
Glyphosate is Round-up, a carcinogen that scientific studies increasingly show wreaks ecological havoc. Imazapic has been used by BLM as a cheatgrass and medusahead panacea. Instead, this herbicide that is claimed to “control” cheatgrass often only has fleeting weed suppression benefits – and it often causes collateral damage and kills or weakens non-target native plant species. It kills or injures residual native vegetation and prevents native plants from establishing. BLM may also at times uses Imazapic with Round-Up added. The Fuels EA also included use of “prescribed fire”. Thus, BLM’s EA proposed “treatment” targeted the very habitat types required by the Pygmy Rabbit year-round, and by Sage-grouse to fulfill seasonal nesting and winter needs, and the structurally complex mature dense sagebrush essential for sagebrush-dependent sensitive migratory songbird nesting.
“Habitat restoration projects would include manipulation of large stands of late seral stage sagebrush with poor age class distribution to create a multiple age class stand which would increase the health and vigor of the stand. Mechanical treatments would be applied in a mosaic pattern or strips to change the age class and stand structure. For the first year of treatment no more than 1/6 of one sage block would be treated; prior to treatment the block would be monitored to determine what plant species are present in the area, and their average density and cover across the sage block”. Fuels EA p. 8.
This amounted to 10,000 acres of new disturbance, primarily sagebrush habitat destruction that would result in fragmentation of a far larger area in the Montana Mountains, on top of various other past BLM “treatment” projects that already had taken place. Sagebrush community recovery from such manipulation takes many decades. BLM’s purposeful past fragmentation of habitat makes protection of remaining sagebrush in even more critical.
Long Recognized Great Importance of Montana Mountains Sage-grouse Habitat
The Montana Mountains are the foundation of the Lone Willow PMU today (Double H Mountains are lost, much of the Bilk Creeks have suffered many fires, or had poor rehab outcomes). There still are numerous leks and high bird abundance leks. Nearly all the habitat is highest quality Sage-grouse Focal habitat.
It’s no exaggeration to say that given the importance of the Montana Mountains to the Lone Willow PMU, and the configuration of the lithium claims shown on the ONDA Claims Map, expanded lithium mining could result in ever-dwindling populations or extirpation. For the past 25 years, Nevada and BLM Sage-grouse reports have emphasized the importance of the Lone Willow population, and its high-quality wildlife habitat productivity and bird abundance.
Trout Creek Sage-grouse PAC – Oregon
PAC Population map from ODFW 2022 Sage-grouse 2022 Annual Report Figure A1.1. “Louse Canyon” is the Oregon Owyhee population to the east, part of the Northern Great Basin population. Highway 95, with often degraded habitat nearby, separates the two areas.
The Oregon part of the bi-state Caldera population is managed by ODFW as part of the Trout Creek PAC. PAC = rough Oregon equivalent of PMU). Oregon areas of low abundance or leks are relegated to non-PAC status – vs. NDOW PMUs that typically span a population habitat area including low abundance areas. Much of the Trout Creek PAC area outside the Caldera has burned in the Holloway and/or Long Draw fires. Sub-optimal habitat (burned with only islands of sagebrush, crested wheat with limited sagebrush, and/or low elevation sage with dense cheatgrass, or cheatgrass/annual weedland) are found in or by portions of the north-eastern Trout Creek PAC area, and parts of the far western area too. The ODFW annual reports don’t appear to regularly separate out bird numbers in proximity to the Caldera vs. the rest of the PAC – although for hunting purposes the 2021 annual report shows ODFW further subdivides the Trout Creek PAC into “WMUs”.
There have been troubles in the Oregon Trout Creek PAC in recent years – first the big 2012 fires, and then additional declines. See ODFW “Oregon Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring: 2021 Annual Report pp. 27-28 states:
“Additionally, the Trout Creeks PAC declined noticeably from the 2020 population estimate. Explanations for these sharp localized declines are not immediately apparent, but below average moisture conditions in this area during 2020 may have impacted sage-grouse chick production”.
Also: “Oregon’s 2019 statewide sage-grouse population estimate was the lowest recorded in the state’s history during the monitoring timeframe. The slight population increase in 2020 and moderate increase in 2021 suggests that 2019 was the trough in the most recent population cycle (Figure 3). However, lack of a sharp rebound following the 2019 historic low population estimate warrants serious concern for the sage-grouse population in Oregon”.
“Seventy-two percent of the Trout Creeks PAC has burned at least once since 1975, with many acres burned multiple times. In 2012, the perimeters of the Holloway and Long Draw acres together encompassed 271,884 acres (69 percent) of the PAC”.
Where Oregon further breaks down PAC areas into WMUs (2021 ODFW report p. 94, Map Figure A4-1), the Caldera portion is shown as being a part of WMU 68A. Oregon leks “outside of PACs”, and Oregon population and habitat management overall, appears based more strictly on core or highest abundance areas (akin to the Doherty et al. 2010 mapping), with the resulting triage of many areas of less abundance. Non-PAC areas are mapped in the “WMU” mapping of Figure A4-1.
Oregon BLM grazing and other analyses marginalize public concerns over impacts to lek areas and sagebrush habitats in these “non-PAC” Sage-grouse habitat areas, even though non-PAC areas and occupied leks in them may be necessary for connectivity and gene flow between populations, in the ever-dwindling sagebrush habitats of the West. A 2023 example illustrates the management negligence of this all. Burns BLM’s recent 2023 Final EA for the Alvord allotment grazing process treatment spanned an area of non-PAC leks and associated habitats as categorized as General habitat. The Final EA for this quarter million acre allotment, 93% of which is non-PAC general Sage-grouse habitat stated:“Monitoring of leks not associated with a PAC has not been consistent, making the assessment of population trends for these leks difficult”. Yet Burns BLM final Alvord decision imposes 7 new cattle water wells, increased cattle stocking AUMs, and new and expanded nesting season grazing disturbance periods. BLM basically wrote off Sage-grouse impact concerns here. Agency disregard for non-PAC leks and habitats clashes with stacks of recent Sage-grouse research papers that emphasize the importance of habitat connectivity. Also, since there was no ODFW PAC, Burns BLM stated: “The limited plot data currently available for a Site-scale analysis within the allotment is insufficient to inform statistically viable conclusions of habitat conditions. Therefore, a Site-scale HAF analysis has not yet completed. Available habitat was determined to be sufficient to maintain existing GRSG populations …”. Basically, BLM didn’t bother to do a proper habitat analysis for what is basically managed as a sacrifice habitat for sagebrush species (so much for the Sage-grouse “umbrella” theory too – wherein BLM claims that habitat protections for Sage-grouse will save other species too – even though other species have specific needs that may differ from Sage-grouse). See Alvord 2023 Final EA p. 3-47. BLM then proceeded to extrapolate Alvord non-PAC population numbers from surrounding PACs, including the Trout Creek PAC..
The 2021 ODFW Annual Report describes:
“In 2019, permits were once again offered in that part of the Whitehorse WMU west of Highway 95 and south of the Whitehorse Ranch Road (Trout Creek Mountains, Sub-WMU 68A; Figure A4.1). No permits were offered in this area between 2012 and 2018 due to ongoing research investigating the impacts of the Holloway Fire on sage-grouse in the Trout Creek Mountains”. This means the post-Holloway fire research of Foster and others was conducted on a non-hunted population.
2022 Annual Report Table A1.2 shows 185 males observed in 2021, and 215 males observed in 2022. The 2022 Annual Report p. 73: Trout Creeks PAC states:
“The Trout Creeks PAC is situated in southeastern Harney County and southwestern Malheur County and is split between the Burns and Vale BLM Districts (Figure A1.1). Ninety-eight leks, comprising 56 complexes are known to exist or have existed in the PAC (Table A1.1). Two new leks were discovered during 2022 aerial lek searches. Surveys were first recorded for leks within the PAC in 1970; however, annual lek surveys were not conducted consistently within the PAC until 2012 (Figure A1.36)”.
At least one of these two new leks was located in the Caldera, and that lek site itself is bordered by, or within, a staked lithium claims block, and has a direct line of sight into the Jindalee claims block (Fite, field obs.). Displaying birds were also present on the lek in 2023. This lek site could become part of a future open pit or waste pile, as could leks to the west by the Jindalee claims block.
This serves as an illustration of how severely the Mining Law of 1872 and BLM Mining regulations clash with species conservation on public lands. Under the radar Jindalee Notice-level Jindalee activity started in 2018, but more intensive lek searches do not appear to have been conducted until 2022 when two additional leks were detected.
Note that the Trout Creek area Sage-grouse population – perhaps because of its remoteness from Oregon population centers – wasn’t consistently monitored with lek counts by ODFW prior to 2012, so there would appear to be less of a longer-term baseline and emphasis on the Caldera habitat and populations than exists with the Montana Mountains and the extensive NDOW Lone Willow PMU reporting since the early 2000s. A further land management complication is that the Oregon part of the PAC straddles Vale and Burns BLM Districts. A primary BLM management emphasis in the Trout Creek PAC region had been stream riparian habitat areas, especially those draining north, where numerous barbed wire stringer fences and water gaps were built to exclude cattle from some stream segments in canyons. The riparian emphasis often resulted in shifted and intensified pressure on sage uplands, springs and dwindling meadows. Overall, sagebrush habitats had taken a back seat here until the jolting loss of so much sagebrush in the weather-driven Holloway and Long Draw fires.
Oregon 2015 Sage-grouse Plan
Oregon’s Sage-grouse Action Plan describes a wide gamut of serious mining harms to Sage-grouse survival.
“Strong evidence in the scientific literature suggests that surface-disturbing energy and mineral exploration or development within significant sage-grouse habitat results in impacts that are inconsistent with maintaining or improving population and habitat conditions. Surface mining (including mining exploration) within sage-grouse habitats results in the direct loss of habitat, habitat fragmentation, and indirect impacts from disturbance (e.g., noise and predator subsidies). Research in the context of uranium mining, for example, indicates that the largest risk is the potential disturbance to sage-grouse during the drilling phases of development, from the processing plant, and from traffic on roads to access well fields and the processing plant (Manier et al. 2013). The magnitude of the impacts of other forms of mining (e.g., gravel) on sage-grouse and their habitats is unknown (Braun 1998). However, development of surface mines and associated infrastructure (e.g., roads and power lines), noise, sage-grouse predator attractants, habitat for mosquitoes (West Nile virus vectors), and increased human activity can negatively impact sage-grouse numbers (Braun 1998)”. Plan at 133-134.
At the time of the Oregon plan (based mostly on 2014 and prior lek and other data – so the full effects of the Holloway and Long Draw fires would not have been well-reflected with the plan’s statistical analyses), there was only one foreseeable hard rock mine in Oregon. That was the Grassy Mountain gold mine, in lower quality habitat with minimal sagebrush remaining. The Plan noted that a proposed uranium mine at McDermitt was no longer a threat. This is the Aurora uranium mine, but now that threat once again looms.
Oregon is in the process of revising its state plan. The Oregon 2023 Draft Sage-grouse Planning Update map below shows the habitat category mapping applied to the Caldera to be similar to the existing mapping. Green color is “core” habitat. Yellow is low density.
Cheatgrass in 2012 Holloway Fire Areas
The cheatgrass threat has escalated since the 2012 Holloway fire. It typically takes several years post-fire for dense cheatgrass to develop in burned sites that previously had been minimally infested. Of particular concern is that burned low sagebrush sites are now often dominated by cheatgrass. Low sagebrush seedling re-establishment is almost non-existent. Low sagebrush plant community recovery – even under the best of circumstances – is notoriously slow. See Baker Chapter in Knick and Connelly, 2011 eds. Studies in Avian Biology Deeper soil mountain big sagebrush sites burned in the Holloway fire now have some green rabbitbrush recovery, and occasional young sagebrush plants, but sagebrush cover remains greatly reduced. In many areas, mountain big sagebrush understories remain flush with cheatgrass. At higher elevations burned in the 2012 fires, many snowberry, serviceberry and some bitterbrush shrubs have sprouted back from rootstocks.
Unburned mature big sagebrush in photo foreground, and a burned big sagebrush site now dense with cheatgrass, and some successional green rabbitbrush. Photos from the Turner and Mine Creek watersheds of the McDermitt Creek landscape. 2023.
These conditions are replicated in the broader landscape -in the Oregon Canyon Mountains Long Draw fire areas and portions of the Trout Creek Mountains Holloway burned areas.
Winnemucca RMP Recognizes Critical Caldera Ecological and Aesthetic Values – but Fails to Act to Effectively Protect Them
Elements of the Winnemucca RMP recognized Caldera lands as exceptional habitat for wildlife, aquatic species, bighorn sheep and visual and scenic values, but no effective measures were put in place in the RMP to protect those exceptional values from permanent destruction by development or mining.
Winnemucca RMP Map Figure 2-1identified a significant area as a “Priority watershed” for Lahontan cutthroat trout recovery (dark blue color on map). This map also shows the Caldera lands contain the largest block of identified LCT habitat in the District. Winnemucca RMP Map Figure 2-3 identified these lands as part of a major block of priority wildlife habitat (dark blue color) in the district. The other significant area of priority wildlife habitat – lands east and south of the USFS-managed Santa Rosa Range – have subsequently largely burned in the approx. 450,000 acre 2018 Martin Fire.
The Montana Mountains lands were also identified as VRM 2 lands – orange color on map above indicating significant visual protections are to be afforded to them. Map Figure 2-7
The RMP designated much of the western Caldera as Bighorn Sheep habitat. Dark blue also runs all along the Oregon border and the McDermitt Creek canyon areas.
We highlight the following from the RMP:
“It is the policy of the Nevada Department of Resources (NDOW) that “[t]he Division will increase bighorn populations of all subspecies statewide to a level where all habitats are occupied and each herd is self-sustaining.”
The impacts of the mining boom will significantly harm NDOW’s ability to achieve this goal across the Montana Mountains landscape. “Bighorn sheep are a BLM Nevada Sensitive Species, and are subject to direction included in Manual 6840, BLM’s Special Status Species Management manual.10 Manual 6840 includes the objective of: “initiat[ing] proactive conservation measures that reduce or eliminate threats to Bureau sensitive species to minimize the likelihood of and need for listing of these species under the ESA” (Objective 0.2 B)”. The manual further states that “on BLM-administered lands, the BLM shall manage Bureau sensitive species and their habitats to minimize or eliminate threats affecting the status of the species or to improve the condition of the species habitat, by: 1. Determining, to the extent practicable, the distribution, abundance, population condition, current threats, and habitat needs for sensitive species, and evaluating the significance of BLM-administered lands and actions undertaken by the BLM in conserving those species. 2. Ensuring that BLM activities affecting sensitive species are carried out in a way that is consistent with its objectives for managing those species and their habitats at the appropriate spatial scale”.
Lithium and uranium mining activity clashes with these agency Bighorn sheep and other NDOW wildlife species habitat goals. Mining in Oregon would similarly clash with ODFW Bighorn population goals and would harm occupied bighorn habitat.
BLM Jindalee scoping maps show Oregon California Bighorn Sheep and other critical big game habitat in the project area and along the access road:
This map outlines the 7200 acre Jindalee project area, but fails to delineate the FMS and Aurora claims blocks that clash with occupied bighorn habitat. The faint yellow is the access route running through occupied bighorn habitat.
A California Bighorn Sheep population present in the Montana Mountains near Thacker Pass at the time of the RMP was killed off by NDOW in 2016 because of disease problems. We are aware of no effort to re-establish a herd. Noise and other impacts of the Thacker Pass lithium mine will disturb and impair a large area of Winnemucca RMP-designated habitat area previously inhabited by bighorns. A small population still persists in the Double H Mountains, but it is highly localized, quite sedentary and has not expanded to the Montana Mountains. Now Lithium Nevada Thacker Pass mining activity is forming a major disturbance zone all through the pass site which is overlooked by rugged rock outcrop bighorn habitat. As shown in the ONDA Claims map, Lithium Americas/Nevada holds a large band of claims by RMP-identified Bighorn habitat up in the western Montana Mountains.
Western Rivers Conservancy describes Bighorn Sheep habitat as a part of the value of their acquisition of lands in both Nevada and Oregon, and so do Oregon legislature documents concerning state efforts to acquire Western Rivers Disaster Peak parcels. Vale BLM’s bighorn habitat map above ignores Nevada habitat.
The Winnemucca RMP, despite recognizing and allocating areas of highly significant wildlife habitat and other public values, withdrew an incredibly meager 3,591 acres of public lands from Mineral Entry – out of over 8 million acres of lands under the Winnemucca RMP umbrella. The RMP designated only 4 ACECs and two of these are tiny. The last time BLM evaluated any new ACECs in the Winnemucca District was 2006, yet the RMP ROD was not finalized until 2015.
Similarly, the 2002 SEORMP and 2023 proposed amendment and FEIS pp. 3-85-3-86 fail to address harmful impacts associated with many existing and continuing allocations for most uses. BLM particularly fails to conduct a Mineral Withdrawal to protect lands in the McDermitt Basin with its critically important Sage-grouse stronghold habitat and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout restoration watershed from modern-day hard rock mining impacts on terrestrial and aquatic habitats, including impacts to ground and surface waters. As previously discussed, the 2023 Proposed RMP amendment doesn’t address update many existing allocations, nor adequately address the indirect and cumulative effects of hard rock mining and exploration on the spectrum of public lands values at stake in the Caldera.
Endangered Species Act Petition for King’s River Pyrg, a Springsnail Species Threatened by Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Development
The threat posed by the Thacker Pass mine to endemic springsnail habitat has resulted in an ESA petition seeking listing of the King’s River Pyrg as endangered. The petition was submitted to US Fish and Wildlife Service by Western Watersheds Project in 2022. Thacker Pass mine development and operation impacts, including aquifer drawdown from the lithium pit mining cone of depression and the mines’ billions of gallons of water use are predicted to impact this endemic mollusk. The springsnail is already declining and now lithium mining threatens its extinction. The petition information is germane to understanding the condition of Sage-grouse summer brood rearing habitats in the Montana Mountains – including the number of dried up and/or developed springs with greatly reduced flows.
“Present or Threatened Destruction, Curtailment, or Modification of Habitat or Range. Habitat effects related to the proposed Thacker Pass lithium mine, livestock grazing, spring modification, roads, hydrological drought, and climate change are the primary imminent threats of destruction, curtailment, or modification of Kings River pyrg habitat”. King’s River pyrg petition at 10.
The springsnail now exists only in 13 small shallow flowing springs. Petition Figure 4 map p. 9 shows the known still-occupied springs in the southern Montana Mountains, extending north to the headwaters of Rock Creek and the mountains above the old Moonlight uranium mine, as well as in proximity to the Crowley Creek road, and habitat in the northwestern Double H Mountains. The petition describes numerous dried up or developed springs. Lithium exploration and development, de-watering through aquifer drawdown, claimholders improving roads up in the Montanas or other activities that cause road expansion may also impact this species. Deposition of sediment, dust, dust abatement chemicals, or toxic materials including pollution fallout from mineral processing – all may impact the very small fragile spring habitats that also face increased climate stress and aridification processes. Beyond the current Thacker Pass mine site threat, any development of the southern areas of Lithium Nevada’s large band of the claims up in the Montana Mountains area would also pose a grave threat to the pyrg. The petition describes:
“The approved … Thacker Pass open-pit lithium mine in Humboldt County, Nevada is a new threat that was not anticipated when the Kings River pyrg was designated G1, S1 by NatureServe (Critically Imperiled on both a global and subnational level) and placed on the Nevada Division of Natural Heritage’s At-Risk Plant and animal list”.
“… The Thacker Pass lithium mine was approved by the Bureau of Land Management on January 15, 2021 (BLM 2021: 3/32). This surface mine will include a 2.3 square mile and 370’ deep open mine pit, ore leaching facility, sulfuric acid manufacturing plant, gangue stockpile storage, interim stockpiles, road system, stormwater diversion structures and sediment ponds, soil stockpiles, water pipeline and water storage facilities, reclaim ponds, powerline with substations, and other infrastructure …. Pyrg petition p. 11.
It also describes foreseeable water loss due to production wells and the lowering of the water table that will result from a deep lithium mine pit.
“Although groundwater will be drawn down beyond the 10-foot drawdown contour, the amount and locations of that additional drawdown were not provided in the mine’s EIS, despite requests from the Nevada Department of Wildlife, which was concerned about the effects of the mine’s groundwater drawdown on springs used by wildlife (NDOW 2021: 2, 5/14 to 12/14)”. Pyrg petition p. 13.
“Because groundwater drawdown can cause spring flow to diminish or to dry up altogether (Patten et al. 2008: 3/17), factors that cause groundwater drawdown are threats to springsnail habitat. Groundwater pumping and depletion has caused the elimination or extinction of several Pyrgulopsis springsnail species, and the large number of dried-up springs in the western United States indicates that other springsnail species likely have become extinct without human knowledge of their passing (Hershler et al. 2014: 695)”. Pyrg petition p.14.
“… dust deposition and chemical dust suppression treatments from the mine also threaten the Kings River pyrg. A recent study found that chemical dust suppression treatments can run off into waterways and pose risk to aquatic organisms (Kunz et al. 2021). According to the Final Environmental Impact Statement (“FEIS”) for the Thacker Pass mine, chemical dust suppression treatments, will be used on the Thacker Pass mine’s roads”. Pyrg petition p. 14.
“In addition to experiencing water quality degradation related to runoff from chemical dust suppression treatments, Kings River pyrg may also be affected by changes to the springs it inhabits caused by dust deposition from the mine’s construction, operation, and concurrent exploration. The mine is expected to generate 34.5 tons of fugitive dust emissions (PM10) annually during two years of construction (BLM 2020a: 4-77). Concurrent exploration of new areas to the south and north of the mine was also approved by BLM when the mine was approved in January 2021 (BLM 2021: 1). Concurrent exploration is expected to produce 1.5 tons of PM10 and 0.2 tons of PM2.5 fugitive dust emissions annually (BLM 2020a: 4-77.). Mine operation is expected to produce 54.5 tons of PM10 and 7.4 tons of PM2.5 fugitive dust emissions annually during Phase 1 and 96.1 tons of PM10 …”. Pyrg petition p. 14.
Petitioners detail livestock grazing degradation impacts to springs, and livestock water development flow depletion, with accompanying desiccation impacts, and extirpation of springsnails from several sites. These habitat loss and degradation factors impact many other springs across the Caldera – as do road impacts, hydrological drought, climate stress, and cumulative effects of many threats.
“Because the Kings River pyrg lacks any kind of federal or state endangered species status, is not covered by other federal or state wildlife laws, and is not listed as a BLM Sensitive Species, it is without regulatory protection”. While the Nevada Wildlife Action Plan supports spring conservation, it’s merely aspirational. Pyrg petition at 20.
Some of the remaining occupied springs are less than a centimeter deep. Springs have minimal flow from 0.41 to 7 meters across, with the majority of the springs 1 to 2 meters across and ranging from 0.1 to 13.5 cm. Pyrg petition p. 7.
The petition highlights the lack of adequate spring water flow monitoring under the Thacker Pass EIS ROD: “Nor did BLM require the mine to monitor at all of the springs where the species is found where groundwater drawdown due to the mine may occur … six Kings River pyrg-occupied springs (BLM-02, BLM-03, SP-035, SP-047, SP-48, and SP-049) still will not be monitored (LNC 2021: 11). This is despite the fact that the Nevada Department of Wildlife, in its comments on the mine’s FEIS, asked specifically to have monitoring at five of these six springs (BLM-02, BLM-03, SP-047, SP-048, and SP-049) (NDOW 2021: 2). As a result, there will be no warning if any of these six springs starts to dry up, which increases the level of risk the mine poses to this gill-breathing species. In addition, no mitigation that might help crenobiontic wildlife of any of the Kings River pyrg-occupied springs is currently proposed (LNC 2021: 16-19)”. Pyrg petition p. 21.
The King’s River Pyrg is found nowhere else on earth. A new lawsuit (Notice of Intent) has been filed over US Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to respond to the King’s River Pyrg ESA petition.
Looking east to the Jindalee claims block down in the McDermitt Basin heart, from the area of the Disaster Peak WSA. The pale clay exposed soils and all the surrounding mature sagebrush community Sage-grouse Focal habitat is ground zero for new proposed drilling exploration plus 30 miles of new roads causing large-scale habitat disturbance and sagebrush destruction.
McDermitt Basin Jindalee Claims Exploration Disturbance overseen by Vale BLM
Jindalee has already drilled over 60 bore holes on Vale BLM managed lands. This has resulted in significant new disturbance and fragmentation of Sage-grouse Focal habitat areas, the expansion of the disturbance footprint of existing two tracks and other minor road footprints, and cross-country heavy equipment travel that has killed and fragmented mature sagebrush within Focal habitat. The habitat damage was conducted under the 2018 5-acre Notice and modifications, with no public process or involvement. The block of Jindalee claims here extends into Nevada, to within a mile or so of undeveloped Lithium Nevada claims, and also comes close to an outlier FMS claims block. Jindalee drilling is not yet proposed in these sites, to the best of our knowledge.
See attached WLD letters and e-mails to BLM (2021-2023) on Jindalee sagebrush drilling activity sagebrush habitat destruction impacts, and the deeply concerning continuing and expanding erosional impacts of existing drilling activity. This Notice level drilling resulted in the destruction of mature and old growth big sagebrush in cross-country driving in areas of considerable Sage-grouse use in the heart of the McDermitt Creek Basin arced by numerous leks.
Old growth sagebrush bulldozed by Jindalee drilling activity.
More than 5 acres of sagebrush habitat disturbance took place under Jindalee Notice-level activity. BLM authorized this exceedance as the agency’s mining regulations allow disturbed drilled/roaded areas that BLM deems to have been “reclaimed” to no longer be counted as disturbed acreage. Vale BLM somehow found that areas of Jindalee’s bulldozed drilled lands had been “reclaimed” within a year or two, even measuring small sections of individual drill sites with some meager vegetation present – in order to tally sufficient “reclaimed” acreage so that expanded Jindalee drilling could take place under the 5-acre Notice exemption to NEPA without any public process. The extent of actual “reclamation” of Jindalee sites has been a matter of much controversy – with multiple parties raising significant concerns. This was a point of contention raised on a June 2023 BLM Resource Advisory council field visit to the McDermitt Creek area.
Under the BLM mining regulations, Notice-level exploration activity occurs without any public notification, comment process or NEPA analysis, and only the exact area of land bulldozed off or where vegetation is destroyed is considered “disturbed” and only such severe impacts count as part of the 5 acres of “disturbance”. The real on the ground impacts to wildlife like habitat fragmentation from loss of mature and old growth sagebrush, or degradation to native plant communities and biocrusts from soil disturbance and exploration vehicle use facilitating weed spread, aren’t considered in BLM’s “disturbance” calculations. Vale BLM records show that, to speed Jindalee drilling expansion under a Notice without public comment or process, agency staff worked during vacation calculating “reclaimed” bits of drill site areas down to several decimal points to facilitate additional drilling under the Notice.
Needless to say, the BLM’s mining regulation version of “reclamation” is not ecological restoration. Instead, it largely involves getting some sparse grass to sprout and grow a little bit. When mature sagebrush communities are destroyed, it takes many decades – or a century or longer- for site recovery of the full complement of vegetation on a site, if recovery occurs at all.
WLD and other parties have repeatedly raised concerns about Jindalee compliance with BLM and DOGAMI (Oregon state Department of Geology and Mineral Industries) anti-degradation requirements. Jindalee “reclamation” actions such as using a single little straw wattle as the only soil erosion control on an old two track road cut that Jindalee freshly and sharply bulldozed into a sloping sidehill, has resulted in large amounts of soil loss, downslope erosion and anastomosing rills and gullying. There is also wind-caused soil loss, and erosional slope de-stabilization. Gullying and rilling are occurring, and adjacent upslope and downslope rills and gullies are forming. Jindalee’s lack of effective erosion control, and failure to maintain even the single little straw wattle it put in place, would certainly appear to result in unnecessary and undue degradation, but we are aware of no BLM action taken. Also, the Jindalee Notice-level disturbance footprint here has now expanded up and downslope from the roadside, as a result of the extensive erosion, but we are unaware if BLM counts this new erosion as “disturbance” or not. See attached WLD letters and e-mails of 4/11/21, 7/5/23, 8/10/23 and others.
The single $20 straw wattle Jindalee HiTech placed at the bottom of the sharply bulldozed access route has been washed out since June. With each new rainstorm event, new road and hillslope unraveling, degradation and soil loss proceeds.
There is also unaddressed soil erosion taking place on other Jindalee access routes and numerous drill sites in the McDermitt Basin, amid the 7200 acre block that is now targeted for massive new exploration disturbance with 267 drill sites and 30 miles of new “temporary” roads.
Research Shows Severe Mining Impacts to Sage-grouse Populations
A Wyoming research study (Pratt and Beck 2019) with a large sample size of Sage-grouse exposed to bentonite mining activity examines the sensitivity of Sage-grouse to mining disturbance. This has major implications for the fate of Sage-grouse populations exposed to an unprecedented lithium and uranium exploration and mining boom.
“We evaluated the response of sage-grouse to active and reclaimed bentonite mining, relative to nesting, brood-rearing, adult breeding, and adult winter habitat, through resource selection and habitat-specific mortality risk analyses, based on female sage-grouse (n = 321) monitored with telemetry from 2011–2015. A greater proportion of our monitored sample was exposed to mining disturbance during winter (65%) than during other seasons (range = 25%–34%). We observed avoidance of all mining disturbance for selection of nesting habitat (n = 378 nests), adult breeding habitat (n = 1,978 locations), and adult winter habitat (n = 1,365 locations). Evidence was inconclusive for avoidance of mining for brood-rearing habitat (n = 754 locations). We also observed increased adult breeding season mortality risk (n = 62 mortality events; n = 285 female sage-grouse) associated with active mining disturbance but observed no effect on nest success (n = 207 mortality events; n = 378 nests). Evidence was inconclusive for increased mortality risk associated with broods (n = 48 mortality events; n = 157 broods) and adults during winter (n = 31 mortality events; n = 220 female sage-grouse). Stakeholders in the Bighorn Basin should be flexible and proactive to minimize the negative effects of bentonite mining on sage-grouse habitat use and demographic rates.
The researchers also state: “Stakeholders should prioritize the conservation of winter habitats because of the influence on a greater proportion of the population”.
Thacker Pass mine construction permanently obliterating the last south-facing Sage-grouse winter habitat of the southern Caldera area. See Declaration of Terry Crawforth, filed with Thacker Pass litigation. The Crawforth Declaration discusses the importance of the Montana Mountains Sage-grouse population, the high wildlife values and the importance of its habitats, and the harms that the Thacker Pass mine would cause to sagebrush and wildlife.
The Jindalee, FMS and Aurora claims blocks include irreplaceable relatively dense mature big sagebrush winter habitat. Portions of these areas were used heavily by the birds in winter 2022-2023. Fite, field obs. of Sage-grouse scat sign by and at the base of many mature big sagebrush plants in the McDermitt Basin heart. Higher elevation windswept low sagebrush winter bird use areas have been greatly reduced by the Holloway fire. The low sagebrush is not recovering. Unburned low sagebrush remains in areas of the Lithium Nevada Montana Mountains claims block and on the east face of the mountains overlooking the big FMS claims block. The fire loss of low sagebrush winter habitat elevates the importance of all remaining mature big sagebrush winter habitat.
Many Sensitive, Important and Declining Sagebrush Dependent Species Inhabit the McDermitt Caldera – and BLM Management Is Not Conserving Them
The Caldera sagebrush habitat expanses provide high quality nesting habitat for high densities of sensitive migratory birds. A thriving community of sagebrush-associated birds is present. Loss and fragmentation of sagebrush avian species habitat is a major biodiversity concern. The urgent need to preserve high quality remaining habitats in the imperiled sagebrush ecosystem has been laid out in scientific research papers and federal agency studies for over 25 years now.
A series of 1990s-early 2000s Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project (ICBEMP) reports – part of a federal effort by both USFS and BLM to examine landscapes and species through an ecological lens in the Interior Columbia region provided strong evidence of the plight of the sagebrush biome and the species that rely on it. The ICBEMP reports and assessments emphasized the high value of remaining blocks of sagebrush in the region, including what it categorized as the northern Great Basin region analysis area which included Oregon Caldera lands, and the need to protect and preserve these remaining relatively intact areas.
Wildlife biologists have long been raising the alarm about irreversible sagebrush species declines in abundance, or formerly common species being absent altogether in areas of sagebrush communities. Federal agencies have long known of an impending habitat crisis and have not effectively acted to slow down or prevent loss. The Knick et al. 2003, Teetering on the Edge paper clearly stated the sagebrush ecosystem was imperiled and its avifauna was in deep trouble – “degradation, fragmentation, and loss of native sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) landscapes have imperiled these habitats and their associated avifauna”.
Dobkin and Sauder 2004 warned about the loss of birds and small mammals in the sagebrush biome:
“It is clear that the bird and small mammal species dependent upon Intermountain West shrubsteppe landscapes are providing the signals that they are at risk”. Dobkin and Sauder p. 3.
“We distilled a list of 61 species that are completely or extensively dependent on shrubsteppe ecosystems in the Intermountain West. We conducted a broad-scale analysis of distributions, abundances, and sensitivity to habitat disturbance in order to assess the current state of knowledge and the conservation needs of these species in the 11 western states”.
Dobkin and Sauder 2004 concluded:
“Range maps created by connecting the dots among sites where a species has been captured do not paint a realistic picture, especially in the highly altered and fragmented shrubsteppe land scapes of today. For small terrestrial mammals in particular, our results support the view that many of these species now exist only as small, disconnected populations isolated from each other by unsuitable habitats across which they cannot disperse. Many of the bird and mammal species we examined have broad geographic ranges, but our spatially explicit analyses of actual trapping and BBS data, along with previous work on shrubsteppe bird population dynamics emphatically demonstrate this point: It is completely untenable to assume species presence based simply on presence of appropriate habitat in shrubsteppe landscapes of the Intermountain West”. Dobkin and Sauder p. 3.
Nearly 20 years ago, Map Figure 2, p. 7 in Dobkin and Sauder 2004 depicted a high degree of loss, degradation and fragmentation of sagebrush habitats, and warned “sagebrush habitat is highly fragmented and much less extensive than large-scale maps represent”. This mapping also showed the large naturally occurring gaps in sagebrush communities in the Lahontan Basin where greasewood and shadscale predominate in lower elevations, and the already extensive degradation by cheatgrass. It also indicated that habitat in more mountainous areas had become increasingly fragmented. This map reinforces the importance of the Caldera region. Many areas shown as less fragmented in 2004 have since suffered large-scale losses of sagebrush – in the western portion of the biome due to fire, and in the eastern portion fragmentation due to oil and gas and other energy development.
“When an entire ecosystem is in trouble, it is not just the flagship species that face risks. Just as the Spotted Owl Strix occidentalis became a surrogate for numerous species of animals and plants that depend upon old growth coniferous forests, there are many other wildlife and plant species besides sage-grouse that are largely or entirely dependent upon sagebrush shrub steppe.
Among birds, shrubland and grassland species are declining faster than any other group of species in North America. Dobkin 1994, Saab and Rich 1997, Paige and Ritter 1999. These species represent an important component of the biodiversity of the western United States. Species that are most dependent on sagebrush ecosystems, such as Brewer’s Sparrow Spizella breweri, Sage Sparrow, Amphispiza belli, and Sage Thrasher, Oreoscoptes montanus, may be important predictors of impending collapse in sagebrush ecosystems because of their sensitivity to multiscale habitat changes Rotenberry and Knick 1999, Knick and Rotenberry 2000, 2002”. Dobkin and Sauder 2004 pp. 7-8.
The authors were already warning of impending sagebrush ecosystem collapse.
“Little attention has been paid to the conservation status or needs of small mammal species or of other taxa e.g., insects, amphibians, reptiles tied to shrub-steppe ecosystems in the Intermountain West (Wisdom et al. 2002)”. This continues up to the present.
Prior to Dobkin and Sauder, declining populations of shrub-steppe birds regionally and West-wide were discussed in Saab and Rich 1997 Neotropical migratory land bird conservation assessment, and Wisdom et al. 2000 Source Habitats for terrestrial vertebrates, and other broad-scale assessments of the interior Columbia Basin. All southeast Oregon had been assessed in ICBEMP, including the area categorized as the Northern Great Basin area. The Great Basin area was identified as the highest priority for conservation based on species population trends and habitats. ICBEMP Technical Reports from the late 1990s-early 2000s also found:
“Identify and conserve large areas of remaining native upland shrublands and upland herblands where ecological integrity is still relatively high, and manage to promote their longterm
sustainability. Large contiguous blocks of public land in the Northern Great Basin and Owyhee Uplands could be considered, as well as native vegetation that currently exists on military
lands in Washington”. Wisdom et al. 2000 p. 104. (Nearly all the Washington habitat has since burned).
Composition and structure of vegetation associated with changes in source habitats—The single largest loss in cover types within the basin was the decline in big sagebrush (Hann and others 1997). Saab and Rich pp. 347-355. A primary finding for sagebrush species was: “Identify and conserve large remaining areas of shrub-steppe vegetation where ecological integrity is still relatively high”. Saab and Rich 1997. p. 354.
Wisdom et al. 2000 Source Habitats described sagebrush shrubland migratory bird species of concern including: Sage Thrasher (Oreoscoptes montanus), Sage Sparrow (Amphispiza belli), Brewer’s sparrow (Spizella breweri), Black-throated Sparrow (Amphispiza bilineata), Gray Flycatcher (Empidonax wrightii), and Green-tailed Towhee (Chlorura chlorura).
ICBEMP analysis also determined that sagebrush habitats have the highest percentage of species vulnerable to management activities. “Even under themes where aggressive restoration activities
are planned, it is thought that the deterioration and loss of sagebrush habitat will outpace
restoration successes” (Saab and Rich 1997, and ICBEMP’s broadscale assessment of the Columbia Basin). Protection of larger blocks of intact sagebrush has long been known to be a pressing need—in a local, regional, and national context—for conservation of shrub-steppe migratory birds.
Prior to this, alarm bells had been going off for biologists focused on Sage-grouse for many years, in significant part due to BLM’s 1950s-1970s era massive manipulation and destruction of sagebrush habitats for livestock forage production purposes, which hit Sage-grouse and sagebrush biota hard. Rachel Carson in Silent Spring wrote of the federal agency war on sagebrush, and how sagebrush and the fate of Sage-grouse were intimately connected.
Braun et al. 1976 described extensive avian use and reliance on sagebrush communities:
“Over 100 species of birds which forage and nest in sagebrush communities have been listed (Wetmore 1920, Gabrielson and Jewett 1940, Dumas 1950, Booth 1952, Huey and Travis 1961, Bailey and Niedrach 1965, Walcheck 1970, Behle and Perry 1975). Birds which are obligates (almost entirely dependent) of the sagebrush type are: Sage Grouse, Sage Thrasher, Sage Sparrow, and Brewers’ Sparrow. Near obligates are Green-tailed Towhees (Chlorura chlornral and Vesper Sparrows (Pooecetes gramincus. Other species that are conspicuous and locally important are: Ferruginous Hawk (Bate0 regalis), Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus), Sharp-tailed Grouse (Pedioecetes phasianellus) , Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) , Burrowing Owl (Speotyto cunicularia) , Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), Ash-throated Flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens), Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) , Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), and Brewers’ Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus)”.
Western Whipsnake, a predator on the abundant lizards in the McDermitt Creek Basin area, and the Jindalee project area.
Sphinx moth pollinating rabbitbrush.
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel on Mormon Cricket patrol.
Loggerhead Shrike.
Black-billed Magpie cooling down in summer heat. The Caldera’s animals have adaptions to survive the extremes of the high desert. They don’t have adaptations to survive the unprecedented habitat loss and disturbance they now face with the lithium mining boom frenzy.
The Rosenberg et al. 2019 analysis of large-scale declines of the North American avifauna heightened public awareness of the ever-worsening plight of migratory birds of all kinds – describing “alarming migratory bird declines and the biodiversity crisis”, and the disappearance of 3 billion birds from North America – a “staggering decline:”.
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“… widespread population declines of birds over the past half-century, resulting in the cumulative loss of billions of breeding individuals across a wide range of species and habitats. They show that declines are not restricted to rare and threatened species—those once considered common and wide-spread are also diminished. These results have major implications for ecosystem integrity, the conservation of wildlife more broadly, and policies associated with the protection of birds and native ecosystems on which they depend”.
The USGS Remington et al. 2021 report Appendix C identifies Sage-grouse, Pygmy Rabbit and Sagebrush Sparrow as strict sagebrush obligates. Sagebrush near-obligates identified are Pronghorn, Green-tailed Towhee. Sagebrush dependent species include Mule Deer). See also Remington et al. 2021 Table A2, and Sagebrush Birds “Chapter C”, (George, Sidder, Woidorski) in Remington et al. 2021. The Remington report Appendix C rehashes information on imperiled sagebrush biome species habitat needs that has been known for decades now. It does serve to highlight the tremendous failing of the BLM and other federal agencies to act to effectively protect remaining largely intact sagebrush habitats that still retain sufficient continuous sagebrush to provide for viable populations of sage-dependent species over all this time. Further, as bird and small mammal declines have escalated and become more precipitous, federal agency report language has become ever weaker and more tentative.
Over 15 years after the Dobkin and Sauder 2004 report, Remington further demonstrates we still don’t know much at all about many species, don’t adequately track populations, and fail to systematically inventory many small mammals and bird species inhabiting the sagebrush biome.
The mining consultant documents to date used in Thacker Pass and now Jindalee projects demonstrate how superficial species inventories are for major projects, even high-profile ones, in the sagebrush landscape. These lithium deposits are found in areas that have not been intensively studied for many species of concern. BLM really doesn’t know much about the biodiversity that’s in the crosshairs of permanent destruction.
Brewer’s Sparrow with nest material. Jindalee site.
Brewer’s Sparrows prefer high densities of nesting shrubs. Remington Chapter C, p. 24:
“Where Brewer’s sparrows occur within sagebrush dominated habitats, they require large patches of with dense shrub cover (Knick and Rotenberry, 1995; Reinkensmeyer and others, 2007) and exist in highest densities in areas that include some taller patches of sagebrush (Chalfoun and Martin, 2007). They nest in shrubs, particularly sagebrush (Rich, 1980; Reynolds, 1981) and prefer high densities of suitable nest shrubs for territories and nest sites (Chalfoun and Martin, 2007, 2009). Brewer’s sparrows generally are not abundant at poor condition sites with less than 25 percent cover in climax vegetation. This suggests they are associated with stands approaching climax conditions and do not thrive in seral vegetation”.
Sagebrush Sparrow – “Sagebrush Sparrows thrive in habitats with relatively tall big sagebrush (A. tridentata) cover and high horizontal heterogeneity (Wiens and Rotenberry, 1981). The species prefers large and contiguous areas of tall and dense sagebrush and generally nests in the interior of sagebrush stands (Hansley and Beauvais, 2004), placing nests at the base of sagebrush shrubs”. Note that Sagebrush Sparrows also nest in Wyoming big sagebrush expanses interfacing with salt desert shrub communities.
Remington Chapter C, p. 24: “The species is declining most rapidly in the Southern Rockies/Colorado Plateau region and in the northern Great Basin in southeastern Oregon and southern Idaho. Population decline is greatest in Idaho and Oregon where the species is estimated to be losing more than 4 percent of its population annually, although data deficiencies may be affecting accuracy of the trend estimate in Idaho (Sauer and others, 2017)”. Chapter C, p. 19. Sagebrush loss has eliminated or nearly eliminated, this species from vast areas of its former range, as it inhabits the lowest elevation sagebrush communities”. The most recent data used appears to be from 2015 – so the 2021 report does not really reflect the current situation.
For example, fires in the Boardman area, may have led to the extirpation of Sagebrush Sparrows from long-term census sites. Biologist Aaron Holmes, pers. comm. to Fite. McDermitt Basin birds were present from April (and likely March) into September 2023.
Sage Thrasher conducting natural Mormon Cricket control in the Caldera. This bird’s diet shifts towards fruits of plants like Serviceberry in higher elevations of the Montana Mountains or Buffaloberry in the Quinn Valley in late summer.
Sage Thrasher perched in serviceberry in the Oregon Canyon Mountains above Turner Creek.
Sage Thrasher. “A sagebrush obligate, the sage thrasher inhabits sagebrush shrublands, especially tall, mature stands of big sagebrush (Boyle and Reeder, 2005) … The sage thrasher has an estimated population of 6.6 million individuals (Rosenberg and others, 2016). Sage thrashers have experienced large population declines, losing approximately 1.2 percent of their population annually since 1966 (table C1; Sauer and others, 2017). The species is listed on five State species of concern lists: Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming. The sage thrasher is declining throughout the western United States, but its losses are most pronounced in the Great Basin (Sauer and others, 2017). Sage thrashers are declining most rapidly in Utah (−1.9 percent/year) with smaller but significant declines in Nevada, Idaho and Oregon (−1.5, −1.4, and −1.4 percent/year, respectively; Sauer and others, 2017). Over the past 50 years, sage thrasher populations have declined by 44 percent, but the number of years until it loses half its current population is estimated at more than 50 years (PIF half life; Rosenberg and others, 2016)”. Chapter C, P. 24
Gray Flycatcher. The Gray Flycatcher is “closely tied to arid woodlands and shrublands”. Remington data for this bird are 8 years old. Chapter C, p. 25. Gray Flycatchers nest in basin big sagebrush bordering streams and old floodplain deep soil habitat, and mixed old growth big sagebrush-bitterbrush communities in the McDermitt Basin area if sagebrush structural integrity is high enough– for example Mine Creek and Payne Creek watershed areas, Lasa Creek and lower slope benches of Oregon Canyon Mountains. There are some outstanding examples of the Basin big sagebrush habitat type – with 6 or 7 ft. tall “forest” of sagebrush – in the margins of floodplain areas near streams. This habitat type has disappeared in many places across the West.
Green-tailed Towhee. This bird inhabits tall, dense sagebrush and mountain shrubs (Dobkin and Sauder, 2004) – including dense Basin big sagebrush near intermittent streams and old floodplains, sagebrush-bitterbrush communities and higher elevation mountain big sagebrush-mountain shrub habitat. “The Great Basin has experienced population declines that exceed the overall trend (−1.1 percent/year; Sauer and others, 2017”. Remington Chapter C p. 25.
The Remington report doesn’t consider the Common Poorwill, a characteristic bird of mid to higher elevation sagebrush habitats here. Poorwills sit and forage in openings and road areas at dusk (slightly warmer bare soil may attract insects), and they flutter up and catch insects. Poorwills typically don’t flush until a vehicle is nearly on top of them and would readily fall victim to night mine vehicle traffic. Vehicle traffic on access routes to the McDermitt Basin project area and within the project area pose a serious threat to this species. Common Nighthawk, another caprimulgid species that is suffering large-scale declines is also present and displaying in caldera skies in the evening and at times during the day. Both caprimulgids nest on the ground and have small clutch sizes.
A review of the Remington report Chapter C species range maps reveals that many birds are also increasingly threatened by habitat losses on their US winter ranges. Public lands shrubland is being cleared over for industrial solar energy projects and other development in the Mojave region of Nevada, Arizona and California. A foreseeable major expansion of both solar and wind energy development is a new and growing threat in breeding habitats for these birds. BLM has now scoped a major new solar development EIS that may expand and intensify industrial solar projects across public lands of the sagebrush biome and these bird’s nesting habitats. See attached scoping comments of Great Basin Resource Watch and Wildlands Defense on the BLM Solar EIS, with photos illustrating the severity of habitat loss with industrial solar energy development.
Further, the population status of the birds considered in the Remington report is now likely worse, as the migratory bird species data in the report is old with tables often showing 2015 and 2016 numbers. Many of these species may also show strong site fidelity to sites in seasonal ranges where they may return in winter or to nest – only to confront new energy development or agency shrub removal “treatments” or lithium exploration.
While sagebrush-obligate species and many other birds dependent to various degrees on sagebrush require mature dense or relatively dense blocks of habitat, BLM projects in the Caldera landscape (and many other areas of the West) have been sage reduction “treatments” and “fuels” projects aimed at greatly reducing the very type of cover these birds (and Sage-grouse) require. See for example Holmes study discussed below – where Vale BLM burned Brewer’s Sparrow nesting habitat, and the 2012 Montana Mountains Fuels EA discussed herein.
The Thacker Pass EIS biological information and now the Jindalee EPO consultant information are examples of the lack of substantive information about presence and abundance of the full range of native biota threatened by mining exploration and development. There are no systematic surveys for an array of small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, pollinators and other insects. Sagebrush vegetation and plant communities are dealt with superficially in a manner that fails to address the complexity of the plant communities in any real way. Such information is accepted by BLM as adequate. This is a major concern in the Caldera landscape where “non-game” animal and plant communities have been seriously under-surveyed.
Pressing Need for Sagebrush Habitat Protection Known by Agencies for over 25 Years
There has long been significant biologist concern about declines in habitats and populations of sagebrush species. Different state BLM offices have different sensitive species lists. Oregon BLM’s sensitive species list is particularly lacking in attention to declining avian sagebrush species.
And again, a significant body of scientific information on the plight of sagebrush habitat and its fauna and need for sagebrush habitat protection has long been known and spelled out in ICBEMP federal agency scientific assessments for over 25 years. See Quigley et al. 1996 scientific assessment.
Even before Sage-grouse declines became the pre-eminent conservation issue in the interior West, the value of relatively intact shrub-steppe communities was recognized and was supposed to be a foundational part of federal agency land use planning and habitat management. An ICBEMP EIS alternative included a series of “reserves”, but the EIS process was never completed. However, BLM, the Forest Service and other agencies signed an MOU to carry forward ICBEMP scientific findings and apply them in land use plans and project implementation. See 11/8/02 “Interagency Memorandum of Understanding” USDA, USDI, USFWS, EPA, NOAA. (USDI = Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana BLM).
The scientific reports that were part of the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project included the Caldera landscape in Oregon (project analysis largely stopped at the Nevada line – but included Oregon areas in the Northern Great Basin ERU). The Quigley et al. report (1996) pp. 31-32 identified the Upper Snake, Owyhee Uplands and northern Great Basin region ERUs (Ecological Reporting Units) as areas of highest ecological integrity in the analysis area. Quigley et al. 1996 scientific assessment maps (Figure 22, p. 78) show the Caldera region as an area of relatively high biodiversity and endemism and containing high scenic integrity as well. Mapping also appears to show this landscape was one of the areas identified as a proposed Reserve under “management option 3”, which was the “conservation” alternative. Figure 48, p. 141. Note that maps in this scanned document are at times blurred and contain few reference points.
Other long-standing scientific information about effects of sagebrush loss includes Knick and Rotenberry 2002:
“Loss of shrublands at our larger scale of investigation (l-km radius around each point) was reflected in complete absence of habitat for shrubland-obligate species, and those species were not present. Our technique clearly represented the spatial distribution of habitat for shrubland-obligate specialists, such as Sage and Brewer’s sparrows, and for Western Meadowlark, a grassland species …”.
“Our research indicates that the distribution of shrubland obligate species such as Brewer’s Sparrows (Spizella breweri,) Sage Sparrow (Amphispiza belli), and Sage Thrashers (Oreoscoptes montanus) was highly sensitive to fragmentation of shrublands at spatial scales larger than home ranges”.
“Intermountain shrubsteppe systems present a unique challenge in understanding how landscape composition, configuration, and change influence bird population dynamics”.
Knick and Rotenberry (2002) Figure 4 shows Sage(brush) Sparrow persisting only in areas of low fragmentation in a field study in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area.
The Knick and Rotenberry 2000 “Ghosts of Habitats Past” paper relates:
“Birds in this region live in dynamic landscapes undergoing large-scale, radical and predominantly unidirectional habitat change because wildfires are converting shrublands into expanses of exotic annual grasslands”.
Now in 2023, on top of a host of increasing threats and much greater habitat loss, irreplaceable blocks of sagebrush habitat like those of the Caldera remain unprotected, highly vulnerable to disturbance, suffer escalating climate stress, and now face a mining boom frenzy. In addition to habitat threats, West Nile virus, and newly appearing diseases like avian flu pose an additional disease threat to avian species.
If development of the mining boom claims shown on the ONDA Claims Map proceeds, we will be seeing – in real time – the results of the Interior Department blindly ignore the past 25+ years of sagebrush science; scuttle its own Sage-grouse management plan commitment to “conserve, enhance, restore” habitat; discard its Mineral Withdrawal commitment; and display an overall profound federal agency failure to act to stop the demise of wildlife in this crucial Sagebrush Sea landscape. Due to the great controversy over Thacker Pass lithium mining, national media and scientific attention is focused on the McDermitt region.
Given the Caldera’s remoteness and BLM neglect, there is minimal currently assembled information on the area’s importance for migratory birds and other non-hunted species. An East Cascades Audubon Society web report describes for “Oregon Canyon Road and Oregon Canyon Mountains”, describes the habitat as “loaded with birds” and “the birds are amazing from late June-early August”. This includes WSA areas, adjacent to the caldera and lists Mountain Bluebird, Common Bushtit, Mountain Chickadee, Virginia’s Warbler, Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers. There are Blue-gray Gnatcatchers in thick Basin big sagebrush vegetation near streams amid the Jindalee, FMS and Aurora claims blocks.
There is a very high abundance of abundance of nesting Sagebrush Sparrows and other sensitive songbirds including Brewer’s Sparrows in the continuous Wyoming big sagebrush expanses of the McDermitt Creek Basin. The same applies to the FMS claims near Jordan Meadows and Crowley Creek by the eastern face of the Montana Mountains. This area’s big sagebrush is also essential to nesting – with young Sage-grouse broods evident in June, and provides habitat for Burrowing Owls. Many of these species are highly sensitive to habitat fragmentation. The higher elevations of the Montana Mountains – where a long band of Lithium Nevada claims lie, is nesting habitat for a high density of sensitive sagebrush migratory songbirds, especially densities of Brewer’s Sparrows and Sage Thrashers.
Further, the many small streams in the caldera provide insects and other food to fuel avian species during migration just north of the very arid Lahontan Basin. The small Thacker Pond just west of Thacker Pass in the King’s River Valley attracts a wide diversity of migrating water birds in this very arid region. This raises concerns about potential avian exposure to any mining open water sources that may contain toxic material.
Nesting Lark Sparrows have been very abundant in the lower to middle elevation Wyoming big sagebrush communities across the Caldera in 2022 and 2023 (Fite, field obs.) Whether this is commonplace or the result of high numbers of Mormon Crickets in recent years is unknown, i.e. is cricket abundance resulting in a Lark Sparrow population irruption?
Vesper Sparrows nest in higher elevation low sagebrush, often with low sage interspersed with big sagebrush islands, and portions of open or burned areas with scattered shrubs.
There are significant continuing population declines in “common” species like Horned Lark that inhabit the grassland and more open areas here. Cornell reports major Horned Lark population declines – with populations declining by nearly 2% per year for a cumulative decrease of approximately 64% between 1966 and 2019 according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Western Meadowlarks are another ‘common” but declining species abundant across the caldera lower and mid elevation sagebrush habitats.
The 2023 Jindalee EPO vegetation community information and analysis is shockingly deficient in providing baseline data and analysis that accurately examines the complexity and ecological integrity of the biodiverse native vegetation communities present. Sagebrush vegetation is pigeon-holed in a “stratification” scheme using broad value-laden “range” type categories – “good”, “intermediate”, “poor” that bear little relevance to the ecological characteristics of the native plant communities present – such as extremely well-developed biocrusts (a living skin protecting the soil from erosion in arid ecosystems that performs many significant ecological functions), or the structural complexity of the sagebrush habitat. This crude vegetation categorization method appears linked to an Oregon state grouse habitat category scheme for “mitigation” purpose, but it’s hard to see how this could be considered to accurately reflect the plant communities in this Focal habitat. The Jindalee vegetation mapping places complex sagebrush communities in meaningless broad “range” categories of supposed condition where ecological attributes like biocrusts or the structural integrity of sagebrush present or even the type of sagebrush present are ignored or minimized. It also contains gross errors – for example, the blue-purple color in mapping shows what appears to be burned and some live mountain mahogany (and canyon shadows too) in the surrounding WSAs and Trout Creek and Oregon Canyon mountains as “western juniper” when there’s nary a juniper present across this entire landscape. Values of many sagebrush and other shrub communities here are simply not captured by this crude method. The vegetation map used for the Jindalee EPO:
The EPO shows BLM never required the Jindalee to consider information on leks within 4 miles of the full disturbance footprint of the project area. The EPO pp. G-88 to G-89 (note much of the EPO document information was not posted by Vale BLM for informing public scoping comments despite multiple public requests that BLM do so) states that ORBIC (Oregon) data identified 10 sage-grouse leks within 2 miles of the project area, and 6 were considered active. NDOW information showed 4 leks within 2 miles of the project area. The EPO text is not clear if the two newly detected Oregon leks were included. There is no information on leks surrounding the public lands access route.
Meanwhile, Winnemucca BLM in this newly minted BLM Montana Mountain BLM Sage-grouse habitat “restoration landscape” (discussed below), is continuing to try to impose the very same type of livestock projects that have long been known to ravage and deplete sagebrush habitats, and promote irreversible flammable weed proliferation. A pending Winnemucca BLM EA for the Washburn allotment proposes drilling new cattle water wells and new pipelines, and water trough sprawl in sage uplands, including habitat areas recovering from fire.
The Winnemucca Washburn EA exemplifies BLM continued management under a Manifest Destiny paradigm and continued agency NEPA analysis dereliction regarding the project’s full impacts on sagebrush vegetation communities and the wildlife that rely on them. The scanty EA at p. 20 states: “There are 10 GRSG leks within a 3-mile buffer around the proposed project area”. Yet this EA contains minimal information on vegetation communities, and almost no information on the actual ecological footprint and significant long-term harmful impacts to Sage-grouse habitats and native vegetation communities the project would cause – including chronic livestock depletion and degradation over large areas of Focal/stronghold habitat. Large areas of surrounding upland habitats would be degraded by the project – and these impacts will be certain to increase over time as grazing depletion (and weeds) radiate outward from new upland water sources. WLD requested a site visit with Winnemucca BLM staff to the Washburn project site to discuss concerns about BLM continuing to treat upland sagebrush habitats as sacrifice areas, but the Winnemucca BLM Manager has so far refused the request.
The fact that BLM continues the very same type of livestock project that has degraded so much Sage-grouse habitat already, and the fact that Vale BLM accepted such deficient information for the Jindalee EPO project NEPA process, and that Vale is planning a mere EA for such a massive drilling and road building scheme that will permanently alter, destroy, degrade and fragment these native plant communities — all further demonstrate that special management attention are desperately needed across the Caldera.
Already, Jindalee drilling activity has resulted in sagebrush habitat fragmentation, de facto creation of new roads and expansion of existing routes under the 2018 Notice and modifications (where more than 5 acres of disturbance took place after BLM deemed some of the drill sites “reclaimed”. Exploration has also pocked the landscape with over 60 drilling bore hole areas cleared of sagebrush, with weeds and erosion increasing over time. There is no information on how these drill holes, some very close to stream areas, may affect ground water flows.
The Jindalee Notice-level lithium exploration activity has newly fragmented a large block of continuous sagebrush nesting habitat for Sagebrush Sparrows, Brewer’s Sparrows, Lark Sparrows, Sage Thrashers, Gray Flycatchers and Black-tailed and White-tailed Jackrabbits and Pygmy Rabbits . Now Jindalee seeks new 267 drill sites, 30 miles of new roads, and up to 100 acres of disturbance (as defined by BLM). Will this new drilling scheme be subject to additively exceeding 100 acres if BLM finds lands initially drilled as part of this new project have been “reclaimed” – like it did with the 5-acre Notice? A 7200-acre project area will be drastically fragmented in the heart of the Basin’s critical block of continuous sagebrush habitat. This will reduce sagebrush patch size, create more “edge” for predators, and create 30 miles of new weed infestation zones, seriously fragmenting and degrading habitats. This is especially alarming, given the vivid on-the-ground evidence of how much damage “5 acres” of Notice-level disturbance, as defined by BLM, does to a sagebrush community.
Review of the biological information BLM is using to authorize this next phase of Jindalee drilling, with a mere EA, reveals that the consultant report sweeps the significance of the Caldera sagebrush habitats under the rug, relies on limited inventories, not even detecting some important species that inhabit this area. There are significant biological, cultural and other concerns with mining and energy company consultant-based NEPA analyses that shirk thorough systematic baseline surveys necessary to detect the full complement of biological and cultural values present, and their context in the landscape. The Jindalee EPO, accepted by BLM, (and attached with this petition proposal) is an example of limited baseline data and analysis, a lack of systematic small mammal, reptile, amphibian, insect/pollinator survey data, and other data omissions, a lack of sensitive and important species seasonal habitat use and movement corridor data, and of minimizing the significance of the ecological and other values at stake.
There is a critical need for systematic expert botanical work and other biological work here, and accurate and thorough assessment of ecological values and native plant and animal community conditions across the Caldera. Sagebrush habitat here is on the eve of destruction — if the drilling schemes of Jindalee, Aurora and FMS proceed, or if Lithium Nevada pursues Montana Mountains claims.
BLM Prescribed Burn Impacts to Brewer’s Sparrows in the Oregon Canyon Mountains
Holmes 2007 conducted research in association with a Vale BLM prescribed burn of mountain big sagebrush in the Oregon Canyon Mountains. This study found significant adverse impacts to Brewer’s Sparrows.
“I measured songbird abundance and vegetation cover in and around a 420-ha prescribed burn in a mountain big sagebrush community located at 2133 m elevation. Data were collected during the 3rd growing season after the fire. Brewer’s Sparrow and Sage Thrasher occurred in lower abundance on sites that were largely or completely burned relative to sites that were outside the fire perimeter or within unburned islands of shrubs. The number of Brewer’s Sparrow detections was linearly related to remaining sagebrush cover”
“The shrub community was dominated by mountain big sagebrush but also contained scattered snowberry (Symphoricarpos oreophilus) and bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata). At least 5 species of perennial grasses occurred on the site but they were not identified to species. Cheatgrass was limited to several very small patches (<1 m2) within the sampling area and was noted only in portions of the area that had burned”.
Regarding the Vale BLM prescribed sagebrush burn impacts, Holmes found significant adverse impacts to Brewer’s Sparrow: “reported responses are significantly negative for Brewer’s Sparrow”. This was mountain big sagebrush habitat, so Sagebrush Sparrows wouldn’t have been present.
This study took place several years before the Holloway and Long Draw fires. WLD’s Fite recalls appealing a Vale EA that likely included the burn decision – where BLM had openly stated that a purpose of an Oregon Canyon Mountains sagebrush burning project was to make it easier for cattle to walk up away from streams.
Burrowing Owl Population Habitat at Risk, and Now Being Actively Destroyed at Thacker Pass
The Thacker Pass mine site had provided habitat for an abundance of Burrowing Owls. This habitat is now being actively destroyed. Thacker Pass EIS Appendix H, Wildlife and Special Status Species Information shows that three surveys were conducted, and 34 Burrowing Owls were detected. Owls were found in 26 of 206 call surveys, and at 24 of 68 points. Information indicates 28 adults were observed. Table H-3, p. H-26.
The Jindalee EPO Appendices document Burrowing Owl presence in the Jindalee project area. WLD site visits have observed Burrowing Owls and burrow use in the Jindalee project area and in surrounding lands including other Aurora and FMS claim blocks. Mining development and exploration threatens outright habitat loss, prey loss, vehicle-caused owl mortality, poaching and other harms.
Caldera Area Golden Eagle Populations Appear to Be in Crisis
Map of Golden Eagle Nest Sites and territories from Thacker Pass EIS.
Mapping with the Thacker Pass EIS indicates Golden Eagle nest sites in the Caldera and surroundings. This map indicates occupied and unoccupied nest sites and territories several years ago when the Thacker EIS was being prepared. Residents and biologists now report seeing very few eagles at present across this landscape in both Nevada and Oregon.
The Jindalee HiTech EPO discusses Golden Eagle surveys and reveals a dearth of occupied eagle nests and other raptor observations in the limited area surveyed. The low nest occupancy is cause for alarm:
“A total of 67 nest structures were recorded in the study area. Eighteen nests were classified as belonging to golden eagles (none occupied), three belonging to red-tailed hawks (all occupied), 26 as belonging to unknown large raptors (none occupied), and 20 as belonging to common raven (four occupied). During the April 16, 2022, aerial survey, general observations included two golden eagles, two northern harriers, and one prairie falcon. On June 16, 2022, one golden eagle, one turkey vulture, one red-tailed hawk, and one unknown owl were observed”.
This is a very low number of eagle observations, and may indicate disease, or be a result of many recent years of low Black-tailed Jackrabbit numbers that could have contributed to a population crash. Birds could also be exposed to rodenticides used to kill ground squirrels in the Quinn or King’s River agricultural valley areas. Northern Harriers appear to be more abundant than the consultants reported, and American Kestrels are frequently observed in the Jindalee project area and surroundings (Fite, field obs.). Mining “take” of eagles could result from blasting or other loud noise and activity in proximity to nests, habitat loss for prey species, vehicle-caused mortality when eagles forage on road-killed rabbits or other animals, and other factors.
Long-billed Curlew Outright Lithium Mining Habitat Loss, and Poaching and Mortality Threat
The Long-billed Curlew, North America’s largest shorebird, is a sensitive species that nests in lower elevation sites with sparse or short-statured shrubs or burned areas. Thacker Pass mine construction and gravel pit activity is right now destroying what previously had been a large block of curlew nesting habitat with many nesting pairs present. Nesting by a significant number of curlews in the eastern portion of the project area was swept under the rug in the Thacker Pass mine EIS. there is no habitat mitigation for any migratory bird species. Development of lower elevation Caldera claims, and mining access routes, would further harm Curlews. These birds are quite noticeable in the spring when flying and calling hauntingly. Recreational shooting (which is likely to increase with an influx of miners) has dealt a blow to their populations in areas of Idaho. See 9/23/2020 news report on research “Don’t shoot! Study finds illegal killing of protected Idaho wildlife more widespread than previously known”.
The study is Katzner et al. 2020, “Illegal killing of nongame wildlife and recreational shooting in conservation areas”. It describes birds being killed while legal shooting of other species was taking place. The paper also found shot-killed raptors and other birds and determined that snakes were being intentionally killed too. In addition, Katzner et al. 2020 describe:
“In southeastern Oregon, just across the border from our study region, a large number of birds found along power lines are known to be illegally shot rather than electrocuted, as was once assumed (Idaho Power Company, unpublished observations). Similarly, illegal persecution, often shooting, also is an important cause of death of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in North America and Europe (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2016; Whitfield & Fielding, 2017), and bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in Michigan (Simon et al., 2020). Finally, the decline of rattlesnake populations in several states is well documented and associated with heavy persecution (Parker & Brown, 1973; Warwick, Steedman, & Holford, 1991)”.
Besides a huge worker influx, mine development results in proliferating powerlines, including near access routes and cutting across public lands. These are significant problems for Sage-grouse and other prey species.
Caldera Pygmy Rabbit Habitat, 2023 Pygmy Rabbit Petition Seeking ESA Listing Details Evidence of Range-wide Population Declines
Early spring 2023 winter snowmelt reveals Pygmy Rabbit subnivean winter tunnels by the Jindalee claims area. Tiny rabbit scat pellets on snow are on the right side of the tunnel hole.
The USGS Remington et al. 2021 report stated that “trends in pygmy rabbits are not known”. That report was often based on largely older information for many sagebrush species, so it did not reflect potential effects of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHD) discussed below. The new data compiled from across western states in a 2023 Pygmy Rabbit petition now demonstrates significant range-wide population declines.
In rejecting listing of the Pygmy Rabbit in response to the 2003 petition effort (Fite and Criddle 2003), USFWS considered that Sage-grouse “conservation” would protect Pygmy Rabbit populations. This has not been the case, as evidenced by the significant declines range-wide, and continued BLM, USFS and USFWS actions that degrade, alter and destroy habitats. Projects that federal agencies have termed Sage-grouse “restoration” have mowed, roller-beat, and/or herbicided sagebrush to destroy cover deemed “too dense”. These treatments continue, despite ever-mounting evidence of Sage-grouse seeking dense nesting cover, the great reliance of sagebrush migratory birds on relatively dense mature and old growth structurally complex big sagebrush, and on the ground evidence that “treatments” or “fuels projects” often result in new and expanded cheatgrass/or other weed infestations in the hotter, drier, windier “treated” sites.
In response to continued loss of habitat and newly documented Pygmy Rabbit population declines across much of the rabbit’s range, a new Pygmy Rabbit petition was filed in 2023. It describes numerous threats to the Pygmy Rabbit that are directly relevant to its Caldera habitat:
“Future habitat degradation and loss is predicted, primarily due to an increase in fire frequency in sagebrush habitat in the western portion of the species’ range, which is both driven and compounded by climate change and increases in cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum). Added to this is the recent evidence of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus Serotype 2 (RHDV2) within the range of the pygmy rabbit, which we fear is now affecting populations that are already starting to lose habitat connectivity due to habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, thus diminishing the chances of “rescue effects” from adjacent populations if one population winks out due to RHDV2. In addition to these threats, livestock grazing is nearly ubiquitously influential throughout the range of the species and also compounds and worsens the currently out-of-balance fire and cheatgrass cycle. Climate change, warming and increased drought are also acting synergistically with all the above threats to pygmy rabbits across the range”. PR petition p. 3.
“As described in the original pygmy rabbit listing petition in 2003, populations of pygmy rabbit
occupy a geographic range estimated at 10% of the species’ known historic range, which spanned over 100 million acres of the American West. Existing larger populations are often
isolated from one another. Stochastic events, disease, and continued disturbance will further
fragment its range and limit post-disturbance recovery from satellite populations”. PR petition p. 4.
“The pygmy rabbit is at risk of extinction (e.g. endangered) or at risk of becoming endangered (e.g. threatened) in all or a significant portion of its range. There is evidence that shows pygmy rabbit populations are in decline, that its habitat is disappearing, that it is threatened with emergent diseases, and there are no adequate regulatory mechanisms in place to ensure its long-term survival”. PR petition p. 5.
“Numerous modeling studies indicate that the combined effect of climate change, increased exotic annuals, and the increase in fire that result from that interaction, will lead to further decreases in sagebrush cover across the sagebrush sea”, Remington et al. 2021. PR petition p. 5 This also references Doherty et al. 2021, and potential sagebrush habitat “biome-wide collapse”.
“… pygmy rabbits prefer sagebrush sites with relatively higher cover, structural diversity, density and height of shrubs (Larrucea and Brussard 2008a, Camp et al. 2012, McMahon et al. 2017). … Pygmy rabbit winter habitat use focuses on dense, tall sagebrush stands with high structural diversity that tend to concentrate more snow”.
“Summer habitat selection by pygmy rabbits tend to incorporate sandy soils; structurally diverse stands of shrubs; relatively higher (compared to non-occupied summer sites) cover, height and density of total live shrubs, including big sagebrush; and relatively greater abundance of forbs” (Heady et al. 2001)”.
Pygmy Rabbit petition pp. 15-16 describes sagebrush “treatment” threats. Figure 3 uses a recent paper (Hilts et al. 2023) that separates out “core areas”. Pygmy Rabbits continue to inhabit the McDermitt Caldera in both Oregon and Nevada, and this and other areas that haven’t been adequately surveyed may not be sufficiently reflected in the Hilts mapping. There have been recent “alarming declines” in intensively studied Pygmy Rabbit populations – in Elko and Austin populations, and a portion of the Sheldon-Hart population to the west. PR petition p. 23.
PR petition p. 23 states: “Fire has severely impacted Nevada’s sagebrush communities. In the last 20 years, Nevada has lost fully 25% of its Greater sage-grouse habitat to fire (personal communication, Shawn Espinosa, Nevada Department of WIldlife, July 21 2022). Over 9,292,750 acres of pygmy rabbit habitat in Nevada has burned in the last 40 years. (Figure 6) This loss alone represents nearly 5.5% of all presumably occupied pygmy rabbit range in North America”.
PR petition p. 23 again references Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHD). This calcivirus disease is extremely contagious and a grave new threat to all North American leporids and the Pika. It can be spread on mud on vehicles, clothes, shoes, hair/fur etc. – by humans, livestock, vehicles, equipment and persists for long periods of time.
Right now, Lithium Nevada is planning a “Man Camp” multi-year facility near Winnemucca to house a thousand Thacker Pass mine build-out workers. Not only will this huge influx of workers, along with equipment, potentially transport RHD or other pathogens into the Thacker Pass and caldera area while working, there will also be an onslaught of drillers and equipment associated with the Jindalee 267 drill holes and 30 miles of new road development. Workers may also transport virus material while recreating on public lands on time off.
This worker influx is also likely to result in a large-scale increase in vehicle-caused mortality, recreational use including shooting. Rabbits are very frequent targets of some “recreational shooters” and are often just shot and left dead on the land including night-time shooting along roads. Poaching and overall disturbance and displacement of wildlife, and vehicle-caused wildlife mortality across the landscape in both Nevada and Oregon is highly likely to increase. We are not aware of any additional wildlife anti-poaching enforcement planned. It’s very likely that an influx of workers will result in recreational shooting of rabbits, including at night, which is very common in the West, and that Pygmy Rabbits and White-tailed Jackrabbits would fall victim to such killing, no matter if they’re considered to be “protected species”.
Jindalee’s 267 drill pads/30 miles of new road proposed multi-year drilling scheme and 24 hour a day drilling will increase the potential for wildlife mortality, and a variety of causes of wildlife death. It will increase wildlife disturbance and result in animal displacement from preferred habitats, and will increase mortality, and also potential for human-caused wildfire starts. This increase in human activity heightens the risk of wildfire from mining equipment use, human carelessness, or accidents. A sudden explosion of the overall human disturbance footprint in this region poses a serious threat to a broad array of wildlife. Thacker Pass development and expanded Jindalee, Aurora or other drilling will impose a significant cumulative human disturbance impact on the regions’ public lands and native biota.
PR petition p. 25 states: “over 5,830,600 acres of pygmy rabbit habitat in Oregon has burned in the last 40 years”, and “26,105,642 acres within the current range of the species has burned, which comprises over 15% of the range of predicted occupied habitat”.
“Figure 7 … highlights the growing invasive annual grass challenge in the tri-State area of Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada. The areas of the map in Figure 7 from yellow to red represent 43,851,242 acres dominated by annual invasive herbaceous cover (principally cheatgrass). This represents over 25% of the current range of the pygmy rabbit in North America. In the Nevada stronghold in the past few decades 3,776,695.1 acres of primary and suitable habitat (as defined by Smith et al. 2019) has transitioned to nonnative annual grass, which equates to 18.8% of all predicted pygmy rabbit in the Nevada stronghold”. PR Petition Figure 6, p. 35, shows wildfires (and repeated fires in the same land area) over the past 40 years.
“Figure 8 illustrates that across the range of the pygmy rabbit, non-native annual grasses have increased from 5,545,983 acres in 1991 to 22,806,586 acres in 2021, which is a troubling 421% increase. Figure 8 shows that much of this increase is occurring in the pygmy rabbit strongholds in Oregon and Nevada”. PR petition pps. 37 and 38.
Cheatgrass is anathema to the rabbit:
“Weiss and Verts (1984) found that only 2 of 51 occupied pygmy rabbit sites in Oregon had cheatgrass in the understory. Annual grasses may restrict movements or visibility by pygmy rabbits and be avoided to increase chances of escaping from predation (Weiss and Verts 1984). The likelihood of pygmy rabbit presence decreases with increased occurrence of cheatgrass (Larrucea and Brussard 2008a). Cheatgrass is only palatable early in the spring when it is still green, so it does not offer a long-term food source and the roots can form dense mats that may make burrowing difficult for pygmy rabbits (Larrucea and Brussard 2008a). Furthermore, as cheatgrass-dominated areas increase (e.g., post-fire monocultures), a potential barrier to dispersal is created as the physical structure providing protection from predation is lost (Larrucea and Brussard 2008b)”. PR petition pp. 40-41.
The Caldera is surrounded by significant cheatgrass in lower valley margin and adjacent burned areas, and cheatgrass also now occurs in mid to higher elevation lands that suffered extensive shrub loss from wildfire, as well as some areas infested from past BLM livestock forage projects, or “fuels” projects that reduced native shrub cover. BLM continues to “rehab” lands with aggressive exotic and invasive species like forage kochia that lock out sagebrush recovery. There is abundant evidence of forage kochia seedings in the Double H and Bilk Creek region. See attached Scientists Fuelbreak letter to BLM, critiquing the Tri-state Fuelbreaks project.
Pygmy Rabbit petition p. 34 describes the perils of habitat fragmentation:
“Habitat fragmentation is deleterious for pygmy rabbits. Pierce et al. (2011) looked into the
effects of increased edge habitat on pygmy rabbits in Utah, through their efforts to quantify
pygmy rabbit activity in edge habitat and non-edge habitat, and to also understand predator
and competitor activity within edge and non-edge habitat. Pierce and others observed fewer
camera trap images of pygmy rabbits near edge habitat, while images of predators and
competitors in edge habitat increased.
Fragmentation necessarily creates more of these edge habitats, increasing the risk of predation
and competition for the remaining potentially suitable areas. This is effectively an inverse
buffer zone for the species. Indeed, Pierce and others (2011) found that pygmy rabbit fecal
pellets decreased near edge habitat, while fecal pellets from cottontails and jackrabbits were
more abundant …”.
“If a population becomes isolated from other populations through habitat fragmentation and
human caused barriers to movement and dispersal, genetic repercussions are possible …
inbreeding, low genetic diversity, genetic drift and even extirpation as small and shrinking
populations “blink out” over time (Noss 1983, Wilcove 1987). Small, isolated populations are
also more at risk of being wiped out by catastrophic events such as huge fires (Noss 1983,
Wilcove 1987) or disease. Pygmy rabbit researchers over time have stressed the importance of
preserving connecting sagebrush corridors between isolated patches of sagebrush; for example
Rauscher (1997), who stated that without these connecting corridors, isolated populations of
pygmy rabbits can become subject to principles of island biogeography and stochastic events”.
Review of habitat loss and fragmentation impacts highlights the significance of the unburned lands as an island of irreplaceable sagebrush habitat amid an ever-growing sea of cheatgrass. Much of the McDermitt Caldera still comprises a critical remaining expanse of mature and often dense sagebrush habitat not yet overrun by cheatgrass. The unique geographic location provides essential habitat connectivity for many species.
The Jindalee Hi-Tech EPO report documented Pygmy Rabbit presence in the McDermitt Creek landscape. Only 450 acres of a 7,200 acre project area were intensively searched, based on a model. Searches used only a 0.5 mile buffer around the proposed drilling block. No camera verification of rabbit presence was used. We are not aware of other recent current systematic inventories of Pygmy Rabbit habitat occupancy here.
The Thacker Pass EIS process revealed that Pygmy Rabbits previously had occupied the project area, but were no longer present, and appear to have been extirpated. Note that various Winnemucca BLM fuelbreaks and earlier mine exploration had already destroyed and degraded some denser sagebrush habitat at the Thacker Pass site (and the disturbed areas showed evidence of increased cheatgrass). Now lithium mine construction is obliterating the remaining sagebrush at Thacker Pass, eliminating chances of rabbit recovery, and severing habitat connectivity for many wildlife species in the pass movement corridor between the Quinn River and Kings River valleys.
The Jindalee EPO states: “Pygmy Rabbit was found in five locations, spaced less than a quarter mile apart within the Payne Creek drainage. Numerous burrows and rabbit pellets were observed; however, most did not belong to pygmy rabbit due to size, shape, or lack of appropriate habitat. Detailed descriptions of the sign observed, burrow attributes, and habitat characteristics are provided in Attachment C”. McDermitt EPO, G-17. Fite observed Pygmy Rabbit sign in an apparently different area. The bottom line is that inadequate searches were conducted, and there has been no effort to understand the extent of occupied habitat and habitat quality, including over a large enough area of surrounding sagebrush habitat.
In the Idaho Owyhee uplands, Burak’s thesis work described Pygmy Rabbit activity in dense mountain big sagebrush cover habitat, where rabbits used burrows less frequently (thesis p. 68 and elsewhere). A similar pattern of limited burrow use in areas of dense sagebrush cover could be occurring in the Montana Mountains mountain big sagebrush areas, such as sites in the Lithium Nevada claims band.
Pygmy Rabbits here have suffered significant loss of critical dense mature sagebrush cover habitat in the Holloway and other fires, loss and fragmentation from BLM “fuels” and other “treatments”, past BLM crested wheatgrass seeding sagebrush destruction, livestock water pipelines and troughs in uplands, and structural simplification of sagebrush cover from cattle breakage impacts. Habitats are vulnerable to cheatgrass and other flammable grass expansion when soils are intensively disturbed.
From 2018 to the present, the McDermitt Creek Basin has been subjected to new habitat fragmentation and increased weed expansion and invasion vulnerability from the mining boom (including cross-country driving to stake claims), and new outright habitat destruction and fragmentation from Jindalee Notice-level lithium exploratory drilling and road footprint expansion. Roads create a weed dispersal corridor. Now 30 miles of new “temporary” roads are looming in the Jindalee project area alone. This would result in high levels of additional habitat fragmentation and loss, propel flammable weed infestations, increase cattle use and concentration in previously dense sagebrush patches = increase sagebrush structural damage and cover loss and simplification, potential trampling damage and collapse of Pygmy Rabbit burrows including shallow natal burrows, increase predator travel corridors, and increase rabbit mortality from a host of human activities. See Gelbard and Belnap 2003, Gelbard and Harrison 2003.
The region is facing active mine development and faces foreseeable large-scale new habitat damage, fragmentation and weed spread from mining exploration destruction, fragmentation and associated flammable weed spread from lithium and/or uranium exploration activity or active mine development. The site of the now ongoing Thacker Pass lithium mine sagebrush habitat destruction is an area where Pygmy Rabbits had previously been documented but consultants found it was unoccupied at the time of Lithium Nevada EIS surveys, likely due to relatively recent past mining exploration and BLM “treatment” sagebrush loss. The large Lithium Nevada claims band up in the Montana Mountains contains occupied Pygmy Rabbit habitat. Jindalee, FMS Oregon and Nevada claims, and some Aurora claims, are differentially concentrated in deep soil big sagebrush sites that support thick complex cover, and not rugged rocky or shallow soil non-rabbit habitats.
The Winnemucca BLM 2012 Fuels Treatment EA for the Montana Mountains stated:
“The NNHP database (2011) shows 4 known populations of pygmy rabbits in the planning area and the NDOW Diversity database (2011) lists an additional 2 populations. Complete surveys of the planning area have not been conducted, so additional populations of pygmy rabbit are likely present. The large expanses of preferred pygmy rabbit habitat (dense, intact stands of sagebrush on friable soils) and the presence of multiple populations within the planning area make this a priority area for protection of existing sagebrush habitat to benefit pygmy rabbits …”.
We are aware of no extensive systematic surveys conducted during the following 11 years.
ODFW has been conducting both Pygmy Rabbit and White-tailed Jackrabbit surveys in SE Oregon, but to date the agency has not surveyed the Trout Creek or Oregon Canyon Mountains and the Caldera, nor the upper Oregon Owyhee region. K. Adkins ODFW pers. comm. to Fite.
The Larrucea Dissertation Figure 4 p. 48 appears to show documentation from 2003-2006 of Pygmy Rabbits in the Montana Mountains. This mapping indicates the Montana Mountains area is at the southern margin of the Pygmy Rabbit range, with rabbits absent or minimally present in the Lahontan Basin to the south. Larrucea dissertation map Figure 5, p. 49 again shows Pygmy Rabbit occupancy in the Montana Mountains. Larrucea and Brussard 2008. Figure 2 map, and Figure 3 map 2003-2006 rabbit records, with rabbit site at 118 degrees.
The Montana Mountains appears to be the area around 118 degrees longitude by the state line in this map from the Larrucea Dissertation. Expanded mining wiping out Montana Mountains rabbits would leave a big gap.
Significant Climate Threat to Persistence of the Pygmy Rabbit
Yale Climate Connections reports: “Tiny rabbit has a big climate problem: It’s being squeezed by wildfires, predators, and other pressures”. The article includes researcher Larrucea stating “We’re seeing this giant conversion of sagebrush ecosystem into cheatgrass at the lower elevation sites. And warmer winters result in less snowpack, which the rabbit tunnel through to hide from predators as they look for sagebrush to eat”. Larrucea studied the rabbit’s distribution in the Great Basin and found they had disappeared from many lower elevation sites”.
Many recent articles discuss the significance of climate change threats to the Pygmy Rabbit, with rabbits disappearing from lower elevations. Larrucea and Brussard 2008 describe the extirpation of Pygmy Rabbits at lower elevation historical sites that Larrucea re-visited. Rush et al. 2023 describe how habitat specialists (like the Pygmy Rabbit) are impacted by habitat change to a greater degree than habitat generalists and examine adverse climate change impacts. Dilts et al. 2023 raised concerns about dispersal pinch-points, loss of connectivity between Pygmy Rabbit populations, and also modeled connectivity corridors.
“Conserving core areas and ecological corridors to support species movement have been key strategies in the global conservation movement (Merriam 1990; Jongman 1995; Opdam et al. 1995) with recent high-level commitments from the US government and other nations to conserve 30% of land and 30% of waters for preserving biodiversity (USDOI 2021). Maintaining connectivity is critical to promoting wildlife movements, including those related to breeding and gene flow (Hanski and Simberloff 1997) and for facilitating a species’ response to climate change (Keeley et al. 2018)”.
Mapping in Dilts et al. 2023 appears to indicate Pygmy Rabbit presence in the Montana Mountains but does not seem to show Pygmy Rabbit in Oregon Caldera lands nor, it appears, in the Oregon West Little Owyhee region where this species still occurs – illustrating under-sampling of portions of the SE Oregon region and lack of adequate systematic biological inventories in areas of this landscape. The Dilts map is based on relatively older data – 2008 and 2016 to 2017. The situation is worsening (as shown by the recent range-wide population declines documented in the 2023 Pygmy Rabbit petition) as fires, cheatgrass, agency sagebrush “treatments”, chronic grazing impacts simplifying sagebrush structure and understories, livestock facility developments and potentially RHD take their toll. Complex modeling only goes so far, and the structural complexity and density of big sagebrush at a site is often the most critical determinant of rabbit occupancy.
Conservation focused on modeled “core areas” for species that are significantly declining has long been used with Sage-grouse to varying degrees – for example, the Doherty et al. 2010 core area mapping that triaged habitat based on bird abundance. This can result in agency sacrifice of “lesser” populations and resulting decreased or severed connectivity between occupied habitats and populations. Smaller or un-inventoried populations may then be more readily sacrificed to development by agencies. This seems an unacceptable strategy if species survival and persistence is the goal. Elevating core areas while sacrificing other occupied habitat is not a viable strategy for the sagebrush ecosystem anymore – where one climate-driven fire can quickly wipe out large modeled “core” acreages. Species like Sage-grouse and Pygmy Rabbit have faced very significant declines. Preservation of existing populations seems the only ecologically sound path forward – now even more so with the serious threat of RHD, avian flu and other novel exotic diseases impacting the West’s wildlife.
White-Tailed Jackrabbit Habitat and Population Declines
Recent population declines in White-tailed Jackrabbit (WTJR) and the species disappearance from significant areas of formerly occupied range have elevated conservation concerns about population persistence of the White-tailed Jackrabbit, an Oregon sensitive species. ODFW describes the range of WTJRs in Oregon as “east and south of a line connecting Rufus, Maupin, and Antelope, John Day, Juntura, Fields, Fort Rock, and Fort Klamath”.
McDermitt Creek Basin White-tailed Jackrabbit transitioning from winter to summer pelage, Jindalee claims area. April 2023. The local ranchers call them “snowshoes” because of their white winter pelage.
White-tailed Jackrabbits are characteristically a higher elevation rabbit than Black-tailed Jackrabbits in the high desert sagebrush ecosystem. Black-tailed Jackrabbits occur in the lower elevation Wyoming and Basin big sagebrush areas of the Caldera and McDermitt Creek Basin. BTJRs have been extremely scarce in recent years all across SE Oregon, SW Idaho and northern Nevada, with populations experiencing extended lows. This may be a driving factor in the alarmingly few Golden Eagles currently observed in much of the region.
WTJRs inhabit low sagebrush sites, including areas interfacing with big sagebrush in the caldera, and low sage and/or bunchgrass burned sites, and portions of crested wheat seedings with big sagebrush cover. They inhabit the Jindalee project area. There is a narrow elevation and habitat zone of overlap here where both species of jackrabbits co-occur. This zone occurs in the McDermitt Creek Basin in the area of Jindalee, FMS and Aurora claims, for example in the Payne and Turner Creek areas. The higher elevations of the Montana Mountains in Nevada and the large Lithium Nevada claims band are White-tailed Jackrabbit habitat.
The abstract for Schlater et al. 2021 describes White-tailed Jackrabbits as ecosystem engineers. Mapping shows declining populations in Oregon.
“White-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus townsendii) were once abundant in North America and provided a number of ecosystem services such as seed dispersal, nutrient cycling, facilitating the persistence of other species, and serving as a prey species for predators, including golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), bobcats (Lynx rufus), and numerous others. Reports describe declines and extirpations across much of their range, but given the extremely limited research available, it is difficult to determine what factors have led to reductions of white-tailed jackrabbits. Researchers have investigated few areas of white-tailed jackrabbit ecology, including the possible effects of climate change, habitat degradation and loss, competition with black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus), and changes in predator composition”.
Also see Brown et al. 2019 review of the status of the White-tailed Jackrabbit range-wide.
“Our evaluation revealed its extirpation or decline throughout much of its range, but its legal or conservation status does generally not reflect this precarious status”.
A map of museum specimens in Brown et al. 2019 shows the species was not collected further south across the Lahontan Basin. This data is limited to areas where older collections took place – but appears to show the Caldera as the southern edge of the species range, where the rabbit’s range borders the Lahontan Basin. Animal populations on the edge of a species range are often considered to be most vulnerable to extirpation and loss. See also Brown et al. 2019 rabbit map downloadable from the paper.
Simes et al. 2015 review of Black-tailed and White-tailed Rabbits emphasizes their importance as prey species. Significant declines in prey species may seriously impact populations of Golden Eagles and other important raptor and mammalian predators.
Limited consultant surveys in Jindalee’s EPO did not detect any White-tailed Jackrabbits, despite the obvious presence of large-sized individual scat pellets in suitable habitat the in the project area, a good indication of their presence.
Minimal Current Biological Information for Many Small Terrestrial Mammal Species and Reptiles
We could find only minimal current information on small mammal occurrence and populations in the Caldera and the surrounding landscape. Systematic current surveys necessary to determine small mammal fauna and relative species abundance in particular habitats and plant community assemblages are lacking. Such surveys were not conducted with the 2012 Montana Mountains Fuels project EA, the Kings Valley Clay Mine EA, the Thacker Pass lithium mine EIS process, nor to date with the 2023 Jindalee EPO.
Riddle et al. 2014 discuss species distribution on mountain islands in the Great Basin. The caldera and Montana Mountains/Trout Creek/Oregon Canyon mountains comprise a mountain island at the northern extent of the Lahontan Basin where we are unable to find current surveys for small mammal species.
Much More Information Is Needed on Seasonal Bat Use, Roosts and Rare Species Abundance in the Caldera
Although some surveys have been done to determine bat species presence, adequate information on habitat use, roost sites, species abundance, and possible hibernacula in the landscape’s canyons, rock outcrops, and mine adits hasn’t been collected.
The Jindalee EPO surveys identify presence of Canyon Bat, Big Brown Bat, Little Brown Bat, Long-eared Myotis, Mexican Free-tailed Bat, Hoary Bat, Pallid Bat (OR-S, BLM-S), Silver-haired Bat (OR-S), Western Small-footed Myotis, Long-legged Myotis (OR-S), Townsend’s Big-eared Bat (OR-S, BLM-S). S=sensitive species indicated by consultants. This is 11 species of bats. In spring, the greatest number of calls detected were from sensitive Silver-haired Bats.
The Thacker Pass EIS Appendix H surveys (pp. 14-19) detected the following species: Townsend’s Big-eared Bat, Spotted Bat, Big Brown Bat, Silver-haired Bat, Hoary Bat, California myotis, Small-footed Myotis, Long-eared Myotis, Little Brown Myotis, Fringed Myotis, Long-legged Myotis, Yuma Myotis. This is 12 species of bats. Nevada and Oregon BLM have different sensitive species lists – another “management” problem many taxa in this landscape facing sudden foreseeable large-scale habitat destruction and loss.
High levels of mining noise and activity – blasting and vibrations – may disrupt roosting or hibernating, so it is important to identify potential hibernacula. Mining (and roading including access road modifications) may also involve use of dynamite or destruction of rock formations that may be roost sites or hibernating areas. Night lights may affect some species. Noise that may mask echolocation is also a concern. Bat populations face globally declining insect populations, and now a disease threat from white nose syndrome fungus that effects the muzzle, ears and wings of hibernating bats– in addition to the effects of pesticides, habitat loss, and disturbance.
Habitat for bat insect prey production would be destroyed in bulldozed cleared areas. Mining impacts to shallow and groundwater aquifers from drilling may reduce the extent of perennial spring and stream area flows, or result in flow loss altogether, and cause a reduction in productive insect habitats. Aquifer drawdown associated with hard rock pit mining would further dry up or reduce spring areas and flows.
Mining exploration and development threatens bats with exposure to toxic chemicals. Night lights from 24 hour/day exploration, development and/or operation may attract insects, which in turn attract bats, into areas where water may be present where bats may drown or be exposed to toxic chemicals or other sources of mortality. The complexity of potential mining adverse effects including night lighting and light intensity and many references are summarized in Cory-Toussaint and Taylor 2022.
Artificial lighting delays and reduces bats emerging from roosts, affects commuting behavior, and interferes with navigation, may negatively affect energy balance. Sounds with certain loudness and intensity can be intolerable to bats – and cause stress, disrupt biological processes, and mask auditory perceptions. Species that rely on listening to detect prey may avoid habitats degraded by anthropogenic noise.
Altered and Manipulated Vale BLM Sagebrush Landscapes – Long-Term Loss and Degradation of Sagebrush Habitats Pose Ongoing Threat to Rare Species Survival
The “Vale Rangeland Project” was a cause of past sagebrush loss and fragmentation in the Caldera landscape and surroundings (including portions of the northern and eastern areas of the Oregon Canyon mountains). It involved large federal expenditures to eradicate sagebrush, replace sage with crested wheatgrass and build a high density of livestock facilities across the Vale District. Its aim was producing more livestock forage on livestock-depleted lands. It was highly damaging to sagebrush-dependent species habitats. At that time, BLM referred to sagebrush as “brush” and it was said to “dominate”. The Vale Project’s massive sage treatment destruction focused on deeper soil big sagebrush sites – the very habitat type that produces big sagebrush cover for nesting Sage-grouse and the structural cover and complexity required for sensitive sagebrush migratory bird nesting sites, and that’s essential for Pygmy Rabbit year-round use.
BLM destruction of sagebrush communities for livestock forage production purposes was openly stated in the Vale Project – which became notorious among wildlife biologists for its habitat destruction. Large-scale federal appropriations unleashed an extensive aerial herbicide campaign to kill sagebrush (using paraquat and 2,4-D), disking, plowing, railing, chaining to reduce sagebrush, often followed by aggressive seed drilling. This was combined with a constructing a proliferation of new livestock water developments that expanded and intensified grazing impacts– drilling wells, building pipelines and stock ponds disrupting drainage networks and spring/meadow areas, and dense pasture fencing that further carved up habitats, and that continues to kill Sage-grouse or other birds that collide with wires to this day. Sage-grouse fly low a lot in dim light, especially in spring and don’t detect fence wires. The intensified grazing disturbance that the Vale project facilitated persists to this day. Copycat sagebrush destruction took place across neighboring state’s BLM lands as well – greatly decreasing, simplifying, and fragmenting habitats for Sage-grouse. The range “repair” with the Vale project largely meant the destruction of sagebrush and its replacement with livestock forage grass.
A USDA publication (Heady and Bartolome 1977) describes some, but certainly not all – of the Vale Project livestock projects – as the associated sagebrush habitat destruction for livestock forage purposes continued for years after this report. Vale BLM managed lands have been the past epicenter of massive destruction of sagebrush habitats and “conversion” to exotic cattle forage grasses. Ranchers were told they might double AUMs when the project’s sagebrush destruction and crested wheat seeding was done.
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“… the station superintendent emphasized in talks to ranchers and BLM personnel that a twofold increase in AUM’s could be attained. Six management practices were needed: (1) more water to improve animal distribution, [= drilling wells, building pipeline and trough networks over vast areas of sagebrush habitat –which resulted in depletion and loss of habitats for Sage-grouse and many now-sensitive species, (2) more riding to scatter the cows, (3) sagebrush control by spraying, (4) seeding of crested wheatgrass …, (5) adjustments in opening and closing dates of grazing, and (6) providing sufficient winter feed”.
Heady and Bartolome p. 41 show seeding in portions of the McDermitt Basin. Crested wheat persists today, often with a good component of maturing sagebrush. There were also large seedings and livestock wells and water developments in the northern Oregon Canyon country and near Highway 95 and the Whitehorse road. The amount and quality of sagebrush habitats was reduced, and habitat degradation and loss effects persist to this day.
Winnemucca BLM’s current proposed Washburn well drilling and pipeline scheme is reminiscent of Vale Project era livestock exploitation schemes, where sagebrush uplands with 10 Sage-grouse leks and nesting habitat in the vicinity are sacrificed for livestock purposes.
Lack of Effective Controls on Motorized Use, and Continuing Caldera Route Proliferation
The expansion of motorized routes and two tracks, and new tracks driven in, is a significant problem across the Caldera – including expanding road footprints resulting from Jindalee’s Notice-level drilling activity. There was also past exploratory mineral drilling in the Montana Mountains that expanded routes. The Pole Creek access road stems from 1970s era Chevron uranium drilling. In the McDermitt Basin, previously minor and faint two tracks have recently been deeply driven in by Jindalee’s recent Notice-level drilling (2018 to present). Now these disturbed areas are suffering erosion in wind and water, and weeds are proliferating in some places. There is a high density of informal routes in the Montana Mountains and in portions of the McDermitt Creek watershed. Numerous livestock projects, including a high density of fences, have often resulted in roading being progressively driven in along fence lines. All these routes serve as weed dispersal corridors. All have potential to damage cultural materials, including as erosion in wind and water exposes underlying previously protected materials.
Around a decade ago, Winnemucca BLM began a travel planning effort to protect wildlife habitats, watersheds and cultural values. Maps were produced, and a travel planning project was scoped, but then abandoned without explanation.
USFWS and BLM Have Now Identified Caldera Sage-grouse and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Habitats as Part of a Restoration Landscape
The Interior Department recently identified the Montana Mountain region (extending north in the Caldera into Oregon) as the Montana Mountains Restoration Landscape for Sage-grouse and sagebrush habitats, and for Lahontan Cutthroat Trout watersheds. This is shown below:
The 2023 BLM Restoration Landscapes project introduction states that resilient public lands are critical, and this funding restoration allocation is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Habitat Restoration Project #9 is the Montana Mountains region. It includes the McDermitt Creek watershed in Oregon. BLM describes fire and drought exacerbated by climate change as threats to this “core landscape” and “critical ecosystem”. “It is home to antelope, mule deer, greater sage-grouse, pygmy rabbit, and other species that rely on sagebrush. Here, aquatic restoration and protection go a long way, as life is dependent on the area’s many perennial springs. Restored riparian areas – bands of green in the desert – will be key to the future of this critical ecosystem”
“In northwest Nevada, fire and drought exacerbated by climate change threaten the landscape. Public lands in the Montana Mountains surround and provide access to the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, an oasis in this high desert. A core sage-steppe habitat in Nevada, this landscape is home to antelope, mule deer, greater sage-grouse, pygmy rabbit, and other species that rely on sagebrush. Here, aquatic restoration and protection go a long way, as life is dependent on the area’s many perennial springs. Restored riparian areas – bands of green in the desert – will be key to the future of this critical ecosystem. Funds: $6 million … 3,682,910 BLM acres”.
This shows how antithetical to recovery and restoration of habitats for Sage-grouse, threatened fish, and a host of other species that lithium/uranium mining destruction of sagebrush habitats and watersheds would be here. As we have described, claims blocks shown on the ONDA Claims Map are located in extremely high value mature or old growth sagebrush habitat. It is ecologically insane to identify a “restoration landscape” and then let miners and speculators tear up the existing productive habitats. It takes 50-100 years or longer to develop a functional sagebrush community – so any “restoration” of sagebrush – a daunting and seldom achieved task even under the best of circumstances with mid-low elevation sage- takes a very long time. Irreplaceable Sage-grouse stronghold habitat is imminently threatened by the destruction of complex mature sagebrush communities that would result from the massive new Jindalee EPO phase drilling in the McDermitt Basin heart. It would destroy irreplaceable sage habitat.
As was shown with the Thacker Pass EIS process, mining companies cynically use mining exploration destruction of sagebrush in earlier drilling to their advantage in subsequent mine EIS NEPA analysis – by claiming that development of the full-blown mine would take place in “degraded” or lower value habitats. No matter that past mine exploration drilling using a dense grid of drill sites and roads had caused the degradation and sub-standard habitat in the first place. The Western Lithium Clay Mine EA, discussed in this petition, preceded the Thacker Pass EIS. It covered a much smaller area than the massive sagebrush and rare plant habitat drilling destruction Jindalee seeks.
The BLM’s 2023 Montana Mountains Restoration region is contiguous with the neighboring Sheldon-Hart Restoration region that was also identified in the BLM press release and Story Map. “Fuels” treatments are also planned for the appropriation. The form any fuels projects may take is not explained. Given BLM’s routine heavy-handed approach to “fuels” and “restoration” in many areas of the Great Basin – and within the Caldera with the 2012 Winnemucca BLM Fuels EA and other prior purposeful destruction of sage habitat in the Thacker Pass area and portions of the Montana Mountains – there is significant concern about new treatments having harmful habitat impacts – especially if they are conducted using standard BLM methods. Actions BLM terms “restoration and fuels” projects may cause new expanded sagebrush habitat loss, fragmentation and profuse flammable weed spread, and not end up restoring any sagebrush.
Aggressive BLM fuels treatment destruction of sagebrush has already taken place in many areas of the Great Basin, resulting in cheatgrass proliferation, increased fragmentation of habitats, and harm to biodiversity. While there may be positive agency intentions with fuelbreaks, there is serious risk of expanding permanent sagebrush habitat loss and degradation, spreading flammable weeds irreversibly, and harming and/or destroying non-target vegetation and vulnerable wildlife habitats. The extensive, and often futile, use of herbicides with BLM fuels treatments is also a significant concern. The Scientists Fuelbreak Letter on the BLM Tri-state fuelbreaks (Oregon, Idaho, Nevada) details ecological concerns about biodiversity loss, weed proliferation and other problems that plague BLM fuels treatment projects.
“The scientists contend the BLM’s proposal will likely fail to contain large fires, and the collateral damage will result: “(1) fragment large areas of intact sagebrush ecosystems; (2) facilitate the invasion of exotics due to the disturbance created by the breaks; (3) supplant native communities with exotic dominants; and (4) destroy or degrade biological soil crusts and any native species in the sites.”
Unless great care in planning and siting is undertaken, “fuels” projects that disturb sagebrush communities may threaten habitats for: Sage-grouse, Pygmy Rabbit, many sensitive bird species – including Sagebrush Sparrow, Brewer’s Sparrow, Sage Thrasher, Loggerhead Shrike, Gray Flycatcher, Sagebrush Vole, Kangaroo Rats (see photos below) and other small mammal species. Once denser mats of cheatgrass take hold, additional disturbances such as livestock grazing facilitate outward spread into adjacent sites. Seeding with harmful aggressive exotic species like forage kochia that preclude sagebrush recovery is also a major concern.
Mowed/crushed sagebrush area and flattened cheatgrass-infested Kangaroo Rat mounds, and destroyed and fragmented Sagebrush Sparrow and Brewer’s Sparrow habitat.
Untreated, unflattened Kangaroo Rat mound with many burrows near Jordan Meadows access road, just outside a BLM fuelbreak that now has dense cheatgrass in many places. Surroundings show Wyoming big sagebrush-fourwing-saltbush community with high quality biocrusts that provides nesting habitat for many sagebrush migratory birds. The existing caldera fuelbreaks used tractors or heavy equipment that harmed and flattened Kangaroo Rat and other small mammal burrows, and resulted in a proliferation of weeds as the sagebrush was destroyed.
Cheatgrass and miscellaneous weeds in Caldera fuelbreak and road disturbance margin – a prime site for catalytic converter or other human-caused fires.
Destroying protective microclimate-moderating sagebrush cover results in a hotter, drier, windier, weedier site. There is also a major concern that fuelbreaks not only spread weeds, but also that BLM often seeds exotic species plus supposed “natives” planted are often very altered from the actual local native ecotype plants. BLM sage killing equipment and seeding tractors flatten animal burrows and destroy habitat complexity for small mammals, reptiles, and native pollinators.
The 2023 Pygmy Rabbit petition describes:
“Mechanical and chemical treatments to reduce sagebrush and other woody species to try to
improve cattle forage can result in considerable increases in non-native grasses and forbs,
usually drastically reducing habitat for sagebrush-obligate species (Beck et al. 2012, Rottler et
- 2015, and summarized by Jones 2019). Indeed, studies have shown the deleterious effects
mechanical sagebrush treatments have had on pygmy rabbits, including home range
movements farther from treatments than expected, and observed reluctance of rabbits to
enter treated patches (e.g., Wilson 2010, Wilson et al. 2011). Going forward, much more
attention needs to be paid to the effects of the near ubiquitous practice of livestock grazing in
pygmy rabbit habitat, and how this interacts with and is compounded with climate change and
vegetation treatments, even when the aim of such treatments is habitat restoration.
Additionally, construction of new livestock infrastructure (primarily water sources) continues to
extend livestock use into remnants of less-grazed sagebrush habitats (Catlin et al. 2011, and
references therein)”. Pygmy Rabbit petition p. 43.
An ACEC and protective management oversight is essential to ensure careful and integrated fuels actions, and for integrated effective actual sagebrush restoration attempts and planning across two states, and two BLM Districts. It’s necessary to ensure that effective sagebrush habitat restoration actually takes place, and not the typical heavy-handed BLM planting of livestock forage grass, weedy forage kochia (as has occurred in the Double H and Bilk Creek country) which precludes sagebrush returning, highly altered cultivars, or extensive use of herbicides that cause collateral damage. Removal of sagebrush results in hotter, drier, windier, weedier more fire prone micro-sites, creates expanded areas for livestock concentration and facilitates disturbance of protective soil biocrusts – all of which serves to accelerate irreversible weed infestation and spread.
Clearing away woody cover also makes it easier for off-road driving with the potential for human-caused fires from vehicles parked or driven off-road, or recreational activities such as target shooting. The destruction of sagebrush for fuelbreaks is typically accompanied by herbicide use in futile agency attempts at weed control. Chemicals may drift off-site, kill non-target vegetation or contaminate indigenous food plants. After a few years, the weeds win out in the sprayed areas anyway. BLM continues to seed aggressive exotic species (crested wheatgrass, and invasive forage kochia) alien to the sagebrush ecosystem or hybridized large-sized cultivars of native species that minimally resemble the local native ecotypes. These plant types may be harmful to the genetic composition of local species if cross-pollination occurs.
It’s critical that sagebrush and native shrubs that moderate micro-site conditions be re-established in areas burned in previous fires. This must be the focus of actual restoration here, and not the typical BLM straight-line fuels project that mindlessly destroys existing mature sagebrush and other shrubs and animal habitats.
ACEC designation is also necessary to ensure that mature and dense sagebrush and other vital upland habitats are not sacrificed for wells and upland water developments as a trade-off for more riparian fencing. These result in intensified livestock use levels shifted onto sage communities – just like Winnemucca BLM is currently proposing with new upland habitat destruction in the Washburn Wells project. Drilling new livestock water wells and constructing cattle pipelines and troughs creates new zones of Sage-grouse habitat degradation, depletion, weed infestation and fragmentation. Frequently when there is an ESA-listed aquatic species present, a federal agency’s reaction is to unquestioningly sacrifice sagebrush upland habitats by shifting intensive grazing onto uplands – the least repairable habitat type. This also often shifts associated project-spawned roading and other disturbance. The typical result has been a proliferation of upland fences and livestock water developments that expand and intensify grazing degradation impacts to Sage-grouse and other wildlife in remnant less disturbed sagebrush habitat areas.
A dense network of fences is already present in some areas of the Caldera, and many fences have harmful wire spacing that may impede big game movement. See Van Lanen et al. 2017 reporting reductions in Sage-grouse collision mortality, but also a troubling amount of mortality from fence collisions continued, even when fences are marked.
Plastic fence wire visibility markers or their reflective strips often fall off fences. This is occurring right now with marked Caldera fences, and reflective material on plastic falls off even sooner. Markers are also minimally visible against a snowy background, particularly when snowfall collects on them. Fite, field obs.
Connelly et al. 2004 describe many harmful effects of fences on Sage-grouse (and other birds too). Fences concentrate livestock causing soil disturbance, cleared areas by fences become predator travel corridors, livestock congregate and trail along fences creating new weed infestation sites, fences provide predator perches, and roading often sprouts up along fences. This all results in expanded habitat fragmentation.
There is a need to systematically assess and address the higher density fencing and water project effects here – ranging from irreversible flammable weed spread to trampling-caused intensified of erosion of cultural sites to causing direct mortality of Sage-grouse and other species, to impairing big game movement. Many fences have harmful wire spacing, and water troughs concentrate livestock and create sites for disease spread, or harbor disease-causing insects (as with West Nile virus mosquitoes), or other pathogens.
Finally, it is the antithesis of management for restoration to allow Jindalee, Aurora, FMS, Chariot Corporation, LiVE, Lithium Nevada, or others to degrade, destroy and fragment these critical native sagebrush upland vegetation communities and LCT watersheds with planned and foreseeable large-scale mining activities.
Mining Threat to Inadequately Studied Landscape of High Biodiversity
Noss’s 1990 seminal paper on biodiversity described: “Biodiversity … encompasses multiple levels of biological organization … composition, structure, and function … the issue is grounded in a concern about biological impoverishment at multiple levels of organization. Increasingly, the American public sees biodiversity as an environmental end point with intrinsic value that ought to be protected (Nash 1989). The heightened interest in biodiversity presents an opportunity to address environmental problems holistically, rather than in the traditional and fragmentary species-by- species, stress-by-stress fashion”.
“The relevance of landscape structure to biodiversity is now well accepted, thanks to the voluminous literature on habitat fragmentation (e.g., Burgess & Sharpe 1981; Harris 1984; Wilcove et al. 1986). Landscape features such as patch size, heterogeneity, perimeter-area
ratio, and connectivity can be major controllers of species composition and abundance, and of population viability for sensitive species (Noss & Harris 1986). Related features of landscape composition (i.e., the identity and proportions of particular habitats) are also critical. The “functional combination” of habitats in the landscape mosaic is vital to animals that utilize multiple habitat types and includes ecotones and species assemblages that change gradually along environmental gradients; such gradient-associated assemblages are often rich in species but are not considered in conventional vegetation analysis and community-level conservation
(Noss 1987)”.
The vegetation communities of the Caldera landscape are complexly interspersed. This has not been adequately studied and assessed. In the McDermitt Creek Basin, Wyoming big sagebrush (often with very highly developed biotic crusts in interspaces) occurs interspersed with exposed clay soils on ridge slopes with rare or unusual species of plants inhabiting the clay soils. The McDermitt Creek Basin is the only place in the Caldera with distinctive clay ridge bare soil outcroppings that are home to rare or unusual native plants. Oregon BLM’s Trout Creek group WSA Report (discussed below) highlighted the diverse ecological sites in the general landscape. Just above the lowest part of the Basin, deep soil big sagebrush sites occupy a band of habitat, and at times are interspersed with short-statured low sagebrush types in areas of Jindalee, Aurora, FMS or other party claims.
Remarkably, many of the clay soil areas inhabited by rare plant species, and much of the surrounding largely intact Wyoming big sagebrush community, are not yet infested with cheatgrass or other aggressive flammable annual weeds. In some places in the Jindalee and FMS claims areas, one can walk hundreds of yards and not see a single cheatgrass plant. This is increasingly an extraordinary condition in the arid interior West. In much of the area where sagebrush is present in the outside burned sites, the soils are exceptionally free of cheatgrass.
Unfortunately, some existing Jindalee drill sites, disturbed road margins, and sites with minimally controlled erosion where disturbed soil washes down are becoming overrun with weeds.
These currently weed-free areas with intact native plant communities and biocrusts face massive exploration degradation. What Vale BLM terms 5 acres of disturbance has already resulted in a proliferation of weeds – including halogeton – that are now appearing three or so years after initial disturbance. Imagine the weed-spread effects of the 2023 prposed 100 acres of disturbance with 30 miles of roads that will drastically alter and destroy the unique sagebrush and clay soil communities. Weed infestations will be irreversible and ultimately result in cheatgrass site dominance with the looming mega-disturbance of the Jindalee exploration plan with 30 miles of new roads and 267 drill sites and wastewater sumps, and other foreseeable plans and other Notice level activity.
Tumbleweeds on a previous Jindalee drill site – where soil was denuded in drilling. The site was positioned in the mouth of a small draw. A growing little gully has now formed, soil erodes downslope with rain, onto a two track along Payne Creek, and then erodes in various places into Payne Creek. A single $20 straw wattle had been placed here for “reclamation”.
Cheatgrass-infesting Jindalee drill site.
Some older Jindalee drill sites (drilling of 60+ bore holes and sumps and various road disturbance commenced in 2018) are now becoming increasingly infested with weeds. The bottom line is: The native plant communities in unburned Caldera areas are still largely weed-free. But if soils are disturbed enough with soil layer mixing and biocrust destruction – once there is sufficient mining disturbance – cheatgrass, halogeton and other weeds will infest this Sage-grouse stronghold and its crucial habitats. See attached WLD letters and photos to BLM of Jindalee sites. The spillover risk is particularly high given the large amount of cheatgrass that has infested many adjacent burned sites in the Holloway fire.
Crested wheatgrass seedings are located in portions of the Payne and Turner Creek watersheds. Significant amounts of sagebrush have returned in many areas, to the extent that now Brewer’s Sparrows and Sagebrush Sparrow nest in the seedings in good numbers, and there are often forbs present. Sagebrush songbird seeding presence is likely enhanced by the contiguous large blocks of minimally fragmented sagebrush outside seedings. These seedings, on the western side of the Jindalee project area, are also largely free of cheatgrass. So are portions of seedings in the Jordan Meadows area where there has been some recovery of sagebrush – though these appear to have fewer forbs. It’s possible the composition of some of the clay soils makes them less easily invaded by cheatgrass unless burned, or until a significant amount of new disturbance results.
Caldera lands also contain high densities of geophytes in various micro-site habitats – especially Cymopterus, Lewisia, Perideridia, Lomatium, Allium. Cymopterus is especially abundant and occurs across all sites – including clay ridge slope soils. Many of these species are important indigenous food plants. Calochortus and Fritillaria are also present. Several of these species also occupy the exposed clay soil ridge slope sites.
The bare clay ridgeslope soils often are home to some of the same complement of native plants as found in surrounding areas, plus several additional often unusual or sensitive species that are restricted to these clay sites. They are very high in biodiversity. Native bees and other pollinators were abundant in spring 2023.
We are not aware of any source that has systematically surveyed and identified the complexity of native vegetation communities (remarkably free of cheatgrass) found here. Yet the most biodiverse plant communities are ground zero for the highest density of Jindalee drill sites and roading. The unique sites may be wiped out without ever being studied.
Kit Fox Range
The caldera is near the northern edge of the Kit Fox range, which is SE Oregon and SW Idaho. We are aware of no current systematic surveys for Kit Fox across this region, including lower elevations of the Caldera and its margins, where foxes may persist. Jindalee consultants conducted limited surveys and detected no foxes.
The Winnemucca BLM Clay Mine EA reported Kit Foxes at Thacker Pass in 2011. Kit Foxes were no longer detected by the time of the Thacker Pass lithium mine EIS – perhaps because their habitat had been newly fragmented and disturbed by subsequent mining exploration under that EA. A few years later, Lithium Nevada Thacker Pass EIS “Appendix H – Wildlife Information” didn’t report any current Kit Fox observations.
Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse – A Native Grouse Species Extirpated from the Caldera, southern Oregon and Northern Nevada
The historic range of the Columbian Sharp-tailed grouse includes the Montana Mountains, Oregon Canyon and Trout Creek Mountains, as shown in the above map from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse plan. The bird’s historic distribution shows the same pattern in this area of the northern Great Basin as the historic range of White-tailed Jackrabbit and largely that of Pygmy Rabbit. Now today, as the Sage-grouse range contracts, the caldera region is becoming the southern edge of their still-occupied habitat and range.
An IDFG plan describes Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse:
“They currently inhabit portions of British Columbia, Washington, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. Columbian sharp-tailed grouse were once considered the most abundant upland game bird in the Pacific Northwest, but now occupy <5% of their historical range in the U.S. Habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation are primary causes for the decline and remain threats across remaining occupied range”.
The Caldera is part of the southern extent of this bird’s historic range. Sharp-tails were more readily wiped out with White settlement than Sage-grouse were. They typically have localized habitat use focused on areas closer to leks/dancing grounds year-round in areas with shrub and tall grass cover. They rely on deciduous shrub buds such as serviceberry or chokecherry and/or riparian willow/aspen buds for winter food. Like Sage-grouse, they avoid steep slopes. With this different diet from Sage-grouse, they had the misfortune of being more palatable to settlers. These factors and extensive habitat loss from dryland or other farming doomed them in many areas. Sharp-tailed grouse from northern Elko and Humboldt counties were market-hunted. They were shipped to San Francisco on the railroad from Elko and Winnemucca, put on ice from a Carlin icehouse with ice chopped out of the Humboldt River in winter. T. Crawforth, pers. comm. to Fite, based on unpublished historical document review project.
One of the last records in Nevada (prior to more recent limited translocation) was Wick 1955 from the “Capitol Range” which appears to be Capitol Peak by the Santa Rosas in very similar vegetation communities. They were certainly present in the Caldera and have been extirpated.
“Columbian sharp-tailed grouse have been extirpated from California (circa 1920), Nevada (circa 1950), and Oregon (circa 1960) (Miller and Graul 1980, p. 20; Connelly et al. 1998, pp. 2–3). Past declines in the subspecies’ abundance and distribution have isolated various extant populations of Columbian sharp- tailed grouse”. Fed. Reg. Vol. 71 224 p. 67319.
The historic and current range map depicts how dramatically their range has contracted. The birds have been extirpated from southeastern Oregon and all of northern Nevada – with the small area of occurrence in the Jarbidge region resulting from translocation efforts, and a translocation in the Snake Range north of Wells and Idaho Jarbidge slopes. There also had been an Oregon translocation near the Wallowas.
Serviceberry, a characteristic mountain shrub in sharp-tail habitat, often resprouts from the roots to varying degrees following fires. There’s been generally good serviceberry resprouting after the Holloway Fire in locations in the Montana Mountains and the Oregon landscape – with plants now 3 to 4 ft. tall. The bi-state area of the McDermitt area could serve as a relatively large site for efforts to re-establish birds in Nevada and southeastern Oregon. A recent research paper on an Elko County translocation unsurprisingly found success in population establishment was driven by the offspring of translocated individuals. Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse had been petitioned for ESA listing nearly 20 years ago, but USFWS determined that listing was not warranted, relying on bird numbers in three populations that have since lost considerable grouse habitat as much Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) private land has been plowed up for wheat and other crops since that time.
Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Habitat and Watershed Restoration in Oregon and Nevada Now Greatly Threatened by the Mining Boom
The Western Rivers Conservancy website describes the irreplaceable values of the Disaster Peak Ranch land acquisition in Malheur and Humboldt Counties. Mapping depicts the lands at stake and illustrates how the northern Caldera is rimmed by WSAs.
The Western Rivers Conservancy purchased the Zimmerman Ranch (Disaster Peak Ranch) to protect and restore Lahontan Cutthroat habitat in both Oregon and Nevada: “the last chance to revive a lifeline to Lahontan cutthroat trout … the increasingly rare streams that flow cold and clear through the dry sagebrush country of the Great Basin. Chief among these is McDermitt Creek, which drains the southern slopes of Oregon’s Trout Creek mountains and crosses the state line into the great basin of Nevada … To protect over 18 miles of McDermitt Creek and key tributary streams, WRC has purchased a lynchpin property: Disaster Peak Ranch” and leased grazing to a long-time ranching operation.
WRC highlights many rare species inhabiting the watershed, including Columbia Spotted
Frog and California Bighorn Sheep, and the need for long-term watershed restoration in both Oregon and Nevada.
“WRC now has the opportunity to permanently conserve the ranch, allowing our partners to restore and reconnect 55 miles of stream habitat on and around the property. This will double the number of stream miles available to Lahontan cutthroat in the species’ northwest range, a huge boost for this fish’s chance at survival. WRC’s efforts will also allow fisheries biologists to remove non-native rainbow trout from McDermitt Creek, then reintroduce genetically pure populations of Lahontan cutthroat to the full length of McDermitt Creek, where they once thrived.”
Looking into portions of the Western Rivers riparian area in the distance.
Oregon Legislature 2021 committee documents describe the importance of the WRC acquisition and restoration plans to achieve Oregon state conservation goals. This explains that ultimately the state seeks to acquire WRC lands, and that it is some of the best remaining sagebrush habitat in the West.
“ODFW is working with Western Rivers Conservancy on the acquisition of Disaster Peak Ranch. The Oregon Department of State Lands would hold ownership of the property pending approval by their Board. ODFW would be involved in the creation of a Management Plan for the property, with the overall objective to support, enhance and recover the habitats that Lahontan cutthroat trout, greater sage grouse, and other northern basin Oregon Conservation Strategy Species depend on.
The Great Basin ecoregion of southeastern Oregon and northern Nevada sustains some of the best remaining sagebrush habitat in the West. The iconic sagebrush-steppe once covered 165 million acres across the western United States and Canada. Today, less than 10 percent of that habitat remains as suitable sage grouse habitat. As a result, more than 350 plant and animal species are at risk of local or regional extirpation, including the greater sage grouse, a charismatic bird that represents healthy sagebrush grasslands.
Disaster Peak Ranch boasts nearly 15 miles of McDermitt Creek and several key tributaries. The ranch and its surrounding landscape support numerous fish and wildlife species, including Lahontan cutthroat trout, greater sage grouse, Columbia spotted frog, pygmy rabbit, mule deer, California bighorn sheep, elk, bobcat, great horned owl, coyote, cougar, raccoon, muskrat, beaver, golden eagle and sandhill cranes. McDermitt Creek and the Trout Creek Mountains have been identified as both a sage grouse stronghold and Priority Area of Conservation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the highest level of protection the bird is currently afforded. McDermitt Creek also offers the best opportunity to restore one of the West’s most threatened fish species, Lahontan cutthroat trout. This acquisition would allow for restoration and reintroduction efforts that have the potential to connect 55 stream miles of Lahontan cutthroat trout habitat, while also improving the riparian habitat sage grouse depend upon.
Funding for this project will come from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund: Recovery Land Acquisition Grants program, along with the remainder of ODFW’s Ruby Pipeline Mitigation funds, $800,000. The purpose of the Ruby Pipeline funding is to mitigate impacts to fish and wildlife and their habitats by the construction of the Ruby Pipeline across part of Oregon. No ODFW license funds will be used towards the purchase of this property”.
There had already been significant previous agency work, funding and volunteer effort expended in the Caldera – with earlier riparian projects in Nevada, some of which were mitigation for the highly controversial Ruby gas pipeline habitat destruction over a decade ago. Development of Lithium Nevada Montana Mountains claims block or other mining activity with foreseeable mammoth watershed degradation and disturbance would threaten past major project mitigation projects, negate restoration efforts, cause reductions in water flows and/or flow sustainability, potentially pollute water with toxic substances, bulldoze in huge new road networks – and ultimately excavate gaping open pit mine sites that dry up and pollute ground and surface water – causing cones of depression and aquifer drawdown.
Western River Conservancy lands are sandwiched in the Jindalee claims block – with claims located both north and south of McDermitt Creek. Public lands streams areas of Payne Creek, Mine Creek, Turner Creek are in the claims block. To the east, Lasa Creek, Indian Creek, Cottonwood Creek and other drainages are enveloped with FMA and/or Aurora claims. Some existing Jindalee drill sites are located right by the floodplain area in the mouth of draws and little alluvial fans near Payne Creek. Bladed off drill sites were placed in locations where it was plainly evident there would be ensuing erosional problems. After lithium drilling bared and disturbed the draw fan soils, rainfall runoff erosion now has progressively eroded small gullies that transport soil ultimately into the stream network. This is a foretaste of the extensive erosion that will take place with the proposed 30 miles of new roads and 267 drill sites.
Volunteers have assisted in earlier stream work projects in Caldera watersheds for many years. Conservation efforts are threatened to be undone and negated by the impacts of the mining boom. Concerned citizen groups have also been monitoring the landscape and documenting damage being caused by the existing Jindalee lithium drilling, hoping to spur accountability. See ONDA, 2/16/23 “The balance of life at McDermitt Creek”. Additional field work has been conducted by in 2023.
On the Vale SEORAC tour, Nick Wilkinson, the GJ Ranch and Western Rivers grazing permittee, described how the operation had to make significant grazing changes when Lahontan Cutthroat Trout were listed – and now BLM was going to let mining operations tear up the very same watersheds.
WLD’s continuing documentation of erosion caused by Jindalee Notice-level activity demonstrates vulnerability of Caldera soils to erosion, and how significant environmental concerns over mining exploration-caused hillslope unraveling and watershed degradation are. The Jindalee situation highlights how inadequate and ineffective BLM and DOGAMI permit oversight are in preventing significant soil erosion and unraveling.
NDOW survey information with the Thacker Pass EIS record indicated very low numbers of LCT in the Montana Mountains at present, with fish isolated in some Montana Mountain areas, further demonstrating a need for watershed recovery actions. There has been inter-breeding with non-native trout in many areas. NDOW’s 2016 LCT population monitoring in Montana Mountains found low fish numbers.
“… population monitoring on LCT populations in Crowley Creek (Montana Mountains, approximately 1.5 miles), Pole Creek (Montana Mountains, approximately 1.5 miles), Washburn Creek (Montana Mountains, approximately 4 miles), Riser Creek (Montana Mountains, approximately 4 miles), Sage Creek (Trout Creek Mountains, approximately 8 miles), Corral Canyon Creek (Trout Creek Mountains, approximately 4 miles …). As expected, population monitoring throughout 2016 continued to find low numbers and limited distribution of LCT. In Crowley Creek and Washburn Creek, LCT continued to occupy approximately 0.25 mi and 0.8 mi of stream, respectively …
The ongoing low water conditions have impacted LCT populations … A common pattern observed while completing electroshocking surveys was the majority of LCT appeared to [be] found at the higher elevation stations. LCT numbers decreased rapidly moving downstream. This can likely be attributed to the low water conditions and high-water temperatures present during summer months in 2014 through 2016.
There has been LCT interbreeding with other trout species in the McDermitt watershed, and restoration plans include major efforts to address that. It hasn’t been specified how this would take place without harming other sensitive fish species that are present.
The Oregon Native Fish Status Report pp. 112-113 describes:
“Lahontan cutthroat trout populations in the Quinn River basin are remnants of a larger population inhabiting pluvial Lake Lahontan during the Pleistocene era. The Quinn River Lahontan Cutthroat Trout SMU is comprised of four populations, three of which are now extinct due to hybridization with non-native rainbow trout. Sage Creek is the only population to persist in the SMU, has an extremely limited distribution and abundance, and is vulnerable to hybridization. The population is located above a barrier designed to slow the invasion of rainbow and hybrid trout. Eight populations exist in Nevada and are not evaluated in this review. The SMU meets one of the six interim criteria and is classified as “at risk’”.
Aquatic species face ongoing climate and drought stresses. They have just endured a megadrought. Now impacts to watershed integrity and water quality and quantity from new mining disturbance are poised to further impair habitats and jeopardize planned LCT recovery efforts.
The multi-agency 2019 updated Goals and Objectives for the Conservation of Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Plan contains LCT management direction, including to ensure LCT populations are established in the most climate-resilient habitats present, and restoring watershed-level processes. It also describes the dramatic loss of habitat and water that has taken place:
“In 1800, it is believed that over 370,000 surface acres of lake (in 12 larger lake systems) and more than 7,400 miles of stream/river habitat was occupied or had the potential to be occupied by LCT (Gerstung 1986, US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) 2009)”.
The Quinn population LCT “are adapted to life within semi-arid fluvial systems and are genetically distinct from LCT found in other Management Units. This unit receives the lowest amount of precipitation compared to other LCT units and thus has fewer systems that can support larger, more resilient LCT populatio”. LCT plan p. 17, map 18.
Quinn-specific plan goals include remove threats – competition, predation, hybridization; establish metapopulation dynamics in at least one system; ensure habitats function ecologically; maintain existing isolated populations. The McDermitt Creek system is the one remaining area where it would be possible to establish a functional metapopulation. The purchase of the Disaster Peak Ranch facilitates this goal.
“The potential to reconnect and/or actively manage isolated LCT populations and reintroduce LCT into larger habitat fragments is present within the QU, albeit limited due to the arid, lower elevation nature of this unit. Achieving the objectives below would dramatically increase the probability that QU genetics are conserved in the unique geographic and ecological settings of the Quinn River Valley and contributes to the conservation of the fluvial life-history strategy”.
2019 Quinn Unit LCT Recovery area map
The 2019 Team report lists Sage Creek-Line Canyon, Riser, Washburn and Crowley watersheds. The Jindalee EPO claims the McDermit population is extinct, but the 2019 Team report lists the Sage-Line Canyon population (above a fish barrier) in the McDermitt Creek watershed as extant.
Other Rare Aquatic Species Threatened by Mining
Other aquatic species besides LCT that are threatened by the mining boom impacts include Lahontan Redside Shiner, Tahoe Sucker, and Columbia Spotted Frog. The McDermitt Creek watersheds are the only place the shiner is found in Oregon. See Jindalee EPO. The Lahontan Redside Shiner is described:
“Lahontan redsides are endemic to the Walker, Truckee, Susan, Quinn, Reese and Humboldt Rivers of CA and NV. They are abundant in Lake Tahoe, but rare in Pyramid Lake (Sigler & Sigler 1987). Lahontan redsides are small (usually less than 4 inches), with large eyes and bright breeding colors — a dark back, scarlet stripe on sides, and a silvery belly. In non-breeding fish, the red stripe is duller but still present. They feed on invertebrates and fish-eggs, and are very important in the food chain as a food item for larger fish (Rivers 1994). Lahontan redsides usually hang out in shallow water, slow-moving runs, pools and margins of lakes (NatureServe 2014), but they have been found as deep as 100 feet in Lake Tahoe (Sigler & Sigler 1987)”.
It’s presence in the Caldera is a remnant of the northern extent of Lake Lahontan. This USGS map of Lake Lahontan also shows how much of the Caldera was a peninsula at the lake’s northern margin.
The large yellow lobe is the upper Quinn valley. The large peninsula jutting down into the lake is the Double H Mountains in the south and the broader Caldera in the Montana Mountains. See also: Doebrich 1996, map figure 11, the maximum extent of endorheic Pleistocene Lake Lahontan.
A Recently Discovered Population of the Columbia Spotted Frog Occupies Areas of the McDermitt Creek Watershed in Nevada
The NDOW Columbia Spotted Frog Conservation Strategy describes discovery of a McDermitt Creek watershed population a decade ago, and states that the Great Basin CSF population has maintained its federal candidate status. The Strategy’s Conservation Goals include:
“Goal 1. To reduce threats to Columbia spotted frogs and their habitat to the extent necessary to prevent populations from becoming extirpated throughout all or a portion of their historical range in Nevada.
Goal 2. To maintain, enhance, and restore a sufficient number of populations of Columbia spotted frogs and their habitat to ensure their continued existence throughout their historical range in Nevada”.
An objective under Goal 2 is “Ensure that viable populations and their habitats are managed and/or enhanced to ensure the continued existence of Columbia spotted frogs throughout their historical range”.
CSF strategy at S-4 and S-5 describes: “In the Great Basin, Columbia spotted frogs are found in naturally fragmented habitats that are seasonally xeric, resource-limited, and often ephemeral. Such habitats are sensitive to disturbance, both natural and human-caused (Soulé 1983), thus increasing the chance of stochastic extirpation for its inhabitants (Lande and Barrowclough 1987)”
The strategy describes the biogeographical isolation of extant CSF populations.
“McDermitt Subpopulation: In 2013, NDOW found Columbia spotted frogs in Sage Creek, which is a tributary to McDermitt Creek. The McDermitt subpopulation includes the watershed of McDermitt Creek (Figure 7). The McDermitt Creek subpopulation area is comprised of tracts of BLM lands with the remaining areas consisting private and tribal lands. Most of the high quality Columbia spotted frog habitat within the McDermitt Creek watershed is on private land. This subpopulation is newly discovered”. CSF Plan p. S-14. Much of the private land is associated with the Disaster Peak acquisition.
CSF plan strategy figure 6, shows a tiny single red speck indicating CSF occurrence in the Montana Mountains McDermitt Creek tributary Sage Creek.
We are not aware of current systematic inventories for this species across the Caldera landscape. The CSF strategy identifies the McDermitt Creek watershed stream network in both Nevada and Oregon as a Conservation Unit. These streams and tributaries flow right through the Jindalee, Aurora and FMS claims areas. The northern portion of the Lithium Nevada Montana Mountains claims block appears to extend into this watershed. Also, Western Chorus Frogs are abundant (and call loudly) near streams like Turner Creek in the spring. Fite, field obs.
Disaster Peak Ranch State Land Acquisition Documents Highlight Outstanding Values
Oregon Legislature Disaster Peak Ranch property acquisition documents explain (in part) efforts to acquire the Disaster Peak Ranch land from Western Rivers Conservancy, and the land’s high fish and wildlife habitat values. DFW acquisition analysis packet documents include analyst John Terpening explaining:
“Oregon and Nevada are jointly applying for these grant funds in order to purchase this property from the Western Rivers Conservancy, which purchased the property from private landowners in September 2020. Section 6 grants come with a 25% match requirement, however, joint state applications, such as this one with Nevada, reduce the matching requirement down to 10%. For the matching funds, ODFW can utilize the balance of its Ruby Pipeline Mitigation funds, which are funds stipulated to be used for the purchase of real property in the High Desert Region to restore priority wildlife and fish habitats. The Department has $800,000 in remaining Ruby Pipeline Funds to provide as match. While this is more than the match requirement, grant applications that have greater than the minimum non-Federal cost share are prioritized, so this will increase ODFW’s chances of being approved. The property totals 2,690 acres in Oregon and 655 in Nevada”.
The information contains a request by ODFW’s Wittekind for authorization to apply for a $2,750,000 federal grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Acquisition analysis information also included a 2/9/2021 letter from ODFW Director Curt Melcher:
“The Great Basin ecoregion of southeastern Oregon and northern Nevada sustains some of the best remaining sagebrush habitat in the West. The iconic sagebrush-steppe once covered 165 million acres across the western United States and Canada. Today, less than 10 percent of that habitat remains as suitable sage grouse habitat. As a result, more than 350 plant and animal species are at risk of local or regional extirpation, including the greater sage grouse, a charismatic bird that represents healthy sagebrush grasslands.
Disaster Peak Ranch boasts nearly 15 miles of McDermitt Creek and several key tributaries …. McDermitt Creek and the Trout Creek Mountains have been identified as both a sage grouse stronghold and Priority Area of Conservation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the highest level of protection the bird is currently afforded …”.
The 2/9/2021 Letter from ODFW Director Curt Melcher to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means regarding acquisition of the WRC Disaster Peak Ranch lands further demonstrates the outstanding value of the Caldera lands and habitats and their value to the state.
These lands and watersheds would be harmed, destroyed, fragmented and polluted with contaminants (herbicide runoff and drift, drilling substances, fuel spills, road construction or soils with uranium, mercury, arsenic may erode and be transported as dust or water runoff into the habitats). Streams and spring flows may be altered or reduced due to drilling and road development and certainly by any future full-bore mining. Chytrid, a deadly amphibian fungal disease, may be transported in mud on mining vehicles or by other means and infect the frog population. Pollution from mining exploration and/or development activities is foreseeable. Jindalee claims are located both in Oregon and Nevada portions of the watershed and directly border and sandwich in areas of Disaster Peak Ranch private lands. See ONDA Claims Map.
A 2/9/2021 Oregon Land Board “request to initiate due diligence on acquisition” states:
“The future management of the ranch, if acquired by DSL, would remain unchanged and be managed through a Forage Lease containing a Leasehold Management Plan (LMP) with the lessee and in partnership with ODFW and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Because WRC acquired the property using a grant from the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund (Section 6 of the ESA) USFWS requirements would be incorporated into the LMP”. It also notes that WRC would retain 160 acres associated with the grazing permit.
A 2021 Oregon legislature document includes:
“On April 5th, the Natural Resources Subcommittee recommended approval of the submission of a federal grant application from the Department of Fish and Wildlife to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the amount of $2,750,000 for the acquisition of the Disaster Peak Ranch property”.
A 2021 Interior Department Press Release “Interior Department Announces Nearly $80 Million to States for Collaborative Efforts to Conserve Habitat for America’s Most Imperiled Species”, states:
“The states of Oregon and Nevada will receive a total of $3,437,000 under the Recovery Land Acquisition Grant Program to support the acquisition of the 3,345-acre Disaster Peak Ranch straddling the state border in Malheur County, Oregon and Humboldt County, Nevada. This cross-jurisdictional and multi-agency partnership will promote the recovery of Lahontan cutthroat trout (LCT), a federally listed species. Acquisition of the Disaster Peak Ranch and subsequent restoration efforts will help achieve delisting criteria identified in the species’ recovery plan by enabling the establishment of an interconnected meta-population within the Quinn LCT Management Unit. The property is in ecologically high functioning condition and is expected to remain climate-resilient in the future”.
The Disaster Peak Ranch acquisition is also referenced in the “Statement of Shannon A. Estenoz, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, US Department of Interior, before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, regarding implementation of the Great American Outdoors Act”, February 9, 2022 Testimony to Congress.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation gave the Western Rivers Conservancy $100,668 towards the Disaster Ranch acquisition, “a NFWF priority”.
“NFWF priority. Western Rivers Conservancy Conserving Habitat for Sage-grouse and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (NV, OR) Restore greater sage-grouse habitat, reintroduce Lahontan cutthroat trout and habitat connectivity to the greater sagebrush landscape on Disaster Peak Ranch, straddling the Nevada-Oregon border. Project will permanently conserve the Disaster Peak Ranch, bringing 3,345 acres under improved management and restoring improved hydrology in the mesic areas of the ranch. $100,668”
The state has also identified the Oregon Caldera and adjacent lands as a Conservation Opportunity Area. – where broad fish and wildlife goals would be best met.
Complex Biological Soil Crusts Are Present in Many Wyoming Big Sagebrush Communities in Jindalee and other Miner Drilling-Targeted Sites
Fabulous fragile soil texture and biocrust in the McDermitt Basin. Note pale band in rear center of photo is a winter fat community in a shallow draw flat. There are various interspersed salt desert shrubs in Wyoming sagebrush communities near McDermitt Creek.
Biological soil crusts provide critical functions in sagebrush and other arid vegetation communities. They stabilize soil surfaces and prevent erosion in wind and water. They are a front-line defense against weeds – including cheatgrass and other flammable exotic species. They fix nitrogen, absorb CO2, and help naturally buffer climate change stresses. Exceptional soil crust development is present in many of the areas targeted by Jindalee for a very high density of drill hole sites and roads. Again, there are areas where an observer can walk hundreds of yards and not see a single cheatgrass plant.
What superficially appear to be bare clay soils are often stabilized by the structure of the filaments of blue-green algae. This abundance and prevalence of soil biocrusts alone is a relevant and important value worthy of ACEC designation and protection. BLM has in the past designated ACECs where intact biocrusts were considered part of the relevant and important values. Further, the characteristics of the Caldera soils that result in these extensive biocrusts and areas of minimal cheatgrass (at present) should be studied to shed light on potential chemical composition or other characteristics that may make them somewhat resistant to cheatgrass.
Significant amounts of exposed clay soils are confined to the McDermitt Basin. Exploration of the Jindalee claims block would radically disturb and destroy the integrity of these sites.
Rosentreter and Root 2019 explain:
“Biocrust species are foundational species that hold the soil, litter and arid ecosystems together.”
“BSCs help to maintain critical ecosystem processes such as resistance of ecosystems to invasion. In the western U.S.A., lichen-dominated biocrust communities have been shown to reduce the invasibility of arid lands by large seeded Eurasian weeds such as Bromus tectorum (Deines et al. 2007; Serpe et al. 2008; Reisner et al. 2013). Before the introduction of European livestock, a combination of low levels of disturbance in dry seasons and the presence of a stable lichen-dominated biocrust, has kept invasive flammable grass species to low levels. With an increase in human- and livestock-induced soil disturbance, European annual grasses have proliferated, increasing the extent and intensity of wildfire in areas which had not co-evolved with frequent fire”.
“Efforts to maintain or restore biodiversity in steppe ecosystems must include BSCs”.
Fire and intensive grazing trampling disturbance damage soil biocrusts. Again, the existing Jindalee soil disturbance in places with relatively more “fertile” or loamy soils with less clay content is now causing cheatgrass spread along some Jindalee drill roads and at some drill sites. This is alarming, because as cheatgrass increases in abundance, it will be increasingly adapting to the lithium area soils and will come to increasingly dominate these critical and irreplaceable lower-mid elevation Wyoming and Basin big sagebrush communities that still are relatively free of flammable exotics.
Beautiful Aesthetically Pleasing Caldera Wildflower Blooms Threatened by Mining and Linked Weeds
The McDermitt Creek Basin and Montana Mountains are home to a great diversity of native wildflowers characteristic of sagebrush-steppe communities. In the heart of McDermitt Basin, the clay soil outcrops are occupied by sensitive plant species not found in the surrounding sagebrush expanses.
Systematic surveys for pollinators and assessments of insect biodiversity have not been done. Superficial Thacker Pass and Jindalee consultant biological information lacks these essential surveys.
Mining exploration and disturbance threatens inundation of sagebrush uplands and biodiverse plant and pollinator/native insect communities by irreversible alien weeds. Foreseeable ensuing toxic herbicide used to attempt to futilely address mining-caused weed infestations also poses a significant threat to native wildflowers and insect biodiversity, as well as being harmful to migratory birds and other animals exposed to such chemicals. BLM allows use of a large number of toxic herbicides, and the agency relies on many long-out-dated chemical risk assessments used in an old West-wide 2007 Vegetation EIS.
Unique Caldera Location – Blending of Species from Different Ecoregions, Importance of Clay Slope Rare Plant Habitats, Intact Biocrusts
The Jindalee, Aurora and FMS McDermitt Creek area exploration sites are positioned at the interface between relatively mid elevation and higher elevation sagebrush communities. This is one of the increasingly few sagebrush areas where both Black-tailed Jackrabbits, White-tailed Jackrabbits and Pygmy Rabbits can all be found in the same general area. The sage community here harbors a high abundance of sagebrush-associated migratory birds, including very high densities of Sagebrush Sparrows (a species especially sensitive to habitat fragmentation) and other sagebrush birds like Brewer’s Sparrow. These species are quite sensitive to habitat fragmentation and require large blocks of mature sagebrush.
The Intermountain Flora Vol. 1 Figure 56 shows the Caldera region near the border of the Owyhee, Central Great Basin and Lahontan Basin floristic sections and within the Lake section. Some rare and other plants that occupy the clay soils do not occur in abundance further north. There are a diversity of Astragalus species. Again here, the complexity of the vegetation communities and species presence has been ignored in the Jindalee EPO documents. We are not aware of any detailed plant community association descriptions for this landscape. See attached rare plant and wildflower photo-documentation previously submitted to Vale BLM by WLD.
The Jindalee EPO merely lists species and ignores the complex plant community associations on different ecosites found here.
The EPO lists special status plants documented and known to occur in the Project Area include:
- King’s rattleweed (Astragalus calycosus); • Broad-keeled milk-vetch (Astragalus platytropis);
- Loose flower milk-vetch (Astragalus tenellus); • Slender wild cabbage (Caulanthus major);
- Ibapah wavewing (Cymopterus ibapensis); • Pueblo Mountains buckwheat (Eriogonum crosbyae ssp. mystrium); • Cooper’s goldflower (Hymenoxys cooperi ssp. canescens); • White locoweed (Oxytropis sericea ssp. sericea); • King’s beardtongue (Penstemon kingii); and
- Perennial stanleya (Stanleya viridiflora).
The consultants detected six Oregon BLM sensitive plant species in the study area:
- King’s rattleweed; • Broad-keeled milk-vetch; • Ibapah wavewing; • Pueblo Mountains buckwheat; • Cooper’s goldflower; and• Tufted townsend daisy (Townsendia scapigera).
BLM has long recognized that ACEC designation for biodiverse, unique or rare plant communities is appropriate: A natural process or system (including but not limited to endangered, sensitive, or threatened plant species; rare, endemic, or relic plants or plant communities which are terrestrial, aquatic, or riparian; or rare geological features).
The McDermitt Basin contains a series of shallow ridges with exposed pale colored clay slopes. These clay soils are inhabited by an abundance of sensitive rare plants, and a broad diversity of plants from surrounding sagebrush habitats as well. There are distinctive assemblages of plant communities that differ from adjacent big sagebrush uplands in species composition. See attached WLD photo-documentation of McDermitt Basin clay ridge slope vegetation. All the clay soil communities are peppered with mine claim stakes. Nearly all the rare plant habitat clay ridge areas (except for those on private lands) would be greatly disturbed and fragmented by the proposed massive new drilling and roading exploration.
Humboldt Mountain milkweed, found on exposed clay soil sites in the McDermitt Basin.
Humboldt Mountain Milkweed splattered with rainstorm mud, with seed floss emerging from pod – by Jindalee-bladed road.
If lithium mines are constructed in the Basin, the clay soil rare plant habitat would be almost entirely obliterated. A concentration of dense proposed exploration activity focuses on these clay ridges under the Jindalee 2023 EPO. These clay soil areas and surrounding sagebrush sites are also currently exceedingly free of cheatgrass and other non-native species. However, recent Jindalee exploration road blading disturbance has already resulted in new cheatgrass, halogeton, and other weed infestation sites. It’s extremely likely that if Jindalee’s proposed exploration EPO with 30 miles of new roads plus 267 more bulldozed drill sites are imposed, extensive new irreversible flammable and other weed outward expansion would result in Sage-grouse stronghold habitat. Attached WLD photo-documentation of existing Jindalee drill site roading demonstrates the susceptibility of the clay ridge and upland soils to erosion when they are disturbed.
Essential and irreplaceable mature and old growth sagebrush communities that comprise the “best of the best” stronghold Focal habitats for Sage-grouse breeding (lek/nesting/early brood rearing), brood rearing, and wintering habitat are greatly at risk of severe new loss and fragmentation from proposed Jindalee mining and other exploration in the northern Caldera. The last south-facing winter habitat in the southern region is being bulldozed to oblivion right now by Lithium Nevada. The lands also contain critical Mule Deer and Pronghorn winter range.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THREATS TO SAGE-GROUSE AND SENSITIVE SPECIES, BIODIVERSITY VALUES, WILD LANDS AND CULTURAL USES
High Sage-grouse Sensitivity to Noise and Visual Intrusion
Mounting scientific evidence shows how seriously the sight and sound disturbance footprint of industrial development projects impact Sage-grouse habitat use. Research by Coates et al. 2023 examined geothermal energy development impacts on Sage-grouse caused by Ormat geothermal plants in Tuscarora Nevada and McGinness Hills/Grass Valley near Austin Nevada.
Coates et al. 2023 found:
“… sage-grouse population numbers declined substantially in years following the development of a geothermal energy plant … sage-grouse abundance at leks [breeding sites] decreased within five kilometers of the infrastructure and leks were completely abandoned at significantly higher rates within about two kilometers. So, we looked at the mechanisms responsible for declines in numbers and lek abandonment, and we found adverse impacts to survival of female sage-grouse and their nests”.
These findings reinforce long-time biologist observations that Sage-grouse must have minimally disturbed landscapes to survive. “Nests located farther from the plant tended to experience higher rates of survival. Interestingly, where hills were located between sage-grouse nests and infrastructure [high topographic impedance], we found the distance effect to be less important. Under those circumstances topography was compensating for the lack of distance and likely serving to reduce effects of light and sound”.
“The physical footprint of geothermal energy infrastructure is small relative to other renewable energy … but noise and light pollution emanating from these power plants likely cause larger adverse direct impacts to wildlife populations than infrastructure alone”.
There aren’t large hills to block lithium exploration and mining’s 24 hour a day noise and visual disturbance impacts in the McDermitt bowl, nor near Jordan Meadows by the east face slopes of of the Montana Mountains. “Topographical impedance” is very low to non-existent in the most crucial Caldera Sage-grouse habitats. Mining activity’s direct disturbance area would cause outright sagebrush habitat loss and obliteration. But extending outward from the direct disturbance zones, miles beyond, the surrounding sagebrush habitats would be exposed to unimpeded straight line 24 hour a day mine operation noise and discordant visual impacts of all types.
A very large envelope of noise and flashing bright lights and unnatural sights and movement would also extend outward miles from access routes used by semi-trucks and other mine-associated equipment. The locations of the mineral deposits in the Caldera are in sites that would have maximal adverse impacts to Sage-grouse and other sight and sound sensitive wildlife. Topographical impedance to block sights and sounds is absent.
Numerous studies in the past 20 years have focused on the sensitivity of Sage-grouse or other wildlife to noise and disturbance. These include Blickley et al. 2012 who found decreased male abundance at noisy area leks:
“For 3 breeding seasons, we monitored sage grouse abundance at leks with and without noise. Peak male attendance (i.e., abundance) at leks experimentally treated with noise from natural gas drilling and roads decreased 29% and 73%, respectively, relative to paired controls. Decreases in abundance at leks treated with noise occurred in the first year of the study and continued throughout the experiment”.
See also Kociolek et al. 2011, and Blickley et al. 2012b where chronic noise caused elevated fecal stress metabolites in Sage-grouse.
“One potential contributor to the worldwide decline of bird populations is the increasing prevalence of roads, which have several negative effects on birds and other vertebrates. We synthesized the results of studies and reviews that explore the effects of roads on birds with an emphasis on paved roads. The well-known direct effects of roads on birds include habitat loss and fragmentation, vehicle-caused mortality, pollution, and poisoning. Nevertheless, indirect effects may exert a greater influence on bird populations. These effects include noise, artificial light, barriers to movement, and edges associated with roads. Moreover, indirect and direct effects may act synergistically to cause decreases in population density and species richness. Of the many effects of roads, it appears that road mortality and traffic noise may have the most substantial effects on birds relative to other effects and taxonomic groups”. (Kociolek et al. 2011).
Sage-grouse are very sensitive to disturbance and stress of all kinds. Mining disturbance will cumulatively add to the stresses that Sage-grouse already face on public lands. A Duck Valley Shoshone-Paiute elder once described Sage-grouse as a “clean” bird – meaning they don’t tolerate disturbance. In a Birdnote podcast, “The story of the grieving woman and the Sage-grouse”, Wilson Wewa, a Warm Springs Paiute elder, relates “They are a particular animal that thrives on their isolation. If they don’t have the right kind of environment, they will disappear”. He also describes the effects of fences on food [big game] migration routes, seeing displaying Sage-grouse, and a Wasco story of a disconsolate woman comforted by Sage-grouse, who taught her a song and gave her a teaching that became a dance – with a lesson that you can’t live in grief forever.
Increased Military War Plane Low Level Flight Noise and Startle Effect Threats to Owyhee Northern Great Basin Sage-grouse Population. This Highlights the Quiet of the Caldera Wildlife Habitats and High Quality of Wild Land Recreational and Aesthetic Experiences
To the east of the Caldera, the adjacent northern Great Basin Owyhee region Sage-grouse, Bighorn Sheep and other wildlife, and McDermitt townsite and Fort McDermitt Reservation face chronic exposure to large-scale military war plane noise and startle effect increases in Oregon and in Nevada Sage-grouse Focal/stronghold habitats.
In summer 2023, Mountain Home Air Force Base finalized a FEIS Record of Decision for large-scale proposed increases in war plane overflight noise – with noise levels up to the ear-splitting extreme of 139 decibels on public lands. This airspace extends over much of the Northern Great Basin Owyhee Sage-grouse population including portions of the Santa Rosa PMU to the east in northern Nevada, and the Oregon region habitats in the West Little Owyhee/Antelope Creek/ East Fork Owyhee Oregon “Louse Canyon PAC”. These very high and extreme noise levels already have been taking place in much of the Idaho portion of the military airspace.
Sonic booms have at times recently been audible in the Caldera, even prior to the finalization of the 2023 Mountain Home Airbase “Optimization” EIS ROD that now drastically lowers both overflight and sonic boom levels in Oregon and Nevada. This will exert significant new stress on regional Sage-grouse, California Bighorn sheep, migratory songbirds and other noise-sensitive animal populations. See attached WLD comments on the Air Force Optimization EIS process.
This vast military airspace encompasses nearly 7 million acres. Portions of Idaho that suffer these extreme noise levels now to be imposed on Oregon and Nevada have become degraded by chronic noise that interferes with human use and enjoyment of public lands, and doubtlessly impacts wildlife like California Bighorn Sheep and Sage-grouse. See EIS documents, and Record of Decision. Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley had previously introduced an amendment to the NDAA that would have required an EIS study of Air Force noise level effects on Oregon Sage-grouse, but it apparently didn’t make the cut for the Final NDAA legislation. See ONDA 11/1/2022 article: “Saving the Owyhee from Jet fighters, sonic booms and Flares”.
“The intense noise and sonic booms that fast, low-flying jets produce has many impacts. Wild animals panic, and livestock have been known to stampede into fences. Recreationists have reported awful experiences being buzzed by jet planes. Landowners have seen their property damaged from the shockwaves.
In addition to the noise, the proposed plan would increase threats from wildfire and pollution. As part of their training, pilots drop flares and release chaff. The flares can—and, in fact, have—ignited destructive and costly range fires; the chaff can pollute fish-bearing streams. In the tristate training region, we’re looking at more than 36,000 flares and chaff bundles released per year. And, under the Air Force’s proposal, pilots would be allowed to drop flares and chaff while flying much lower to the ground, which would increase these risks”.
Unfortunately, the Owyhee did not get saved from hellish military noise levels. The Oregon Senators NDAA amendment appears to have gotten cut, the Air Force plowed ahead with finalizing the EIS ROD in summer 2023 and did not even bother to notify the public who had commented on the EIS about the decision being finalized. The Oregon Senators concerns were swept aside by the Air Force in the Final EIS and ROD. Their NDAA legislative request is found here.
The ROD selected alternative actions that drastically increase extremely loud low-level overflight and sonic boom noise – including a 100 ft. Above Ground level (AGL) flight floor in Oregon and Nevada.
Alternative 1: 100-Foot AGL Floor Across All MOAs (FEIS, Vol. I, §2.3.1, Tables 2.3-1 through 2.3-4, and Figure 2.3-1) All MOAs in the SUA associated with Mountain Home AFB would have 100-foot AGL subsonic operational floors. The Owyhee North and Jarbidge North MOAs already have 100-foot AGL subsonic operational floors. In the Paradise North, Paradise South, Owyhee South, and Jarbidge South MOAs, operational floors of 10,000 feet MSL or 3,000 feet AGL, whichever is higher, would change to 100 feet AGL. While this alternative would not directly involve increases in annual flights and sorties for Mountain Home AFB-based aircraft, it is likely that the number of sorties by other users throughout the airspace would increase over time due to the increased capability for conducting LOWAT.
The Air Force FEIS decision also greatly lowers supersonic flight levels and sonic booms in Oregon and Nevada:
Alternative B: 10,000-Foot AGL Supersonic Floor Across All MOAs
(FEIS, Vol. I, §2.3.5, Table 2.3-12 and Figure 2.3-5)
The supersonic altitude floor would be 10,000 feet AGL in all six MOAs (includes R-3202 and
R-3204), with the exception that supersonic operations, would continue to be prohibited over the
Duck Valley Indian Reservation. In the Paradise North, Paradise South, Owyhee South, and Jarbidge South MOAs the existing supersonic floor of 30,000 feet MSL would change to 10,000 feet AGL. The Owyhee North and Jarbidge North MOAs would continue to have a supersonic floor of 10,000 feet AGL.
In addition, just before the FEIS Decision Record was signed, Idaho news outlets reported on a separate new 2023 Air Force proposal for the National Guard to base F-16 War planes at Gowen Field using the Boise airport, and replace the existing A-10s based at Gowen. F-16s are louder than A-10s, use afterburners and fly supersonic, so they generate startling sonic booms and A-10s do not. Since the Idaho National Guard uses this tri-state airspace extending over a 7-million acre region of public lands (BLM and USFS), basing F-16s in Boise would further increase noise levels over the Owyhee -Bruneau-Jarbidge region of Northern Great Basin Sage-grouse habitats. The MHAFB Airspace Optimization FEIS did not appear to assess this significant change in war planes, which will result in even higher noise levels.
The overall newly authorized drastic military war game noise level increase in Oregon and Nevada highlights that the Caldera region is one of the very few remaining quiet peaceful areas of high quality sagebrush and Sage-grouse habitat. It is not part of a large military airspace War training complex and does not suffer frequent high levels of military War plane activity, startling low level sonic booms, flare and chaff use, and polluting and sky dimming military contrails.
The above MHAFB Air Force Optimization FEIS map shows some of the immense areas of military airspace impacting Sage-grouse and other noise-sensitive wildlife and wild lands recreational uses in part of the interior West. This map does not depict the Military Training Route (MTR) connections between MOA airspaces. The Caldera also has fewer MTRs cutting through its skies than some areas. It lies in a quiet area outside military war game airspaces. Yet even here, sonic boom noise at times penetrates the quiet. But it is nothing like the terribly loud (up to 139 decibel Lmax) sound level exposure nearly all the 7-million acre tri-state Mountain Home Air Force military airspace and its wildlife, recreational users and residents could now be suffering.
Foreseeable Increased Threats to the Sagebrush Biome from Renewable Energy Project Expansion on Public Lands
At the same time that lithium and other “critical minerals” mining activity are exploding in the West, there are also impending threats of large-scale increases in transmission lines and remote-sited wind/solar/geothermal development looming over Great Basin regional sagebrush habitats. BLM’s recently scoped a Solar EIS that could plan for solar development on public lands in all states shown on the map below including ID, WA, OR, MT and WY – threatening populations of Sage-grouse and wildlife. See: BLM solar eplanning site and 2023 solar EIS scoping .
A significant expansion of public lands solar or other energy development threatens crucial remaining habitats across the sagebrush biome. See attached Basin and Range Watch and WildLands Defense scoping comments on BLM’s industrial Solar EIS, describing environmental impacts of remote-sited industrial solar energy development (and often linked transmission such as the Nevada Greenlink North and South lines) on public lands. These Solar EIS scoping comments also include an accounting of some of the new transmission lines (like Greenlink) proposed that threaten populations of Sage-grouse and other wildlife. Since those comments were submitted, initial steps for a new transmission line Western Bounty (for geothermal or other renewable development) is proposed in the vicinity of Sheldon NWR, with its exact siting still unknown, potentially opening the door to large-scale renewable energy exploitation impacting the western area of the Western Great Basin Sage-grouse population. Foreseeable “green” energy transmission lines not only impact habitats on their path, they open up vast areas of surrounding landscapes and habitats for industrial scale solar/wind/geothermal energy production and resulting in large-scale new wildlife habitat disturbance.
Air Quality – Adverse Dust and Pollutant Impacts to Biodiversity and Region
Mining can harm air quality through the creation of dust, and through emissions of particulate matter and pollutants which can cause harm to nearby plant and animal life. Both the Thacker Pass lithium mine and other foreseeable lithium or uranium mining exploration and development and other soil disturbance or processing activities could emit numerous pollutants. These emissions could have a negative effect on the region’s biota and human residents, as explained below. A protective buffer in the ACEC boundary would help ameliorate those effects, at least to some degree. Citations in support of pollution concerns are found with the attached Center for Biological Diversity ACEC proposal for the rare and endangered Tiehm’s buckwheat at the Rhyolite Ridge proposed lithium mine site. As that petition described:
“The 2018 NOx/SOx/PM ISA found causal relationships between nitrogen deposition and the alteration of the physiology and growth of terrestrial organisms and the productivity of terrestrial ecosystems as well as alterations of species richness, community composition and biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems. These findings were similar to the 2009 Integrated Science Assessment for PM, which found, “[e]cological effects of PM include direct effects to metabolic processes of plant foliage; to total metal loading resulting in alteration of soil biogeochemistry and microbiology, plant growth and animal growth and reproduction; and contribution to total organics loading resulting in bioaccumulation and biomagnification across trophic levels.
The 2018 NOx/SOx/PM ISA finding is supported by scientific literature which has found air pollution contributes to nitrogen and sulfur deposition, which are causing acidification, nitrogen enrichment, and sulfur induced mercury methylation in sensitive ecosystems throughout the U.S.68 One study even concluded the current NAAQS is not set at a level which will protect ecosystems form the effects of nitrogen and sulfur deposition in many parts of the United States.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has found that acid deposition and other consequences of NOx and SOx emissions are threats to plants listed under the Endangered Species Act, including for the Zuni fleabane (Erigeron rhizomaxs), the Mancos milkvetch (Astragalus humillimus), and harperella (Ptilimnium nodosum)”.
See attached CBD Tiehm’s Buckwheat ACEC petition for additional information and specific citations related to this air pollution and dust discussion.
There is also concern about potential effects of mining pollution on both native and domestic herbivores that rely on the surrounding vegetation for sustenance. Many are sensitive species or big game animals like Mule Deer and Pronghorn. Cattle are grazed across the Caldera, and various pollutants may enter the food chain. Indigenous food plants and animals may become polluted or contaminated.
The impacts on water quality are a major concern, as pollutants could contaminate streams and springs with often very minimal flows, or that are reduced to pools in summer, lacking flows to flush them out. Regional waters are under significant stress, and often have minimal flows. Drought is common, and the mega-drought has elevated flow reduction and loss concerns. Climate stress weather extremes may serve to concentrate contaminants in remaining intermittent reaches, and already dwindling springbrook and riparian/mesic areas.
There will be deposition of foreseeable pollutants in dust from these soils that may contain mercury, arsenic, uranium and other radioactive materials– as well as potentially numerous chemicals from processing lithium and uranium.
Fallout of pollutants from lithium and/or uranium processing in the region has not been studied and would depend on regional weather patterns. This area is often subject to volatile weather event extremes. Weather extremes are predicted to increase with climate change stress. While the townsites of McDermitt and Orovada and inhabitants in King’s River Valley (due to very close proximity to Thacker Pass) may be most severely impacted, downwinders may include the Duck Valley Shoshone-Paiute Reservation, remote ranch residences, and at times the Boise-Nampa-Caldwell Treasure Valley metro area, which already has significant problems with air quality.
Another foreseeable dust impact on vegetation and rare plants is that ambient dust has been shown to negatively affect the ability of plants to set fruit, has affected the number of seeds per plant, and mean seed weight. This means that dust may have effects on plant reproduction. Ambient dust has also been correlated with plant stress symptoms such as water stress, plant die-back, and smaller leaf size. Appreciable changes to the species composition of shrubland communities have been associated with significant dust deposition. Thus, dust can have many types of harmful effects on plant species and communities.
Another air quality concern is noxious odors and stench that may be associated with use of huge volumes of waste sulfur or other materials in lithium processing. Noxious odors were not considered in the Thacker Pass EIS.
Climate-Drought-Aridification Threats Amplify Mining Harms to Rare Biota
All of these other threats are compounded by the inter-acting effects of drought (including the recent mega-drought) and global climate change. Data from the past 50,000 years shows that the Great Basin is highly sensitive to climactic change. Heat waves and drought have become more common, with earlier spring snowmelt. The state of Nevada recorded a temperature increase of two degrees Fahrenheit within the last century. Endemic plants are at far greater risk of extinction, and narrow endemic plants that are restricted to specific soil types and within a narrow elevation band are the most vulnerable to climactic shifts.
As temperatures increase, so does the likelihood for species shifts. There is a high probability of localized extinctions and displacement of native species with shifts in distribution and abundance.
Dark Night Skies at Risk
Preservation of dark night skies has become a prominent environmental and aesthetic issue over the past decade, including due to harms to migrating birds and insects, and disruption of natural cycles and behavior caused by light pollution. The loss of dark skies is rapidly accelerating – so much so that astronomers recently proposed a new term, noctalgia, to describe the loss, in a letter to Science. See Smith et al. 2023 Science issue introduction on “losing the darkness”, and an August 2023 letter from A. Vankatesan and J. Barentine:
“We offer here the term noctalgia to express ‘sky grief’ for the accelerating loss of the home environment of our shared skies., a disappearance felt globally and deserving its own field of study of ‘nyctology’, the authors wrote in an e-letter sent to the journal Science”.
“This represents more than mere loss of environment – we are witnessing loss of heritage, place-based language, identity, storytelling, millenia-old sky traditions and our ability to conduct traditional practices grounded in the ecological integrity of what we call home”.
A member of the People of Red Mountain holds harvested food plant roots at the Vale BLM Southeast Oregon RAC meeting in McDermitt
CULTURAL VALUES AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CALDERA LANDSCAPE
Caldera Values – Religious and other Cultural Elements of Importance to Native Americans, Indigenous Food Plant Abundance, Archaeological Resources, All Meet the Required Relevance and Importance Criteria for ACEC Designation
This ACEC and Mineral Withdrawal proposal is based on observations of the land and places in the area, news reports and on-line articles, court documents, federal agency documents, and meetings and events – including those hosted by indigenous groups – focused on mining threats in the region. Given the urgency of meeting BLM’s comment deadline, and the speed with which projects are moving, we have not had time to circulate this proposal to tribes and indigenous groups, but will do so in the near future, and look forward to review and input.
The McDermitt Caldera region contains irreplaceable cultural sites, sacred landforms, foods, and waters used by indigenous people of numerous Tribes. These are part of a living culture. Disaster Peak dominates the visual environment of much of the landscape. BLM’s Trout Creek Group Wilderness Study Area report describes how the Peak’s striking visual prominence dominates the visual setting. Indigenous food plants abound in the McDermitt Creek basin. Comprehensive archaeological studies are lacking over much of the area. The Caldera landscape is imbued with cultural significance. There is abundant evidence of cultural materials in many places. These threatened lands are home to animals of cultural significance, like the Sage-grouse, prominent in Paiute creation and other myths.
Designation of a Traditional Cultural Property is being held up by the Interior Department. Is BLM waiting until all the land is destroyed so it can abjectly cast it aside? There are reported to be 22 tribes with ties to the Thacker Pass area. The entire Caldera is of great importance to tribal culture. This entire landscape is at grave risk of being torn apart piecemeal by lithium boom excavation and disturbance.
The People of Red Mountain Atsa Koodakuh Way Nuwu explain:
“The landscapes of the McDermitt caldera are all significant to Native American Tribes. This is especially true for the Fort McDermitt Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock. The caldera holds many first foods, medicines, and hunting grounds for tribal people both past and present. The global search for lithium has become a form of ‘green’ colonialism. The people most connected to the land suffer while those served benefit”.
Parker 1993 describes: a purpose of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 is to “preserve the historical and cultural foundations of the Nation as living parts of community life.” 1992 amendments to the National Historic Preservation Act strengthened the concept of TCPs. Section 101(d) states specifically that properties of “traditional religious and cultural importance to Indian tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations may be determined eligible for inclusion on the National Register.”
A traditional cultural property must have integrity— both integrity of relationship and integrity of condition “… in the context of Section 106 review, where boundaries of the area of potential effect are far more important than the boundaries of specific properties. The boundaries of a mountain top on which religious practitioners seek visions could be drawn around the toes of a person sitting on it, but the area of potential effect could include everything within that person’s viewshed”.
“A traditional cultural property, then, can be defined generally as one that is eligible for inclusion in the National Register because of its association with cultural practices or beliefs of a living community that (a) are rooted in that community’s history, and (b) are important in maintaining the continuing cultural identity of the community”.
Landforms, such as Sentinel Rock, or Disaster Peak, are of cultural spiritual significance. Two Native American massacres of great significance to tribal culture in this region took place in a part of this landscape. One massacre at Thacker Pass Peehee mu’huh was a massacre of Paiute people by another Tribe. The memory of these massacres still affects people today.
A brutal US cavalry attack and massacre of an indigenous camp of women, children and men occurred in 1865. Two children and one man, Ox Sam, survived. Ox Sam escaped by riding a horse towards Disaster Peak. This massacre occurred during the Snake War, the bloodiest of US Indian wars. The Associated Press’s Scott Sonner reported on tribal Thacker Pass court filings with disturbing accounts of the 1865 cavalry massacre. This was filed with litigation opposing the Thacker Pass lithium mine
“Tribal lawyers are asking a U.S. judge in Nevada to reconsider her earlier refusal to block digging at a proposed lithium mine near the Oregon line where they say newly uncovered evidence proves it was the sacred site of a massacre of dozens of Native Americans in 1865.
The new motion filed in federal court in Reno includes an 1865 newspaper report and two eyewitness accounts of how at least 31 Paiute men, women and children were “murdered by federal soldiers” at Thacker Pass.
The accounts were in an autobiography first published in 1929 by a well-known American labor organizer, Bill Haywood. One was from a cavalry volunteer who participated in the slaughter and the other by a tribal member who survived it”.
There was also information about the massacre in a contemporary newspaper account:
“The Owyhee Avalanche article cited in the Sept. 30, 1865, edition under the headline “Indian Fight in Queen River Valley” says a Capt. Payne and Lt. Littlefield of the 1st Nevada Cavalry had camped with 19 volunteers along Willow Creek in the area near Thacker Pass.
“A charge was ordered and each officer and man went for scalps, and fought the scattering devils over several miles of ground for three hours, in which time all were killed that could be found,” the story said.
The article said the troops located 31 dead, noting “more must have been kill (sic) and died from their wounds, as a strict search was not made and the extent of the battlefield so great.”
The reporting described Big Bill Haywood’s Autobiography, written during the last year of his life:
“Haywood wrote … that the “story of the massacre of the Piute (sic) Indians at Thacker Pass” was first told to him by Jim Sackett, “one of the volunteers who took part in the killing” and Ox Sam, “a Piute (sic) who made his escape, one of the only three survivors”.
Haywood wrote that Sackett told him the Paiutes … had been sleeping in “wickiups” — small huts also referred to as wigwams — and were “shot down before they came to their senses.”
“From one wickiup to another, we went pouring in our bullets.”
The Caldera mining boom is opening up these past horrors, pain and trauma.
The Associated Press also described the great number of cultural resources at Thacker Pass: “The tribes maintain 1,000 cultural resources and 57 properties there are eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. They say the bureau has failed to meet federal requirements it formally consult with the tribes on a government-to-government basis about the preparation of a historical properties plan”.
A Thacker Pass tribal court filing also explains there was no “Fort McDermitt Tribe”, “The Fort McDermitt Tribe was created by the American government out of the survivors of the Thacker Pass and other massacres”. It also references the importance of the cavalry massacre as a part of American history:
“And, whether federal agencies want to uncover this history or not, even when they possess the records of these massacres, the genocide the federal government perpetrated against Native peoples like those camped in the Quinn River Valley on September 12, 1865 is an important part of American history – all-the-moreso for the shame in that history”.
Additional insight into the BLM failure to reveal information on the massacre is contained in Reno News and Review, 10/6/21 “Evidence surfaces of massacre at lithium site”. Frank X. Mullen:
“Now, evidence has surfaced that at Thacker Pass in 1865, Nevada cavalry volunteers murdered 31 Paiute men, women and children as they slept in shelters, including all the wounded people who had survived the initial onslaught. Two infants narrowly escaped execution when one of the militiamen took pity on them and took them away, according to the accounts”.
“In a filing in U.S District Court in Reno on Oct. 1, Dorece Antonio, a descendant of Ox Sam, the only adult survivor of the massacre on Sept. 12, 1865, wrote that her great-great-grandfather lost his mother, father, brothers and sisters when the soldiers attacked the sleeping village as the sun rose over the Double H Mountains”. “As far as we know, they were never buried,” she wrote in her declaration to the court. “My relatives still rest in Thacker Pass.”
The fast-tracked BLM Thacker Pass EIS process never considered or revealed this information, nor the information in the Interior Department’s own General Land Office surveyor records that provided evidence of the cavalry massacre. As a tribal court filing laid out:
“1868 Field Notes, US Deputy Surveyor Abed Alley Palmer, described “the sage land between the mountains and the meadow…” which likely means the land crossed moving east to west from the Quinn River Valley (“the meadow”) towards the Double H and Montana mountains forming Thacker Pass (“the mountains”). (ECF 76, pg. 4). And, Palmer noted that “[t]here are many Indian skulls and other remains to be found scattered over this portion of the Township,” further corroborates the likelihood that the Intervening Plaintiffs’ ancestors fled a long distance into the project area. (ECF 76, pg. 5”).
All this evidence of the 1865 cavalry massacre was revealed in tribal legal filings in the midst of litigation over the Thacker Pass mine. BLM, however, argued vigorously in briefs and in a federal court hearing that the massacre wasn’t in the project area, it made no difference to the Thacker Mine EIS process, and brushed all of this newly revealed information aside – to the dismay, anger and sadness of many tribal people and members of the public. The new evidence presented meant nothing to the agency.
The specific historical documents verifying the massacre events are included with the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and Summit Lake Paiute Tribe Thacker Pass Peehee mu-huh National Register Eligibility statement submission.
The 4/14/2022 Letter of Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Michon Eben to Far Western Anthropological Research Group (Thacker Pass mine consultants), also provides information about the cavalry massacre of the indigenous camp, the Interior Department’s General Land Office surveyor records that recorded Indian skulls found scattered across the land, and the Owyhee Avalanche news account of the massacre. All of this was documentation in support of Tribal litigation claims about the cultural significance of Thacker Pass that was omitted in the Thacker Pass EIS process. The letter also described the BLM consultation void during Covid, a time when BLM and Tribal offices were closed, and cited new 2021 Interior Department policy.
The RSIC letter raises the matter of the historical importance of the Caldera region to US history. Important historical events to Paiutes and to American history took place here, referring to the Snake War, of which the Thacker Pass cavalry massacre was a part. The RSIC letter states that six regional Tribes, the inter-tribal council of Nevada, and the National Congress of American Indians have all opposed the Thacker Pass lithium mine The National Congress of American Indians Resolution is #ANC-22-013 TITLE: “Supporting the Continued Protection of Northern Paiute and Shoshone Traditional Homelands from the Permitted Thacker Pass Lithium Mine in Northern Nevada”.
Military records on the US Snake War of Extermination were researched in Gregory Michno’s The Deadliest Indian War in the West: The Snake Conflict, 1864-1868. This is a brutal part of American history that has been largely ignored, forgotten and memory-holed. Smith in 2014 researched Oregon George L. Woods and Genocide in Oregon and the attempted extermination of the Northern Paiute to extend federal control.
Then there’s the fact that fabled radical labor organizer, Big Bill Haywood, whose life story was one of battling injustice and exploitation by powerful mine owners and industrial interests, had heard the accounts of the Thacker Pass cavalry massacre decades later, when he was young and working at Santa Rosa area mines. After talking to Jim Sackett who participated in the massacre, Haywood sought Ox Sam’s account, trying to understand why white men killed Indians. He wrote:
“There was a wide historical meaning in the brief story that Ox Sam, the Piute Indian, told me. It began when the earliest settlers stole Manhattan Island. It continued across the continent. The ruling glass with glass beads, bad whisky, bibles and rifles continued the massacre from Astor Place to Astoria”.
If the forces arrayed against Haywood would have had their way, he wouldn’t have lived to write an autobiography. If Clarence Darrow hadn’t won the “Trial of the Century”, Haywood would have been executed. Haywood and associates – major thorns in the sides of mine owners and industrialists across the country – were put on trial in Boise for conspiracy in the murder of Idaho Governor Steunenberg, an enemy of the Western Federation of Miners. From Darrow’s closing statement:
“If you should decree Bill Haywood’s death, in the great railroad offices of our great cities men will applaud your names. If you decree his death, amongst the spiders of Wall Street will go up paeans of praise for those twelve good men and true who killed Bill Haywood. In every bank in the world, where men hate Haywood because he fights for the poor and against the accursed system upon which the favored live and grow fat–from all those you will receive blessings and unstinted praise”.
A Reno-Sparks Indian Colony web post relates:
“… the Snake War, known as “The Deadliest Indian War in the West,” a war of genocide in which 60% of all Paiute people were killed. On September 12, 1865, Company E of the 1st Nevada Cavalry attacked a Paiute camp in Thacker Pass and slaughtered at least 31 and possibly 50 or more men, women, children, and elders as they fled deeper into the pass.
The second massacre, which gave this area its Paiute name of Peehee Mu’huh (“Rotten Moon”) was an inter-tribal conflict with a tribe from the west”.
The indigenous people endured a US government policy of extermination in the Snake War of 1864-1868. Survivors were displaced to reservations, or marched to imprisonment at distant locations Fort Boise, Fort Vancouver or Fort Simco, as described in the ShoBan News article “Walk of Sorrow”:
“From the time I can remember, elders talked about being marched out of Harney Valley – ancestors were marched to Fort Simcoe, Wash. and how we lost everything, how many people died and how badly they were treated by the soldiers,” she said. “The great loss of life and suffering that happened that was embedded in my mind as something I thought was very important”.
The people were ultimately confined to impoverished reservations. Then later government Boarding Schools promoted assimilation with White culture and destruction of indigenous culture and language.
A Friends of the Owyhee video presentation Enemies on the Owyhee: the Snake Wars & the Owyhee River by socio-cultural anthropologist Thierry Veyrie illuminates understanding of the War’s Owyhee battles, skirmishes and encounters. He describes how history, traced back to the Snake War, continues to affect memories today, and “carries intergenerational trauma into our community”. Veyrie had learned from Fort McDermitt oral historian Pete Snap and other tribal elders and read accounts of military papers in Michno’s book on the Snake War. He describes native resistance as narrative presentation of yourself – in explaining differences between White historical accounts and oral history. Paiute oral traditions center around symbols and lessons to be learned, and they educate and entertain. Humor and other elements make the story memorable and likely to be relearned. The video presentation focused on the Owyhee, “the last frontier”. The presentation mentions, but does not elaborate on, a massacre of a winter camp south of McDermitt.
The BLM Thacker Pass EIS process never considered or revealed any information on either the inter-tribal massacre or the US cavalry massacre. These events were only revealed in the midst of litigation over the lithium mine in 202 with tribal legal brief filings. Wouldn’t a reasonable person believe this new information would be like the moment in criminal court when new exonerating DNA evidence is introduced? Or that at least a federal agency would take a step back? Not with lithium mining. Instead, BLM argued vigorously that this made no difference to the Thacker Mine EIS process and brushed the new revelations aside – to the dismay and anger of many tribal members and the public.
Unjust Energy Transition
A Nevada Independent article of 6/20/2021 was titled “We’re just somebody little: Amid plans to mine lithium deposit, Indigenous, rural communities find themselves at the center of the energy transition”. It discusses some of the maelstrom of mining turmoil that recently descended on this region, and the strains and tensions it was creating. The Fort McDermitt Tribal Council ultimately did not oppose the mine and signed a “community agreement” with the tribal council, creating continuing rifts in the community.
The Sierra Nevada Ally recently reported:
“The project has caused division among residents of the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation, which sits a few dozen miles from the mine site. The Tribal Council has been in favor of the project for the economic boom it would bring to the region, while some elders and others have said it would ruin sacred land and water”.
See also: “Communities call for just transition to renewable energy resources without destructive mining”:“People from international frontline communities affected by mining have called for a truly just transition to renewable energy sources without destructive mining. They made the appeal at a conference held in Reno …The biennial conference, organized by the Western just transition Action Network, called for attention to the U.S. largest lithium mining project, the planned Thacker Pass lithium mine … During the conference, about 200 participants from mining-affected communities and allies working in legal aid, scientific support, and environmental groups discussed topics such as efforts to save the Peehee Mu’huh sacred site from proposed lithium mining, mining for energy transition technologies, and mitigating climate change.”
Also the Declaration on Mining and the Energy Transition. As NRDC 2023 states:
“Open-pit mines are one of the most controversial and environmentally risky types of sourcing. In the United States, the Thacker Pass mine in Humboldt County, Nevada, is a poster child for the kinds of controversy that can quickly emerge when companies propose industrial development near vulnerable populations and critical environmental resources”.
Greenwashing Covers Up Mining Environmental Harms, Social Injustice and Neocolonialism — Threatening the Caldera’s Myriad Values
GM is a major investor in the Thacker Pass mine. GM is providing Lithium Nevada with $650 million in funding and will hold 20% or more of the company. The US government is funding $600 million in loans. There is now news that a billion dollars of US government subsidies for the Thacker Pass mine are being contemplated.
A recent report details how GM’s actions clash with its publicity: GM Wants ‘Everybody In’ on Greenwashing, Mighty Earth, June 2023. The report exposes corporate greenwashing in the GM supply chain, in advertising, in types of vehicles manufactured such as Humvees, large luxury vehicles, and war vehicles that the GM ultium batteries made from Thacker Pass lithium are supposed to be used in, and the company’s overall environmental footprint. It describes overall greenwashing of the Thacker Pass lithium mine. The ultium batteries will be used Humvees, large trucks, luxury vehicles and various War transport vehicles.
Mighty Earth explains: “Peehee Mu huh is a sacred site on Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock lands in northern Nevada on the Thacker Pass lithium mine project. This landscape holds significant spiritual value to Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock Peoples, in part, based on a history of massacres resulting in many ancestors bodies buried in the land. The US government failed to adequately consult with regional tribes and consider the cultural impacts to Indigenous peoples resulting from mining of this sacred site, such as an inability to maintain spiritual practices. The permitting system was rushed under Trump executive order, Subsequently, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Burns Paiute Tribe and a number of environmental groups sued the Bureau of Land management on several issues resulting from the inadequacies of the permitting”.
The greenwashing report explains how the cavalry massacre was part of a broader pattern of the genocidal federal extermination policy:
“… Advocacy opposed to this mine from regional tribes and the grassroots indigenous organization, People of Red Mountain, informs concerns regarding EPIC. Peehee Mu’Huh is a northern Paiute name that translates to rotten moon. The name is based on the history of two massacres inflicted upon indigenous peoples at the site. First, an intertribal conflict resulted in the name. During the second massacre, in September 1865, the U.S. government attempted to exterminate the region’s indigenous peoples, including the children, by attacking a camp at the base of the pass. This attack was part of a broader pattern of the federal extermination policy to open up western lands for European settlement … the lithium mine is contingent on this massacre as a means for the U.S. government to gain control of these lands. This massacre is also linked to current advocacy for protection of the pass, via Ox Sam, who escaped the 1865 massacre and rode a horse north to the proposed Jindalee lithium mine. People of Red Mountain is a community group that includes direct descendants of Ox Sam, and it is working to protect this sacred landscape for future generations.”
The Mighty Earth report describes misleading corporate promotion of this lithium mining. Deception for the purpose of exploitation and profit is yet another reason that emergency ACEC designation is needed – without in depth investigation of harms and environmental/cultural costs, and a counter-balance, industry greenwashing and propaganda may lead to rushed, biased decision-making by federal and state agencies subject to political pressures.
PLAN (Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada) Report on Climate Inequity and Lithium Mining Exploitation of Thacker Pass and the Caldera
PLAN, (Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada) a community organizing group working on economic and environmental justice, prepared a web report describing the inequity of front-line indigenous communities facing the sudden lithium boom mining’s assault on sacred cultural landscapes and unceded lands. The on-line site visit report presentation is: Thacker Pass: the heart of climate (In)equity .
PLAN references the intergenerational traumatic effects of an immense mine such as Thacker Pass, and some of the region’s history, and pollution legacy of past mining here.
“The Montana Mountains to the north are home to sage grouse breeding grounds and golden eagles. The area is rich in Paiute history that spans thousands of years of sustainable occupation; something our western society is failing to achieve. The lithium deposit results from ancient volcanic activity which also produced significant amounts of obsidian which served as an important toolstone material”.
“The Cordero Mine mercury still pollutes groundwater, forcing people to rely on bottled water. This legacy of past mining causes worry in the community … the air and water impacts that would come from Thacker Pass are not imagined fears to the community. Similar impacts already exist from the Cordero/McDermitt mine, providing an example of the kind of long-term pollution that locals can expect from the current mining proposal”.
It also describes the fate of cavalry leader McDermitt for whom the town and reservation were named:
“Myron asked if we wanted to learn where the name McDermitt comes from. Colonel McDermitt led the cavalry engaged in the attempted genocide of Paiute, Bannock, Shoshone Peoples based in the area. The canyon we stopped by is known as McDermit Creek. In 1865, a form of community justice was enacted when Colonel McDermitt was drawn into the canyon and ambushed .
PLAN describes present-day fears of violence accompanying hard rock mining:
“Settler commodification of the land continues to be closely tied to physical violence. In addition to the concerns of pollution and wildlife loss, social violence is a fear should the Thacker Pass mine be built. The crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) refers to the high rates of murder, kidnapping and sexual violence enacted upon indigenous women. MMIWG is known to be closely linked to extractive industries. This is due in the large influx of primarily male workers moving in from other places who lack ties to the community and land. These workers are often housed in “man-camps” due to the isolated locations …”.
Bretz mine.
Culture, Safety, Health, Clean Food, Community – All Threatened by Caldera Mining Boom
The controversy over Thacker Pass and lithium mining in this region has resulted in worry, disputes between neighbors, and friction between Tribal leaders – significant issues raised at the Vale BLM June 2023 RAC meeting in McDermitt and at other community events.
Historic mercury mining and processing in and by the Caldera left the community with a legacy of cancer and illness that relatives today still painfully speak of. Toxic sites include the Cordero, Bretz and Opalite mines.
Tribes and elders have long kept knowledge about significant or sacred places to themselves, to protect the places and practices associated with them from harm. Now in some cases they feel they must reveal information to try to gain site protection, although this increases vulnerability to damage or loss.
A huge influx of mine workers in a previously remote area is likely to increase disturbance, desecration or looting of cultural sites during off-work periods. The Thacker Pass mine is expected to result in an influx of 1000 people to be housed in a Man Camp by Winnemucca. The social, cultural and environmental threats from this sudden increase of outsiders were never assessed in the BLM lithium mine EIS. Women in indigenous and rural communities face the consequences of mining Man Camps – potential abduction, rape, murder, human trafficking. The community faces an overall increase in violence. Lithium Nevada is calling the Man Camp site “The Lodge”, a name associated with such camps in Canada where there has been violence against women.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs website recognizes:
“For decades, Native American and Alaska Native communities have struggled with high rates of assault, abduction, and murder of women. Community advocates describe the crisis as a legacy of generations of government policies of forced removal, land seizures and violence inflicted on Native peoples”.
- A 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) found that more than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women (84.3 percent) have experienced violence in their lifetime, including 56.1 percent who have experienced sexual violence.
- In the year leading up to the study, 39.8 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women had experienced violence, including 14.4 percent who had experienced sexual violence.
- Overall, more than 1.5 million American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime.
See also GAO report 17-762T on human trafficking. Tribal members report local BIA law enforcement is already strained and under-staffed.
Mine workers may also disturb, poach or legally kill important wild subsistence or domestic animals. There is likely to be greatly increased road traffic- and remote area use in non-work period recreational activities – resulting in mortality and/or displacement of animals.
Right now Thacker Pass Caldera activity is already causing a loss of sacred sites, and may hamper access to medicinal plants, medicinal earth and other traditional uses. Mining activity will cause destruction of native food plants such as root plants (geophytes) and degradation and/or loss of habitat– through outright mining destruction, and from weeds choking out plants. Mining air, land, and water pollution may pollute traditional foods. Access to collection and harvest sites may also be lost.
Seeing the Lithium Nevada mining destruction of the land day in, day out wears away at the soul. In a recent Guardian article, Dorece Sam said “The grounds become more and more desecrated. It’s hard to see and hard to watch”. Producing of a ton of lithium requires 3 times the energy as production of a ton of steel, and immense environmental damage. The article also describes how BLM has failed to transmit the Traditional Cultural Property information to NPS.
Harmful mine pollutants in air, dust and runoff may contaminate food sources, and spiritual and ceremony places. There will be loss of clean places (clean air, clean views,) essential for spiritual practices, and increased loss of connection with the earth and cultural identity and traditions.
Generational loss of cultural knowledge and practices is likely to increase as places become unpleasant, are scarred or destroyed, as the natural world and animals and plants decline, and people’s connection to the land is severed. Loss and erosion of culture is a serious concern that wears on many tribal members and elders.
The physiological stress effects of all of this mining boom disruption may also harm people’s health. Impacts to health may be cumulative. The PLAN site visit report describes existing worry in the community.
The end result of the mining frenzy will be more stress, pain and trauma and the loss of places infused with cultural meaning. Many losses will be permanent.
The mining boom is also causing concern in agricultural members of the community – witness the remarks of the McDermitt Creek area grazing permittee Nick Wilkinson at the Vale BLM June 2023 RAC field tour. He spoke of disruption and upheaval to his business operation, and of all the cattle grazing changes they were required to make in this very same area when Lahontan Cutthroat Trout were listed under the Endangered Species Act. Yet now BLM was letting miners come in and tear up the land and watershed that the operation had worked to protect.
A major legal challenge to the Thacker Pass mine was brought by Orovada area Bartell Ranches over the lithium mine’s impacts to water rights, and the sustainability of ground and surface waters in the over-allocated Quinn Basin aquifer. A Bartell Ranches state water rights dispute with Lithium Nevada may still be underway.
Impacts of past mining pollutants on water, as well as hard rock mining water use, is a concern in this community where the reservation has long been plagued with drinking water problems.
Influxes of mine workers will inevitably bring increased drug abuse and alcohol problems, and crime in the community – elevating MMIWC fears.
Skilled longer-term jobs often go to outsiders and promised economic benefits, including mine promises in “community agreements” may be short-lived especially as automation of the mining industry increases.
Caldera mining boom threats to indigenous culture, to people’s health and to small communities are highly significant and multi-dimensional. Mining and speculation on mining is causing trauma and stress for tribal members, and stress and worry for other community members too.
Recent news articles show resistance and great concerns about uranium mining and processing pollution that has already harmed and sickened tribal communities in the West. Indigenous communities have often borne a disproportionate uranium burden, as shown by this recent news report on a Ute Mountain Ute protest against resuming uranium mining:
“The decision to open the two mines is concerning to the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, according to the tribe’s Environmental Programs Director Scott Clow. Ore produced at both mines will be processed at White Mesa, which Clow worries will worsen radiation that he said is already infiltrating air, infecting local game and seeping into groundwater”.
Radon is a major long-term danger with uranium mining:
“We’re facing health disparities in Indian country — huge health disparities,” Heart said. “Not only diabetes, but cancer.”
Some White Mesa residents have long been concerned that the mill, which lies four miles north of the community, is contaminating nearby groundwater, air and wildlife with radon that allegedly blows and seeps off the mill’s tailings impoundments”.
Also:
“Michael Badback, a Ute Mountain Ute member who attended the march, said he’s noticed rabbits and squirrels disappearing from the mesa. Badback added that the mill’s impacts can vary by season.
“When it’s wintertime…the smoke settles here on the mesa and we can smell it, it smells like sulfur,” he said.
Clow also pointed to “whopping” levels of uranium he’s measured at local springs. The CDC report didn’t monitor radiation in seeps, springs, soil or vegetation”.
Lithium Nevada SLAPP Suit Against Protestors Demonstrates an Exceptional Degree of Controversy Exists Over Caldera Mining Activity
An initial Thacker Pass lithium mine protest camp was set up in the dead of winter 2021 by two White activists:
“The first resisters at Thacker Pass were not Native Americans. They were two white men, Max Wilbert and Will Falk, who set up tents at the proposed site in January of 2021, following the Trump administration’s final approval of the Lithium Americas project. Falk, an environmental attorney, joined as co-occupier and legal adviser to Wilbert, who had spent the previous two years working on a book about the dark side of renewable energy technologies”.
Social media about Thacker Pass raised public awareness. Concerned tribal members and other activists camped and held events at Thacker Pass focusing on the mine’s impact and environmental and social injustices. A Guardian article describes:
“Hinkey’s great-great-great grandfather, Ox Sam, was one of three survivors. But the location of the massacre is disputed, with the Indigenous groups recently losing a court case seeking to prove that Thacker Pass was the site. Hinkey’s stance remains that “it’s like putting a lithium mine on Arlington cemetery. It’s just not fair” – a contention to which Lithium Nevada, the company proposing to mine in the locality, takes strong exception …”.
The article explains:
“In addition to its historical significance, Thacker Pass plays an important role in the everyday lives of local Indigenous communities; it’s the region where they harvest traditional foods, medicines and supplies for sacred ceremonies.
Today, in order to guard the site, Hinkey and dozens of other local tribal members and descendants are camping near the proposed lithium mine, as a form of protest against extraction in the area”.
For 3 years, tribal and environmental pleas have been ignored by the Interior department, as EnviroNews reports:
“The project received federal approval in the final days of the pro-mining Trump Administration, but Biden’s Interior Department — under the leadership of Deb Haaland, America’s first Native American Cabinet member — has failed to heed pleas from indigenous leaders at Thacker Pass and has continued to back the Trump-Bernhardt-Pendley plan”.
Activism catalyzed public awareness of the controversial environmental and cultural conflicts of the lithium mine. Both Native Americans and White activists who set up the initial protest camp are now among those targeted in the Lithium Nevada SLAPP suit.
There is now national and international recognition of, and attention to, the Thacker Pass lithium mine that it is actively destroying unceded ancestral lands, and opposition to mining other places in a sacred landscape. Controversy and lawsuits over Thacker Pass have been in the headlines for several years. Hundreds of news and on-line articles have been written about the raging controversy. Mining activities here are used as an illustration of an unjust transition to alternative energy sources, of neocolonialism, of greenwashing and are being compared to a form of modern-day cultural genocide. Thacker Pass mine development is actively destroying what Tribes have told Interior is a Traditional Cultural Property, where tribal ancestors were massacred, and provided a mountain of evidence in support (see Guardian link to Thacker Pass Peehee mu-huh National Register submission). Caldera mining poses a grave threat to the destruction of subsistence foods, medicine, and culturally significant animals like Sage-grouse.
This spring, Thacker Pass near Sentinel Rock was the site of the Ox Sam Women’s Camp, or Indigenous Women’s Camp Newe Momokonee Nokotun, set up in protest after mine construction had begun. Descendants of Ox Sam, a survivor of a US cavalry massacre at Thacker Pass, helped establish it. The camp, after protest actions, was raided by Lithium Nevada security (which included hired contractor Allied Universal) and the Humboldt County Sheriff. Several activists were arrested, and the camp was cleared away.
Subsequently, Lithium Nevada filed a separate lawsuit against seven protestors at the Women’s Camp. This Lithium company lawsuit has been termed a SLAPP suit – recognized to be a form of corporate legal strong-arming to quash mining opposition. This type of legal cudgel may be seen as an effort to stifle opposition, protest and speech about both Thacker Pass or other looming Caldera mining projects. Lithium Nevada now is suing indigenous and White protestors, including descendants of Ox Sam, for their part in protest activities associated with the Ox Sam Women’s Camp set up on ancestral land in spring 2023 after lithium mine construction began.
The Nevada Independent’s Amy Alonzo 7/13/2023 reports on the SLAPP suit: “After getting hammered with lawsuits aimed at halting development of a lithium mine at Northern Nevada’s Thacker Pass, a Canadian-based mining company has turned the tables and is suing the mine’s protesters”.
The article continues: “the protesters and an attorney representing them counter that the lawsuit is similar to a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP), aimed at intimidating and silencing their free speech.
“The overall effect is to make an example of the protesters. What they were engaged in was expressive conduct and speech,” said Terry Lodge, an attorney working with Protect Thacker Pass, a group dedicated to stopping construction of the mine.
The difference of opinions will be decided in court, but a company suing protesters is abnormal, according to experts such as Simon Jowitt, former UNLV professor of economic geology who now heads UNR’s Center for Research in Economic Geology.
“It’s usually the other way around. It’s usually the protesters suing the companies,” he said. “I’m not aware of many other cases like this.”
There are serious concerns about the impacts of the Lithium Nevada lawsuit attacking basic freedoms and First Amendment Constitutional rights in a dispute involving public lands.
“The suit aims to ban the prayerful land defenders from the area and force them to pay monetary damages,” representatives of the group said in a press release. Lodge said he considers the suit against the protesters to be a SLAPP suit.
A SLAPP suit is designed to silence criticism, prevent negative publicity and limit free speech. The First Amendment protects free speech, along with freedom of the press and assembly, and the public’s right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Lithium Nevada’s lawsuit appears to be making claims around the actions the protesters were engaged in, said Patrick File, associate professor of media law at UNR’s Reynolds School of Journalism.
“That’s still speech. So, it still raises First Amendment concerns,” he said”.
Also see Lawsuit filed against Thacker Pass prayer encampment:
“The camp is named after a survivor of the 1865 massacre and ancestor of Dorece Sam and Dean Barlese, two of the individual defendants in the lawsuit. The camp was raided and cleared by law enforcement on June 8. During the raid, a ceremonial fire was extinguished and sacred objects were displaced in trash bags.
“This lawsuit is targeting Native Americans and their allies for a non-violent prayer to protect the 1865 Thacker Pass massacre site,” said Terry Lodge, attorney working with the group. “These people took a moral stand in the form of civil disobedience. They are being unjustly targeted with sweeping charges that have little relationship to the truth, and we will vigorously defend them.”
The Ox Sam protestor’s Press Release includes:
Dean Barlese, respected elder and spiritual leader from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe:
“The Indian wars are continuing in 2023, right here. America and the corporations who control it should have finished off the ethnic genocide, because we’re still here. My great-great-grandfather fought for this land in the Snake War and we will continue to defend the sacred. Lithium Nevada is a greedy corporation telling green lies.”
The Press Release also includes:
“As part of the lawsuit, Lithium Nevada has been granted a Temporary Restraining Order which restricts the defendants and “any third party acting in concert” with them from interfering with construction, blocking access roads, or even being in the area. The accused parties are not involved in planning further protest activity at the mine site.
Regardless, these allegations are alarming to the Great Basin Native American communities who believe their religious practices are protected by the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978. The lawsuit’s language places fear in the hearts of Native American people who want to pray and visit their ancestors’ gravesites”.
Lithium Nevada’s separate lawsuit that aims to quash protest and muzzle free speech further demonstrates the extremely high degree of controversy, and exceptional and unique circumstances that already exist surrounding mining activity in this landscape that at least 22 tribes have ties to.
This high degree of controversy and aggressive corporate strong-arm tactics – in a dispute over public lands, resources and sacred sites – further demonstrates the need for emergency ACEC action and a Mineral Withdrawal. Irreplaceable cultural sites, traditional religious and spiritual practices are all threatened. There are aggressive corporate mining interests attempting to suppress free speech. Interior Department action is also needed to protect access to public lands and sites; to protect communities; and to prevent aggressive mining interests from running roughshod over people, communities and the land.
This recent attempt to suppress speech and cultural and environmental activism – as exhibited in the lithium company lawsuit – further demonstrates that exceptional and extraordinary circumstances exist. Given such aggressive corporate tactics, there is a need for a much greater level of federal transparency, oversight, care and protection here that includes: ACEC designation, Mineral Withdrawal and potential National Monument or other protective designations for the caldera landscape.
Unless these lands are protected from powerful mining and corporate interests including speculators, the Caldera and local community confront being turned into a broken wasteland from mining, water depletion, pollution, and loss of culture and community.
A mining promotion video shows an Aurora Energy Metals lithium and uranium miner describing Aurora’s purchase of private property in Nevada to process ore mined in Oregon. The Australian miner’s vision of the “mine of the future” would transport the lithium and uranium from Oregon across the state line onto private land in mining-friendly Nevada for processing. What is most striking in listening to such videos of the miners and speculators who have descended on the Caldera, is the disregard for the land, community and natural world– although they pay lip service to supposedly upholding corporate “environmental and social governance” principles. Reservation and community residents have already suffered sickness and pollution from past mercury mining and processing. The water use and aquifer impacts from lithium and/or uranium mining will further stress and deplete the Quinn aquifer – where groundwater is already dwindling away from intensive center pivot type agricultural uses (90,000 acre ft. of groundwater allocated annually, but only 60,000 acre ft. annual yield).
There are similar gloating mining promotional videos and press statements from Jindalee, where executive Jindalee Dudfield hypes the project, and queuing the company up for huge US federal subsidies. But how much is speculation, and how much is public land being destroyed merely to pump up investment? Note that Vale BLM now in fall 2023 appears to be allowing even more Jindalee NEPA-less sagebrush habitat destruction drilling, apparently under the old Notice and modifications – despite BLM now having scoped the new mega-exploration drilling program NEPA process.
There is a sordid history of uranium mining and processing in the US poisoning land, water and communities. A recent Propublica report exposes the legacy of pollution and inadequate state and federal regulations and action. See also “Before the U.S. approves new uranium mining consider its toxic legacy”.
In a still-undecided separate tribal lawsuit, three tribes claim they have evidence that Winnemucca BLM withheld critical information about Thacker Pass. See: “9th Circ. Urged to Halt Nev. Lithium Mine Over Tribal Sites”.
“Three Native American tribes told a Ninth Circuit panel that federal land managers lied and withheld information to approve a massive open pit lithium mine without working with the tribes to identify significant cultural and historical sites that are now at risk if the court doesn’t halt construction on the project.… Despite never asking the three tribes as required under the National Historic Preservation Act, the bureau told Nevada’s state historic preservation officer it started discussing the proposed Thacker Pass mine with the tribes in 2017, a misrepresentation that also makes its required consultation with the state officer “meaningless,” the tribes said.
Lying “to mandatory consulting parties is never reasonable and withholding information is, by definition, bad faith,” the tribes said”.
This more recent Tribal lawsuit’s allegation of claimed BLM deception and withholding of evidence further demonstrates that a high and unresolved degree of controversy over Caldera mining and federal actions continues, and that a far greater level of public lands management oversight must be put in place.
In the northern area, there is mounting public concern and controversy over Jindalee’s compliance with BLM and DOGAMI requirements in the McDermitt Creek watershed, and over BLM inaction in addressing environmental damage occurring from Notice-level exploration activity to lands and to biotic communities. Note that Jindalee initially started exploration under a 2018 Notice without getting Oregon state permits. See WLD letters and e-mails and other party documentation of concern in the Vale Jindalee project file documenting erosion damage already taking place. Some of these environmental damage concerns were raised during the June 2023 BLM RAC field tour. Erosion has not abated, yet the greatly expanded Jindalee exploration scheme is being pushed forward. Moreover, Vale BLM appears already to be backpedaling on the level of analysis for the Jindalee EPO 267 drill hole, 30 miles of road level of NEPA review. The proposed 2023 SEORMP amendment, released prior to the start of the Jindalee NEPA scoping period, referred to BLM preparation of an EIS for this next drilling phase. But Vale BLM has now scoped a mere EA, despite the acreage and drilling bore hole site number increasing above the amounts referenced in the SEORMP cumulative effects section.
Tribal members have repeatedly stated they hold areas across the Caldera to be spiritually important and sacred, and that they use these lands in many ways – ranging from subsistence gathering to prayer. This further demonstrates the need for an emergency designation and agency action to prevent irreparable permanent loss to uses that have already been dealt a huge blow with approval and now construction of the Thacker Pass mine.
The SLAPP suit may suppress or inhibit protest and prevent members of the community and public from speaking out about lithium mining impacts. Free speech and First Amendment rights are at risk. Mining here is extremely controversial – generating many hundreds of news articles on the controversy to date. This illustrates the high public interest and significance of public land values in the crosshairs of the lithium boom. The specter of potential hazardous uranium mining and processing raises the controversy and public concern level even further. The local community could become uninhabitable. The highly unusual and aggressive actions of Lithium Nevada appear aimed at interfering with free speech and the right to protest. Meanwhile, the mining press and news articles promote the area as the largest lithium source known – including a barrage of recent press articles hyping a recent paper where the lead author – Thomas R. Benson – is actually a Lithium Americas executive. Many news articles failed to disclose this. Information in this recent overblown paper has long been known, for example the copious references to lithium in an older USGS report, Glanzman and Rytuba 1979. Only a couple of weeks after the press barrage hyping a rehash of long know lithium occurrence, it was reported that Lithium Nevada is now angling for a billion dollar US government loan for Thacker Pass.
Pumping up publicity about huge lithium amounts fuels speculation and is likely to increase political pressure on agency decision makers to rubberstamp projects – and gargantuan loans. It is likely to result in industry-biased agency decision making and environmental analysis corner cutting. A news article following weeks of “largest lithium deposit” headlines exposes what really seems to be going on.
“The study was funded by Lithium Americas, and includes research from Lithium Americas employee and shareholder, Thomas Benson”.
“John Hadder, the director of the Great Basin Resource Watch, which has been involved in lawsuits over the mine in the past, said while the study may be helpful in pitching mining in the area, his organization has heard claims of “largest lithium deposit” from places around the world.
“I am concerned that this report will be used to advance more lithium mining in the region, and pressure the frontline peoples to accept mine plans,” said Hadder. “Regardless of how much lithium may be extractable, the sloppy permitting process that led to the Thacker Pass mine must not be duplicated. Indigenous ancestral lands that have cultural values must be protected, and Indigenous communities should have the right to say no”.
There is underlying racism in this mining industry talk of “white gold”, and the lithium mining corporation neocolonialist-style assault on the Caldera. US mining regulations have been described as exhibiting systematic racism. The Guardian reports:
“Legal flashpoints have been erupting across the US amid a new iteration of the gold rush, said Aaron Mintzes, senior policy counsel for the advocacy group Earthworks. “We are seeing them all over the country right now because we find ourselves on the precipice of our 21st-century minerals rush,” he told Al Jazeera.
Present-day mining law in the US has its roots in the violent colonisation of the west, Mintzes said, when the Americans used war, genocide and treaties to settle the region. Under the General Mining Act of 1872, which remains in force today, those aiming to mine land that is “open to mineral entry” are required only to place four stakes in the ground, report the claim to the BLM, prove they found valuable minerals, and pay a fee – “then you get the right to mine”, Mintzes said”.
“Mintzes said he believes the US needs to update its “systemically racist” mining regulations, while also building a circular economy to recycle minerals for batteries and reduce demand for new mining”.
A Yahoo News article explains the way the lithium rush is playing out is just a continuation of long-time injustice and racism:
“There’s burial sites there. There’s medicines and roots there, there’s ecosystems – there is still life back there,” Gary McKinney of the Shoshone-Paiute Indigenous tribe local to Thacker Pass, told Al Jazeera. “And it’s all being sacrificed supposedly to fix the climate crisis…
The world needs to know that this lithium mining, and this fast-tracking of lithium mining, is a continuation of racism on Paiute and Shoshone people,” McKinney told NPR”.
The US government policy of extermination – as manifested in the Snake War – was aimed to kill off Native Americans so settlers and miners could exploit the land. Now public land that is integral to surviving cultural practices is threatened with being dismembered piecemeal by a sudden lithium boom.
Not long after articles hyped the recent geology paper whose lead author was a Lithium Americas executive, a barrage of news about a potential billion-dollar US government loan to Lithium Nevada to subsidize Thacker Pass mining hit. Some may view this as the US government financing cultural destruction by a corporation whose SLAPP suit is trying to shut down protected speech and protest about the destruction.
Designation of an ACEC and a Mineral Withdrawal is even more essential to protect irreplaceable Caldera region lands in Nevada and Oregon amid mining boom corporate distortion, speculation, profiteering and hype that pressures federal and state decisionmakers and tries to break down local resistance by attempting to make mining destruction appear inevitable.
Archaeological Overview of Montana Mountains
Winnemucca BLM’s 2012 Montana Mountains Fuels EA (DOI-BLM-NV-WO10-2011-0005-EA) ethnographic information gives insight into the substantial cultural values in this region.
“Cultural Resources
…. Inventory completed specifically for this project … plus past cultural inventories show a wide range of prehistoric site types spanning the entire archaic period through Euroamerican contact in the nineteenth century. Previous inventories have identified rock shelters, temporary/seasonal open-air camps, lithic scatters, isolated projectile points, etc.). The highest concentration of prehistoric sites is in association with permanent and intermittent water sources. Over-all site density is high, in part due to the presence of an abundance of lithic resources, including obsidian from the Double H source. In addition, the Montana Range is rich in an abundance of wildlife and botanical resources. Springs and seasonal creeks, which may have flown [sic] year-round during periods in the past when snowfall was heavier, are also abundant in the range.
Point types found within the Montana Mountains Planning area reflect a wide variety of types that are time sensitive (temporally diagnostic). These include: Northern Side Notch (Early Archaic), Elko Series (Middle Archaic), Great Basin Stemmed (PaleoInidan) and Rosegate and Desert Side-Notched (Late Archaic to EuroAmerican Contact). Based on these temporally diagnostic projectile points, the Montanas were occupied during a prehistoric time range from the Paleo-Indian period (11,000 BP) to the Early Historic (mid-nineteenth century) (Justice 2002).
At contact the Atsaküdökwa tuviwarai (Red Butte Dwellers) were the Northern Paiute band most closely affiliated with the Montanas Range. Summit Lake was the closest major body of water, although several creeks run through the mountains and the Quinn and King’s rivers skirt the boundaries of the range.
The prehistoric archaeology, as to settlement pattern and site type distribution, is heavily influenced by the presence of the Double H/Whitehorse National Register Eligible Lithic Procurement District. This district overlaps the project area and, as a key obsidian toolstone location probably attracted more human use of the Montana Range than would otherwise be expected”. 2012 Fuels EA p. 18-19.
“The proposed action occurs in the traditional territories of the the Aga’ ipañinadökadö (“fish lake eaters”) and Atsakudöka tuviwarai (“red butte dwellers”) (Stewart 1939, 1941). These two bands are identified with the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe and Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe. The Shoshone and Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley also claim this area …
Disaster Peak is a place of cultural and spiritual importance to the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone (Bengston 2006). It also serves a boundary marker for the Aga’ ipañinadökadö (“fish lake eaters”) and Atsakudöka tuviwarai (“red butte dwellers”) (Stewart 1939, 1941). pp. 21-22.
The EA discusses the cultural significance of Sage-grouse to the Paiute culture:
“The sage-grouse has a significant role in Northern Paiute oral traditions. Fowler (2002:243-244) and Kelly (1938) collect several variants explaining how the sage-grouse saved fire during the world flood. The sage-grouse, the only bird (or animal in other variants) to survive the flood, protected a fire on a mountain top, so that the succeeding animals and humans could have it when the flood waters receded …
Leks are considered as important cultural sites by the Northern Paiutes since the strutting is the basis of the Round Dance (also called Circle Dance) (Bengston 2006). Round Dance locations may or may not be near leks. The timing and meaning of the Round Dance varies across the Great Basin, but the dance is tied to marking seasonal subsistence activities and is imbued with cosmological ideas related to renewal of the world and human’s relationships to the Creator/God (Hultkrantz 1986).
Sage-grouse are also a traditional food source of the Northern Paiutes (Fowler 1986; Gilmore 1953; Steward 1941; Stewart 1941). There are cursory ethnographic reports on sage-grouse hunting for the following Paiute bands: Agai-Panina, Atsa’kudökwa- Leks are considered as important cultural sites by the Northern Paiutes since the strutting is the basis of the Round Dance (also called Circle Dance) (Bengston 2006). Round Dance locations may or may not be near leks. The timing and meaning of the Round Dance varies across the Great Basin, but the dance is tied to marking seasonal subsistence activities and is imbued with cosmological ideas related to renewal of the world and human’s relationships to the Creator/God (Hultkrantz 1986).
Sage-grouse are also a traditional food source of the Northern Paiutes (Fowler 1986; Gilmore 1953; Steward 1941; Stewart 1941). There are cursory ethnographic reports on sage-grouse hunting for the following Paiute bands Agai-Panina, Atsa ‘kudokwa. Montana Mountains EA (July 20Page 22.
tuviwarai, and Tagotöka_(Duck Valley Paiutes) (Bengston 2010; Fowler 2002; Stewart 1941). The bird was hunted in the spring, the meat was dried and could be eaten as long as supplies lasted. Deadfalls, hunting blinds, nets, nooses, and snares were all commonly used.
Hunting for the Northern Paiute, whether for sage-grouse or other animals, serves more than a means of providing food. As noted by Deur (2010), Hanes (1982), and Walker (2010), hunting is a way in which the Northern Paiutes and Western Shoshoni preserve part of their cultural traditions. Hunting in traditional areas is an active way of maintaining a tie to their past and a means of preserving cultural traditions. During the hunt, children are taught traditional knowledge and practices by their parents and elders. Hunting is also a means of cementing social relationships: after a successful hunt, the game is shared between the young hunters, their parents and their extended family.
Native Americans utilize a variety of wild plants …”. 2012 Fuels EA p. 21-22.
On the cultural importance of water:
“… They also consider all water to be sacred. Not only is it considered as being important for survival, warm and hot springs are often believed to have medicinal properties …”. 2012 Fuels EA pp. 21-22.
The EA provides evidence of the large number of springs in the Montana Mountains:
“471 spring sources occur in the Planning Area. The National Hydrography Dataset indicates that the planning area contains approximately 1,700 miles of perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral streams”. 2012 EA p. 23.
This very high density of spring and mesic areas is part of the ideal nature of the compressed configuration of essential habitat elements for Sage-grouse in the Montana Mountains, as described in the letter of Jim Jeffress.
Note that numeorus spring areas have been (or are being) adversely impacted by grazing, livestock water developments, and flow loss and desertification due to erosional head-cutting, watershed degradation and climate and drought stress The King’s River Pyrg petition discusses springbrook damage, flow loss and desiccation taking place. Perennial flow sustainability is a major concern. Although many exclosures have been built in the Montana Mountains in recent years, many were not constructed in time to prevent significant headcuts and save perennial flows.
Grazing-damaged desiccating meadow and headwater spring – Montana Mountains. Erosion and downcutting are converting wet meadow areas to dried out upland sites. Cattle trampling is a major driver of this deterioration. Erosion and impacts may damage cultural materials and sites.
There is a strong relation between spring sites and cultural uses and materials. The great abundance of springs may provide a window into the extent of archaeological sites in an area that has had not had adequate cultural surveys over large areas.
The 2012 Montana Fuels EA contains tables with information on the tiny LCT populations found in the Montana Mountains at that time. It also describes past BLM use of Tebuthiurion to purposefully kill sagebrush: “The BLM has implemented a number of fuelbreaks within the Montana Mountains utilizing the herbicide Tebuthiuron. Tebuthiuron targets brush species …. EA p. 36.
The Fuels EA frequently relies on the Ruby Pipeline and Winnemucca RMP ethnographic and cultural reports by Bengston. There is minimal cultural information available to date on the Oregon Jindalee project. BLM Jindalee scoping information indicates a project cultural report is pending, and states: “Surveys identified 91 sites and 268 isolates. The project area is likely situated in a larger lithic landscape. BLM is working to define what that landscape is and how sites within the project area contribute to it”.
Questions were asked of Vale BLM at the BLM SEORAC meeting about the Jindalee project “APE” – the cultural “Area of Potential Effects”, and how it would be determined, but BLM’s answers did not provide clarity.
Preliminary information already reveals a significant number and density of cultural sites. Recent work from other scientists shows a very important cultural landscape of much significance to the long-term adaptations of Northern Paiute and Shoshone populations to climate change over the past 11,000 years (Mensing 2023; Robinson and Thomas 2023; Thomas et al. 2023). This recent work suggests that the McDermitt Caldera is a critical refugia for animals, plants, and human survival in the face of climate changes such as drought, centennial-scale climate change events, and ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) dynamics. This recent recognition of the Caldera as a possible refugia is of major significance, because the USDA has recently noted how “one of the primary resistance strategies [to climate change] is to identify and preserve what are known as climate change refugia (Morelli and Millar 2018).
Perideridia (yampa) is the pale white flowering root plant growing with balsamroot amid rock talus stripes.
Plant Foods and Root Plant (Geophyte) Importance
A high density of root plants (geophytes) are found across the Caldera uplands. These are plants with edible bulbs, corms tubers, roots that grow in diverse habitats. They include abundant biscuitroot, bitterroot, yampa and onions, and sego lily and fritillaria. Biscuitroots may occur in the unique exposed clay soil ridge slope sites targeted for severe exploration disturbance and in the surrounding big sagebrush sites targeted by Jindalee.
Anderson 1997 described methods and importance of indigenous harvesting and tending of geophytes and noted that disturbance by digging mammals or humans may activate new vegetative propagation. These plants provide very valuable food sources (carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, fiber). Various degrees of mutualism may have existed in subsistence practices.
Thickets of silver buffaloberry still remain in the Quinn Valley – one can only imagine buffaloberrry abundance before lands were cleared for pastures and fields. The account of the cavalry massacre in Michno’s book on the Snake War lists materials recorded by the military at the camp site, which included hundreds of yards of rabbit nets, two tons of seeds and dried berries, and beef liver impregnated with rattlesnake venom to be used for poisoning arrows.
Gathering of roots, medicinal plants, earth and other material by tribal members continues to take place across the Caldera.
Biscuitroot, here with seed heads bending over, is abundant in many Caldera sites.
Fernandez, Lepofsky, Lertzman et al. 2021, in “Scientists’ Warning to Humanity on Threats to Indigenous and Local Knowledge Systems”, explore the role of knowledge systems and practices of indigenous people and local communities in safeguarding biological and cultural diversity.
Was the Caldera a Climate Refuge? How Did People Adapt to Past Climate Shifts and Harsh Conditions?
There is current scientific interest in understanding cultural adaptation during harsh drought periods and major weather pattern shifts in the northern Great Basin, and an emphasis on determining land areas that may have served as climate refugia during harsh periods. See Mensing et al. 2023 discussion of prolonged drought evidence in the Great Basin.
“We provide evidence from pollen and radiocarbon dating of wet meadow sediments for the presence of multi-centennial drought, termed the Late Holocene Dry Period (LHDP), in the central Great Basin between3100 and 1800 cal yr BP”.
The authors describe a dipole pattern of precipitation with wet periods and prolonged drought with different phases and shifting boundaries, where harsh climate locks into one area for a prolonged time period. They examine sites from 39 to 42 degrees N latitude and discuss how hydroclimatic variability inb this region was modulated by large-scale ocean atmospheric interactions, including the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The paper describes how the ENSO teleconnection may influence development of a north-south anti-phasing “dipole” in moisture variability. The effects of ENSO are often called teleconnections, emphasizing that changing conditions in one area can affect areas far away.
Wise 2010 explains the seesawing pattern:
“Studies of ENSO-related precipitation variability across the West have identified a north–south “seesaw” pivoting on a transition zone that separates Pacific Northwest and Desert Southwest centers of opposite association … the north and south centers tend to behave in opposition to each other (i.e., when one is anomalously wet, the other is anomalously dry), and the resulting north–south contrast in precipitation patterns (hereafter referred to as a “dipole”) is an important feature of Western streamflow and climate variability”.
“Studies of ENSO-related precipitation variability across the West have identified a north–south “seesaw” pivoting on a transition zone that separates Pacific Northwest and Desert Southwest centers of opposite association …”.
Mensing et al. 2023 use radiocarbon dating of wet meadow pollen ad wet meadow sediment to provide insights into the Late Holocene Dry Period:
Between 2000 and 1800 cal yr BP the boundary shifts north to ~41_ N, representing the driest phase which was widespread across central Nevada. A review of lake levels, tree-rings, and submerged stumps suggest that the drought between 2000 and 1800 cal yr BP was of greater magnitude than that recorded during the MCA megadrought. We do not yet have sufficient information to establish a cause for megadroughts … Indigenous human societies adapted to severe droughts through a variety of responses, suggesting a pattern of resilience and mobility in response to recurring climate change across the Great Basin”.
The Caldera location of 42 degrees north on the OR-NV state line is by the boundary area of past climate dipole shifts of significant interest to archaeologists and climate scientists. Important work seeking to understand how humans adapted to abrupt climate change and may have adopted varied subsistence patterns or other forms of cultural resilience could be conducted here. For example, investigating if climate shifts were tied to changes in the relative importance of hunting vs. increased reliance on plant foods. Focus on geophytes and other plant foods may be part of cultural adaption associated with changes in occupation sites, and types and locations of camp sites – from larger hunting-based encampments to smaller family group harvest and processing sites.
Due to the higher elevation of the Montana Mountains “sky island” and adjacent Trout Creek and Oregon Canyon mountains, the Caldera may have also been an important climate refugium. The Caldera’s large numbers of springs and small streams (very high density in the Montana Mountains) amid sagebrush uplands contrasts with the stark aridity of much of the surrounding landscape in the Humboldt Basin to the south, the arid Sheldon region, and the Oregon Owyhee region where the primary surface water is down below the sagebrush uplands in deep cut river canyons.
Morelli, Barrows, Ramirez et al. 2020 explore how climate change refugia can buffer native species and ecosystems from short-term climate stress effects and may also provide longer-term havens. Saunders et al. 2023 mapped potential climate-change refugia in North America.
There has been limited archaeological field work conducted in the Caldera to date. Work to understand this complex environment, and how the land and cultural adaptations may have changed over time, has not been done.
The rapid pace and piecemeal proliferation of mining projects threatens to irreversibly destroy this landscape before the past environmental record here and adaptation to climate shifts is understood. Breaking the area down to specific sites with minimal BLM project “APEs” obscures the complex relation between culture, plants, animals, and climate shifts.
The greatly increased human presence that comes with Lithium Nevada’s 1000 worker Man Camp would accompany development of any other large lithium and/or uranium mine in the Caldera. Sudden drastically increased human activity and the overall intensified spotlight on this region poses a serious new threat to preservation of cultural sites that may be harmed and lost forever.
Designation of an ACEC and Mineral Withdrawal or protective designation would help bring special management attention to the Caldera before sites are lost forever and would provide a foundation for preservation and protection of these values.
Black feathers, from saving fire for the people.
Cultural Significance of Sage-grouse
Preservation of Sage-grouse in the Caldera is intertwined with cultural preservation in a living landscape. Isabel T. Kelly in Northern Paiute Tales describes Paiute creation stories of how the Sage-grouse saved fire for the people.
“The earth was covered with water. The mountains showed very little. Sagehen covered the fire on top of the mountain. He lay on it. That’s how they saved fire. Sagehen burned his breast. That’s why he has a black mark there”.
There are variants of the story.
“One version of how the Northern Paiute people came to be is that a bird, the Sagehen (also known as the Centrocercus), was the only bird that survived a massive flood. The Sagehen made a fire and cared for it until the fire grew bigger and bigger. The water from the flood dried, and a man “happened”.
Kelly also provides an account of what happened to Sage-grouse neck feathers – they got singed in saving fire. “Everybody thought the fire was going out, but it was saved. Sagehen sat on it just like eggs. Right under the neck the sagehen has no feathers. They were all burned off. If sagehen hadn’t done that there never would have been any fire”.
An audio story includes a recording of Sage-grouse males displaying on a lek and gives the perspective of a Warm Springs tribal member,“ What happens to them is what will happen to us”. The recording of Sage-grouse males displaying helps demonstrate how readily the sounds made by the birds would be masked and obscured by mining exploration and development noise. The contact calls between hens and chicks, and sounds made when Sage-grouse are in a flock on the ground moving around eating or loafing are very soft and quiet.
A High Desert Museum video describes how sparring Sage-grouse on a lek taught people to fight – describes the effects of fences on food animal migration routes, seeing displaying Sage-grouse, and a Wasco story of a disconsolate woman comforted by grouse, who gave her a song and a teaching that became a dance – with a lesson that you can’t live in grief forever.
In the Caldera, culture and biodiversity intersect. No attention has been paid to understanding the impacts of the lithium and uranium mining and speculation boom and its foreseeable irreparable harm to inter-twined culture and biodiversity.
CALDERA WILD LANDS VALUES, BEAUTY AND BIODIVERSITY
Looking down into McDermitt Creek from the WSA above.
CALDERA LANDSCAPE WILD LANDS VALUES
BLM’s Oregon Wilderness Study Area Report on the “Trout Creek Mountain” Group of WSAs Demonstrates this Landscape’s Outstanding Values – All Threatened by Jindalee, Aurora, FMS or Potential Lithium Nevada Mining Activity
The Oregon BLM Wilderness Study Area Report recognized the Trout Creek Mountains Group of WSAs, consisting of 5 adjacent WSA blocks located by the divide between the Lahontan and Coyote Lake basins. See Oregon WSA Report. 1991. Volume 1. Report – pp. 553-574.
Other WSA documents are found here.
The McDermitt Creek Basin is rimmed in the north, west and portion of the east by several of the Trout Creek Group WSAs: Disaster Peak, Willow Creek, Fifteenmile, and Oregon Canyon WSAs. The sights of mining developments and land despoilation would be visible from the WSAs. Noise too would penetrate some WSA areas including crucial wildlife habitats. Jindalee and FMS claims areas lie in close proximity to WSA boundaries.
Oregon WSA map from: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/bffbd1b0318941f7892be97f160d1453.
Note that much of the brown-colored non-WSA land area adjacent to the Caldera are considered Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWC) in the proposed SEORMP FEIS amendment.
The unique curved shape of the McDermitt Basin and paler soils are visible in the map lower right – immediately adjacent to the Oregon Canyon WSA. If mines were built in the basin, recreational use of significant areas of these WSAs would be like sitting in the back of a theater watching non-stop environmental carnage and destruction play out on the stage below.
The Oregon WSA report recognizes that each WSA has distinctive characteristics. It highlights Disaster Peak’s striking visual prominence – the landmark known as Disaster Peak is a large symmetrical butte that is visible throughout the region. As discussed herein, Disaster Peak has great cultural significance.
The Trout Creek WSA group is generally natural, and “contain some of the most outstanding and diverse high desert wildlife habitat in Oregon”. This is glowing praise given the general tenor of BLM WSA evaluation reports across the West. It accurately reflects the outstanding values present. The report highlights biodiversity including unusual vegetative composition and communities, the Mule Deer, Sage-grouse, California Bighorn Sheep and other wildlife and aquatic species habitat values, and untrammeled, panoramic views. Examples:
“The area contains outstanding topographic and ecological diversity. The rugged canyons, dramatic spires, extensive badlands, broad valleys and unusual vegetative composition combine with excellent solitude and primitive recreational opportunities to comprise an extremely large WSA complex with very high wilderness values.” WSA Report p. 556.
“… The high quality of Wilderness values is also apparent from the high number of comments received that support Wilderness designation”. WSA Report p. 557.
WSA report pp. 556 and 562 references Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, Lahontan Redside Shiner, a high density of cultural sites, outstanding ecological diversity, and California Bighorn Sheep. it recognizes that these lands have outstanding values for solitude and primitive and unconfined recreation. It specifically mentions Mule Deer and Sage-grouse as WSA values, and also the great variety of plants in the Trout Creek Mountains WSA group, relating that the areas’ topography and rainfall have resulted in a diverse array of ecosites. Report p. 561.
The region’s high biodiversity values are repeatedly praised:“the diversity of species is perhaps the area’s most significant wildlife characteristic”, and it contains “some of the highest quality wildlife habitat in Malheur County, and excellent California Bighorn sheep habitat”.. Note that both Holloway and Long Draw fires have altered significant areas of these WSAs.
These values would be impaired or destroyed over significant areas of several WSAs (or Wilderness Areas if that designation happens) by nearby development of open pit strip mines, large-scale roading, waste rock heaps leaching toxics into soil and ground and surface water, and lithium and uranium processing facilities emitting harmful pollutants across the region – and by 24-hour a day mine work, constant night light pollution and bright moving lights, dynamiting and house-sized heavy equipment emitting round the clock motor noise. They would also be substantially impaired by weed infestations spreading outward into WSA lands, and mining-related contaminants in dust drifting onto lands and polluting water or causing earlier snowmelt, or mine herbicide use drifting onto WSA lands. Further, hard rock mining pits and water use could impair or dry up flows in portions of WSAs as aquifer drawdown occurs. Copious volumes of dust and contaminants from mining activity (both exploration and development) and from mineral processing may be deposited on WSA lands, waters and vegetation.
The very high visual qualities of the wild lands would be seriously impaired and degraded by mine activity sights, gaping scars and industrial facilities. In this wide-open sagebrush landscape, there is minimal visual screening to conceal mining scars and destruction of the earth, or constant night lights, or spiraling excavation dust clouds, or immense mining equipment movement. Just like with the Sage-grouse leks, there are direct line views from many areas of the WSAs and LWC lands into Jindalee, FMS, Aurora claims blocks in the northern Caldera, and from the Disaster Peak WSA into the Lithium Nevada claims block. Views from scenic rims and south and east facing slopes look right down into the McDermitt Creek Basin -= and what could become a theater of mining destruction. Mining dust clouds, bright night lights and noise would penetrate WSAs to varying degrees.
BLM describes the Disaster Peak WSA:
The Disaster Peak WSA sits along the northwest rim of the McDermitt Caldera, forming part of the divide that separates the Coyote Lake Basin from the Humboldt Basin. The landmark known as Disaster Peak is a large, symmetrical butte that is visible throughout the region. The western-most portion of the WSA incorporates part of an area known as The Granites, named after the abundance of very old granitic outcrops that appear at the base of the predominantly volcanic ridgeline”.
The Disaster Peak WSA straddles the state line and extends from Oregon into Nevada. The northernmost extent of the Lithium Nevada claims block in the Montana Mountains lies in close proximity to this WSA. The Friends of Nevada Wilderness website describes the Disaster Peak WSA:
“… the headwaters of Kings River and McDermitt Creek. It includes part of the main ridgeline of the Trout Creek, stream valleys and rolling sage hills … Many miles of canyons and tributaries make natural travel ways. In places it is the numerous game and cow trails that allow access through the otherwise impenetrable vegetation. Water and campsites are abundant. Hiking and camping, hunting and fishing, cross-country skiing and snow shoeing are popular here. The major canyons provide many hiking routes which vary in distance and difficulty.
Vegetation is diverse, ranging from sagebrush/grass to mountain mahogany. Alder and willow are thick in the canyons”.
WSAs and Proposed Wilderness Adjacent to Mining-Targeted Caldera Lands Are Threatened
Mapping shows wild lands areas contained in the Malheur County Wilderness bill (Senate Bill 1890) introduced in Congress by Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley. A June 2023 map of the proposed Wilderness areas from the Oregon Sierra Club website is here – note that it appears some areas may be in flux – including Lands with Wilderness Characteristics shown in the proposed SEORMP amendment Map WC, “Proposed protected wilderness characteristics”, OR-036 -035. At present, a Monument proposal for various other lands in Malheur County is being publicized, and it appears both a Malheur Wilderness Bill and Monument track are being pursued.
Brown is proposed Wilderness, pink = WSAs not in Bill, orange = Lands with Wilderness Characteristics.
Green color is Lands with Wilderness Characteristics identified in the SEORMP. Jindalee claims and a narrow sliver of FMS claims are located in a portion of the OR-036-035 LWC area. See ONDA Claims Map for comparison.
The BLM Oregon WSA report found that ranches and some livestock reservoirs in WSAs were “highly visible developments impairing naturalness” of some lands. One can only imagine, then, how enormously impairing and intrusive the sights, sounds, dust clouds, etc. that would be generated by Jindalee, Aurora, FMS lithium/uranium mega-mines very close by WSAs or Wilderness would be.
“All of the WSAs provide outstanding examples of rugged, dissected canyonlands with areas of high scenic quality. The andesite, rhyolite and dacite flows of the Trout Creek formation provide the professional and amateur geologist an opportunity to study the overlying volcanics and the sedimentary leaf-bearing beds underneath”. WSA Report p. 561.
Time after time, the Oregon BLM WSA Report highlights Mule Deer and Sage-grouse values. The Oregon WSA Report p. 567 states that mineral development in WSAs would displace big game species.
It is not just mineral development within WSAs that would cause serious impairment and displacement. Mining development in adjacent areas to WSAs (or Wilderness) in the northern Caldera’s amphitheater-like McDermitt Basin setting would both obliterate critical seasonal habitat areas used by species that also rely on Wilderness lands for their survival on other seasons. Mining disturbance would displace big game animals, Sage-grouse and other species from both WSA/Wilderness and non-WSA/non-wilderness lands. Further, crucial winter range and transitional habitat (with transitional areas and migratory corridors increasingly recognized to be significant for big game like Mule Deer and Pronghorn) would be altered, destroyed and/or fragmented. Deer that fawn in Oregon may winter to the south in Nevada, and portions of the Montana Mountains serve as a movement pathway.
The Wilderness report mentions mining development degrading waters. Large-scale mines may operate for several decades. The Thacker Pass mine is projected to operate for 40+ years = 40 years of “No Trespassing” signs and blocking public entry, and around 5 years of “reclamation”.
BLM’s “A Review of Vale and Lakeview District Conformance with Established Procedures for Maintaining the Inventory of Lands with Wilderness Characteristics”, BLM Final Report—December 18, 2015, Wilderness Characteristics Inventory Report illuminates that BLM believes that pervasive and omnipresent sights and sounds impair adjacent Wilderness quality.
Oregon Energy LLC/Aurora lithium and uranium claims are located in close proximity to the mouth of beautiful Indian Canyon – part of the Oregon Canyon WSA and proposed Wilderness and also a proposed Wild and Scenic River in the northern Caldera.
Vale and Lakeview BLM Wilderness Characteristics Inventory Document Found that Pervasive and Omnipresent Outside Impacts Intrude on and Mar Wilderness Values
BLM’s own Wilderness Characteristics Inventory Review information criteria show how harmful mining would be to nearby WSAs and their suite of wild land values.
“Outside Sights and Sounds – The 6310 Manual addresses the consideration of outside human impacts on Naturalness only in exceptional cases when a major outside impact exists. The Oregon H-6300-1 draft guidance used the exact same language. While the Oregon guidance was silent on this topic under the Solitude discussion, the 6310 Manual, under the Solitude guidance states: “Only consider the impacts of sights and sounds from outside the inventory area on the opportunity for solitude if these impacts are pervasive and omnipresent.” Wilderness Characteristics Review Report p .10.
The impacts of lithium or uranium mines in the McDermitt Basin and portions of the Montana Mountains in Nevada would certainly be “pervasive and omnipresent”. They would degrade and impair adjacent WSA and/or Wilderness land Wilderness values. Examples of impairment and harms include: Permanent aquifer drawdown and depletion; many decades of the sights, loud and discordant noise, dust and other pollutant deposition; large-scale and permanent loss of essential and irreplaceable Mule Deer, Sage-grouse, Bighorn Sheep and other wildlife winter, breeding, nesting or other habitats; and large-scale mining disturbance-caused weed infestations spreading into WSA/Wilderness lands. This all could substantially impair, diminish or extirpate wildlife populations that are vital parts of the outstanding Wilderness values at stake.
2012 Winnemucca BLM Fuels EA Describes Importance of Caldera Landscape Public Recreational and Outdoors Use
The Winnemucca BLM’s 2012 Montana Mountains Fuels EA describes the Caldera’s “large, intact, continuous” sagebrush and other shrub stands, and the area’s popularity for general recreational use. Again, note that these were the very same shrub areas the Fuels EA sought to alter, fragment and variously destroy.
“The terrain within the Planning area is varied and diverse. The planning area encompasses an entire mountain range from adjacent valley bottoms to the mountain top. The vegetation within the planning area includes large, intact, contiguous, stands of Wyoming Big Sagebrush, Low Sagebrush, along with large extents of Salt Desert Shrub and Greasewood vegetation communities. These areas have withstood persistent disturbance from fire, grazing pressures and road construction, though large areas of cheatgrass have moved into, and in some areas replaced native vegetation communities, primarily on lower fan piedmonts and valley interfaces at lower elevations.
The planning area is a very popular recreation and hunting area for local residents. There are several Lithium and Uranium exploration sites scattered along the southwestern edge of the planning area. There is also a clay prospect located near the Pole Creek road in Bull Basin in the middle, western portion of the planning area. One Wilderness Study Area (WSA) exists within the project area: Disaster Peak WSA (NV-020-859) …”.
Note that this clay prospect refers to a small clay mine site. There have been recent rumors of the Thacker Pass lithium mine potentially using this other site’s clay for some purpose. If so, this Thacker use would result in wildlife habitat disturbance all along the access route through Focal habitat, and it has not been assessed under NEPA. This activity was not assessed in the Thacker Pass EIS. This also highlights that mega-mines have materials footprints that may extend far across the landscape and cause new and unstudied levels of harm and disturbance – for other minerals, and for gravel and other materials.
Toxic Threats – Region’s Inhabitants Already Suffer a Toxic Mining Legacy
Photographing exposed Opalite mercury mine calcine waste piles, subject to wind and water erosion. Mine Creek is in the background (red stems of willows not yet leafed out). Jindalee’s proposed EA drill area touches the Opalite site.
Pollutants Released by Old and new Mining Exploration and Development May Infiltrate Soils, Vegetation Communities, Food Plants – and Pollute Air and Water
A hazard caused by human action may meet the relevance criteria for ACEC designation. Significant human-caused hazards are already present in and around the Caldera. New mining excavation, mineral processing and other disturbance activities threaten to produce or expose more hazardous and toxic substances that will be released into the environment. Existing hazardous materials such as polluted sediment may be disturbed by new mining activity. Polluting herbicide use of unknown amounts with a range of hazardous and carcinogenic chemicals is also likely to accompany massive mining activity. Chemical use in dust suppressants is also a concern, and suppressant chemicals can react with and leach toxic materials from soils at application sites.
An EPA website describes toxic mercury mine site “red dirt” pollution in the community:
“The McDermitt and Cordero Mercury Mine sites consist of several non-contiguous locations: the McDermitt Mine, the Cordero Mine, areas within the town of McDermitt where apparent mine waste has been used as fill, and areas of the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Reservation (the Reservation) where apparent mine waste has also been used as fill”.
The Opalite mercury mine is also a hazardous materials site, very likely still producing pollution, as the piles of waste material erode in the wind or water. Jindalee lithium claims and existing and proposed exploration activity are immediately contiguous with this site. Aurora and FMS claims are also in the vicinity. See also an Oregon DEQ blog post:
“Massive hills of pinkish red rock stand along a lonely dirt road in far southeastern Oregon, near the Nevada border. They’re beautiful, reminiscent of Oregon’s treasured Painted Hills.[But there’s one big difference: these rocks are toxic. The hills are not actually hills at all—they’re piles of mercury mining waste from the old Opalite Mine, one of four historic mercury mines in the area that left piles of the contaminated material, called calcine, after they stopped operating. The waste piles contain the heavy metals arsenic, mercury and antimony. Dust from the rocks is hazardous if inhaled”.
Despite remediation of various types having taken place, agencies (EPA and DEQ) did not remove or cover eroding mercury mine material heaps at the Opalite mine. They remain perched above Mine Creek, with dust being deposited on surrounding vegetation or nearby water. These piles are still sitting there – eroding with each breeze, dust settling on to vegetation or blowing into or eroding down into streams.
Another old mercury mine, the Bretz mine, is located to the east, adjacent to the Aurora claims area. There are large bulldozer gashes on ridge slopes above. Old mining and waste materials remain at the site. On the recent Jindalee Oregon RAC site visit, the grazing permittee referred to this site, and said mine fencing that was supposed to exclude animals was down. There also have been water pollution concerns associated with this site near the Cottonwood Creek drainage network. There are some small old uranium mine sites in the Caldera. For example, the Moonlight uranium mine in the western Montana Mountains.
The Cordero mine, where tribal members relatives worked and were exposed to toxics, is on the west side of the Quinn Valley. There is also concern about the level of toxic minerals dispersed in Caldera soil and mine-excavated dust. The fact that Oregon Energy/Aurora has staked both lithium and uranium claims highlights that there may be significant inclusions of uranium and other hazardous or radioactive minerals in soils disturbed by Jindalee, certainly at the Aurora site, or by exploration of FMS claims, or Lithium Nevada claims up in the Montana Mountains region. Exploration and mining activity may release soil toxics into the air and water via dust or runoff. Further, future processing of lithium and/or uranium material may also release contaminants to an unknown degree.
Reports on mineral composition at Thacker Pass show various background levels of hazardous minerals dispersed in samples, and potential leaching material. Toxic material may be inhaled in dust by humans and animals, ingested by animals that consume plants (Sage-grouse, Pygmy Rabbits, Pronghorn, Mule Deer), or by people that harvest plants or animals. Again, the sagebrush uplands and the clay soils contain an abundance of indigenous food and medicinal plants.
The region also faces potential extensive dust and mine processing emission pollutant exposure and “fall out”, with significant air quality degradation concerns due to the lithium processing facility planned for the Thacker Pass mine site. The Lithium Nevada Thacker Pass emissions control scrubber design was not even finalized at the time the mine decision was issued by Winnemucca BLM. NDEP has never not permitted a mine. Processing lithium and/or uranium would threaten the townsite, Fort McDermitt Reservation and the broader regional airshed including the Oregon Owyhee Canyonlands country – see earlier discussion of Aurora Energy plans to process uranium and/or lithium down in the valley. Potential radioactive material, mercury, and other pollutants in uranium and/or lithium processing emissions may “fall out”. It is unclear what materials will be in lithium processing emissions. There was no information in the Thacker Pass EIS about potential noxious odors and stench from lithium processing, which uses large amounts of waste sulfur to produce sulfuric acid. The waste sulfur used in lithium processing may be an oil and gas processing byproduct. As with the Man Camp, the BLM EIS never analyzed the impacts of hazardous materials at a railroad off-loading site that was announced (long after the EIS decision). The off-loading facility is to be located by a residential development at Winnemucca in Grass Valley – much to the dismay of area residents.
Mercury emissions would have been generated by a past uranium mining proposal at the Aurora claims block. The potential uranium processing pollution footprint was described by Oregon mining activist Larry Tuttle in Read the Dirt. (Oregon Energy LLC = Aurora now). Tuttle describes production of yellowcake, and huge amounts of water used and a resulting major toxic waste stream.
“Sulfuric acid in the tailings also dissolves and leaches heavy metals – mercury, molybdenum, arsenic, lead, manganese, and cadmium – as well as uranium. (The Aurora site has already been extensively mined for mercury, which pose additional health perils; sulfuric acid easily bonds with and transports mercury to waterways.) Residual uranium elements in the tailings decay and release radon; heavy metals also continue to interact within tailings and other wastes.
For communities as diverse as Moab, Utah, and Jeffrey City, Wyoming (often called yellowcake towns), the effects of uranium mining on public services and resources; ground and surface water; and, air quality are serious and dramatic”.
A Willamette Week article about a past Oregon Energy effort to promote uranium mining in the Caldera discusses the Pandora’s box that is uranium mining, and the toxic mess that past uranium mining in Oregon left near Lakeview.
“Closer to home, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality continues to monitor groundwater contaminated with arsenic, radium, radon and uranium at the White King and Lucky Lass uranium mines 17 miles from Lakeview in Southern Oregon. Those mines closed in he 1960s”.
See also Toxics Lurk in Caldera Soils: There are now other Notice-level drilling schemes moving forward. Oregon Energy LLC and FMS Lithium LLC projects are also being exempted from NEPA under separate 5-acre Notice loopholes, with no public process …. Other companies have also staked areas. Oregon Energy is drilling for a horror-show combo of lithium and uranium, near an old mercury mine (Bretz mine and Aurora site). Jindalee and FMS claims are near the Opalite mine, with its toxic rocks. There sure could be fearsome contaminants in the roiling dust clouds, drainage discharge and emissions from caldera mining. It seems unwise to unleash what’s sealed in old supervolcano deposits at the birthplace of the Yellowstone hotspot. Mercury spoils were hauled to the little town of Mcdermitt and the Fort Mcdermitt Paiute and Shoshone Reservation, used on streets by homes, spreading toxic material far and wide. Taxpayers were later on the hook for “remediation” both in town and at the basin mercury sites. Sadly, there’s no way to remediate the health toll of the prolonged human toxic exposure.
Oregon Energy floated uranium mining at the Aurora site back in 2012. The Oregonian reported:
“Malheur County targeted for gold, uranium mines. Australian-owned Oregon Energy LLC hopes to mine 18 million pounds of yellowcake uranium from the southeastern Oregon high desert …“Oregon Energy’s proposal calls for extracting ore from a mile-long, 600-foot wide, 250-foot deep open pit … 3 miles north of the Oregon-Nevada border. The mine, adjoining the former Bretz Mercury Mine, a contaminated open-pit site from the 1960s … Plans call for the ore to be crushed and mixed with an acid solution in enclosed vats to leach out the uranium … The acid would bond with the uranium and when dry become a sand-like powder called uranium oxide concentrate, or yellowcake. …”
The article quotes environmentalist and mining activist Larry Tuttle, who I learned in writing this had passed away. He predicted Aurora uranium processing would have downwind mercury fallout:
“Tuttle, spokesman for the Portland-based Center for Environmental Equity foresees environmental problems. The likelihood of sulfuric acid being used in processing the ore means it could remain in the mine tailings after milling, he said. The snag is that sulfuric acid tends to continuously leach out heavy metals that occur naturally in waste rock and tailings, contaminating ground water. “Just because you are through with the processing, years later you still have the issue with that interaction,” he said. But probably the biggest environmental hurdle for the Aurora mine would be the release of mercury, Tuttle said. “The whole Owyhee Reservoir has been affected by naturally occurring background mercury,” and uranium mining could release more…”.
Owyhee Reservoir provides irrigation water for 1800 farms across >100,000 acres in Oregon and Idaho.
More About Larry Tuttle’s Work
Willamette Week’s A Glowing Opportunity on Oregon Energy’s Aurora uranium plans quoted Tuttle: “I can’t think of a clearer example of what’s wrong with federal mining law,” says Larry Tuttle, director of the Center for Environmental Equity. “No one was talking about nuclear weapons in 1872 when the law was passed”.
There was also a late 1970s proposal to mine uranium at the Aurora claims area that failed. Cultural inventories at that time found significant cultural materials in the surrounding lands.
Efforts to Deal with Mining Toxics Already Present in the Region
An EPA source describes the legacy of pollution and harmful minerals and/or potential contamination in Caldera area soils and efforts at remediation is:
“The McDermitt and Cordero Mercury Mine sites consist of several non-contiguous locations: the McDermitt Mine, the Cordero Mine, areas within the town of McDermitt where apparent mine waste has been used as fill, and areas of the Fort McDermitt Pauite Shoshone Reservation (the Reservation) where apparent mine waste has also been used as fill.
The EPA Site Assessment program conducted a Site Inspection in 1988 which recommended no further action. Upon request from the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe, EPA Emergency Response conducted an additional site visit in November 2009. At that time, EPA was notified of the possibility that mine waste had been used as fill at locations within the town of McDermitt and on the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Reservation”.
EPA then details a whole series of hazardous materials removal projects. In September and October of 2010, EPA conducted sampling of areas of red-colored fill located in the town of McDermitt and on the Reservation. The town of McDermitt straddles the Nevada/Oregon border and numerous areas were identified which contained mercury and arsenic in soil at concentrations which exceeded the EPA Region 9 residential Soil Remediation Goals (SRGs). Two areas were identified on the Reservation which contained mercury and arsenic in soil at concentrations which exceeded the residential SRGs.
On October 16, 2012, EPA signed an Action Memorandum describing removal activities to be performed. EPA also issued Unilateral Order to both Sunoco and Barrick Gold requiring these companies to participate in the cleanup process. To date, both companies have declined to participate in work under these Orders.
From April 15-May 23, 2013, EPA conducted a removal action at this site. The following work was performed. Residential Properties: In total 56 residential properties (54 in town and 2 at the Reservation) were addressed. This work consisted of removing calcine material, placing clean backfill material and compacting. At a few larger properties, calcine material was not removed, but rather a cover of clean material was placed over top. To the best of EPA’s knowledge, all residential properties (within the town of McDermitt and at the Reservation) with calcine material were addressed. McDermitt Combined School. Cover material was placed over the east side of the football field, the large parking area adjacent to the football field, and the areas surrounding the playground.
Roadways. A total of 40,410 sq ft of mine waste was capped in place at two unpaved roads located just east of Buckskin and Reeves Roads in the town of McDermitt. This work was performed in conjunction with the McDermitt GID. Additionally, EPA provided backfill material to Malheur County, Oregon in order to cap 25,270 sq ft of mine waste at one unpaved road, identified as Margarita Road and located west of US 95. At the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation, 25,586 sq ft of mine waste was capped in place at one unpaved access road leading to the Tribal transfer station.
Repository at Cordero Mine Calcines Pile. A total of approximately 10,000 tons of calcine material excavated from the town of McDermtt and the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Indian Reservation were placed at the repository.
Known townsite and Reservation toxic contaminated soil has been hauled off to the Cordero calcine pile on the edge of the Caldera on the west side of the valley. The previously discussed PLAN (Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada) site visit report contains photos
of conditions found at the Cordero site in 2021. Further, EPA left some larger areas of “red dirt” in situ and covered it in place. The 2023 wet winter and spring resulted in water pooling in many areas, and this raises concern about the EPA strategy of leaving material at larger sites in place.
Toxic Legacy Weighs on Community
At meetings, Fort McDermitt Tribal members speak of family members who worked at the mercury mines and became sickened with cancer and other diseases. The community also faces problems with drinking water. KUNR reports in “Northern Nevada lithium mine draws native resistance from across the West”:
“Lewey Sam opposes the project because he says past mining in the area has left a toxic legacy.
“I’ve witnessed this,” he said. “We had a mercury mine, and right today, people are dying of cancer.”
Sam is an elder from the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation, which lies 50 miles east of Thacker Pass. He wants to see the area preserved because Thacker Pass is a sacred site for the Paiute people, whose ancestors have been in the Great Basin for more than 12,000 years. Tribal members still go there to collect food and medicine”.
Oregon DEQ Documents on the Bretz mine, prior to remediation efforts, state:
“results also indicate that on-site contaminants have migrated off site and may be impacting downgradient surface water, sediment, and fish. Of particular note are the high concentrations of total mercury in the ore processing area and the AMD/ARD conditions observed in the Blue Pond and Cottonwood Creek (location BRCC01), which may be influenced by potentially impacted groundwater and/or surface water migrating from the West Area Workings/Blue Pond area”.
See also: Bretz and various Opalite mercury mine documents. Again, the Opalite waste rock/calcine piles still are present, soil eroding, and not far from the West Fork of Mine Creek.
A 2020 EPA Opalite Mine Action Memo p. 3 describes past sampling of stream macroinvertebrate communities found mine contamination impacts in Mine, Hot, and McDermitt Creeks. The Opalite site is contiguous with the Jindalee and FMS claims (now controlled by Aurora) claims areas. Note that Aurora now may control claims BLM has mapped as FMS claims.
Gate at Bretz mine and BLM mine hazard sign. Aurora Energy lithium and uranium claims are all around.
Oregon Energy LLC/Aurora 2022 late fall/winter lithium/uranium exploration site in spring 2023. Public Records Request documents show Aurora was allowed by agencies (DOGAMI, BLM) to extend some drilling into the winter wildlife closure period.
BLM Authorized New Jindalee Water Well for Next Stage of Drilling – without any NEPA Analysis and Absent Baseline Study
Vale BLM authorized a new Jindalee “temporary” water well to provide water for the next stage of massive exploration under the old Notice and amendments. This was ok’d many months before the NEPA process analyzing Jindalee’s mega-exploration proposal was scoped, even though the commitment to the next stage NEPA process had already been made. This further serves to demonstrate the casual manner with which these Sage-grouse stronghold lands, restoration watersheds, and culturally vital lands are currently being treated by BLM — as a sacrifice area to the mining industry where the public is cut out to the maximum extent possible.
The Caldera’s hydrogeology has not been adequately studied to determine impacts of water removal or drilling disturbance to ground and surface water. There not data on the impacts of past drilling. Yet Vale BLM authorized the new water well for use in the massive new exploration project without any NEPA analysis whatsoever.
The Water Right project is Oregon LL-1941. The Jindalee Hi-Tech Water Right application shows potential use levels of 41,250 gallons/day, 34.69 acre ft/yr. = 15,056,250 gallons/yr. – for the proposed new exploration road work and mine drilling uses. An enormous amount of water would likely be used on dust suppression. There are no adequate studies of the Oregon groundwater situation, and uncertainty about aquifer and groundwater conditions and declines in this bi-state groundwater aquifer. Information associated with this new temporary water well piecemealed in by BLM without NEPA, and with no groundwater studies, can be found here.
The Oregon Water Resource Department (OWRD) Groundwater Application form Well Memo identifies foreseeable impairment of limited groundwater with lithium development:
“Increasing development interest due to the presence of lithium resources in the area has the potential to impair the limited groundwater resource if not approached with caution”. P. 7.
“The proposed POA lies within the Owyhee administrative basin, but within the physical Quinn River Basin where surface water (and presumably groundwater) migrates southward into Nevada”. “Presumably” indicates uncertainty, and the lack of necessary baseline studies.
The “Oregon DEQ Division 33 Review” of the Jindalee Well Permit application shows that a TMDL for the McDermitt Creek watershed may already be needed. It’s uncertain how thoroughly sedimentation has been examined across affected watersheds. There are significant problems with water temperature in some streams.
Now lithium and uranium mining exploration and development threaten increased sediment, toxic mineral pollution, elevated water temperatures, flow changes, and other impairment from destabilization of watersheds.
There may be sedimentation problems in many streams in this watershed. The streams in the Basin are down-cut, often have steep-inside erodible loose clay soil banks, and the soils are prone to erosion in water runoff events, including summer thunderstorm events.
Mine Creek downcut bank of highly erodible soils surrounded by uplands the Jindalee mega-exploration project will tear up.
Two streams are listed as impaired, but others have similar characteristics. The impaired streams are Cherokee Creek from Headwaters to McDermitt Creek confluence, and McDermitt Creek from Cherokee Creek to Nevada. The impaired water quality parameter is temperature. The designated stream beneficial uses are for fish and aquatic life. The agency conclusion is that despite at least one designated beneficial use not being supported, a TMDL was not warranted. See Jindalee well application p. 3. We are uncertain how many streams besides Cherokee Creek and McDermitt Creek have been assessed for water quality impairment. Regarding the temperature exceedances:
“Cherokee Creek does not meet Oregon’s stream temperature standards. Oregon’s stream temperature standards are based on the life cycle needs of salmonids and other resident fish and aquatic life. Water temperatures are influenced by solar radiation, stream shade, ambient air temperatures, channel morphology, groundwater inflows, and stream velocity, volume, and flow. Surface water temperatures may also be warmed by anthropogenic activities such as discharging heated water, changing stream width or depth, reducing stream shading, and water withdrawals. Stream temperatures that exceed the standards can disrupt the life cycle of a sensitive, threatened, or endangered fish species and may even cause death. In waterbodies where temperatures exceed standards, additional summertime water withdrawals will reduce the stream’s heat capacity and cause greater fluctuation in daytime and nighttime stream temperatures. This will result in the diminution of habitat of sensitive, threatened, or endangered fish species”.
The McDermitt Creek watershed is the only place Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, Lahontan Redside Shiner and Tahoe Sucker can be found in Oregon. ODFW Jindalee well permit Review p. 4.The latter two species are Oregon state sensitive fish, and relicts of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan.
Although ODFW’s comments acknowledged that “the proposed project may impair or be detrimental to the public interest through impairment of a wetland providing fish habitat”, the Jindalee well was approved anyway.
There was no baseline from before the existing 60+ bore holes drilled, some in proximity to Payne Creek, although Jindalee stated nearly all had past bore holes reached groundwater. NDOW and DEQ cite Oregon regulations that are supposed to prevent degradation. There is no mention of the very erodible soils in the clay ridges right above these streams, nor of the sloughing off of down-cut streambanks that will generate copious sediment if disturbed by Jindalee roading and runoff associated with the major new road network proposed to be punched in, which new well water will be used for. Stream systems will be suffering significant disturbance from the direct, indirect and cumulative degradation impacts of well water use and water hauling to facilitate construction of 30 miles of new roads and 267 drill pads amid McDermitt Creek tributary stream systems and Sage-grouse Focal habitat.
The Jindalee water right will facilitate impairment of, and harm to, public lands recreational, aesthetic, subsistence and other uses. It will be used to bring about destruction of mature and old growth sagebrush within a Sage-grouse stronghold high in biodiversity, destruction of rare plant habitats, and many other harms from mining exploration that ultimately may lead to an enormous open pit strip mine. This pit strip mine would be built within the highest quality Sage-grouse habitat, and within the Montana Mountains “restoration” landscape encompassing the Caldera that was just selected by the Interior Department for sagebrush habitat and watershed restoration.
The proposed Jindalee exploration project and foreseeable future open pit strip mining project is also immediately adjacent to lands purchased by the Western Rivers Conservancy for conservation purposes, where the state of Oregon through ODFW is supposed to play a part in management. The exploration this water would be used for is contiguous with BLM WSAs proposed for Wilderness designation in legislation before Congress, and LWC areas. It also occurs in a watershed with streams included in proposed Oregon wild river legislation.
River Democracy Act streams.
Some upstream (#18) and downstream (#17) segments of McDermitt Creek mainstem stream and Indian Creek (segments #12 and #13) ) very near the proposed drilling project area – with lithium and uranium claims all around portions of Indian Creek have been proposed for WSR status in Senator Wyden and Merkley’s River Democracy Act – see above map excerpt. Oregon River Democracy Act maps are here.
There are also toxic and dangerous minerals including mercury and uranium in Caldera soils that would be drastically disturbed by mining activity that would rely on well water use.
These are exceptional circumstances. While mining may be a use for which Oregon water rights are granted, the rights must be in the public interest. The enormity of the Jindalee exploration project disturbance and its foreseeable environmental degradation of Sage-grouse stronghold habitat and other high biodiversity values – with 30 miles of new roads ripping open watershed areas long identified for conservation and preservation protection – and not for large-scale destruction and fragmentation exposing soils to large-scale erosion and irreversible flammable weed infestation and spread.
Environmental concerns are heightened by lax agency controls and oversight of the existing Jindalee-Hi-Tech exploration and drilling disturbance in this watershed. See attached WLD letter of July 2023 to BLM Manager Blustain, and several others.
Jindalee Water Right Groundwater Application Review Forms Serve as Example of Disconnect in Management of Caldera Resources Between Two States
The OWRD and DEQ water right review documents do not consider the status of groundwater in the Quinn Basin and the very significant groundwater over-appropriation in Nevada, nor potential foreseeable expanded mining harmful impacts on the regional aquifer. The Thacker Pass lithium mine is drilling deep new wells that will tap into the aquifer. The Nevada Lithium lithium mine water rights were challenged in Nevada by Bartell Ranches in a state process separate from the federal court litigation, due to fears of impacts of lithium mine Quin Basin groundwater depletion.
There has been no regional hydrological study of the bi-state area. There has not been current baseline data and careful evaluation of the ground water characteristics, and the impacts and conflicts associated with the use of this water – such as promised Interior Department Sage-grouse and LCT habitat restoration proposals.
The Vale BLM 2023 SEORMP proposed RMP amendment FEIS p. 287 states:
“The potential effects of temperature and precipitation changes resulting from climate change on future water availability in the planning area are expected to result in increasing average temperatures and duration of drought. The Oregon Climate Change Research Institute (Dalton et al. 2018) indicates, “Soil hydrophobicity (repelling rather than absorption of water by soil) also is likely to increase after a wildfire, resulting in less infiltration and more direct runoff. Changes in hydrophobicity depend on burn severity and vegetation composition, but overall reduce the lag from snowmelt to streamflow, increase overland flow, and increase peak streamflow. These changes are likely to increase erosion and contribute to earlier drying of soils and vegetation and reductions in late-season flows. As a result, water shortages in the dry season, and differences in seasonal flows in many parts of Oregon, may be exacerbated.” Soil-moisture is expected to decline in this scenario, reducing both water availability for plant growth and infiltration into subsurface and ground water storage. These impacts are also expected to result in indirect effects to other resources like water, where average stream temperatures and decrease stream flow are likely, resulting in negative impacts to aquatic resources and increases in invasive aquatic species. Decreases in available subsurface flows and soil moisture may result in reduced riparian area extent and size, further impacting stream temperature. Wetlands are sensitive to warming temperatures and altered hydrological patterns, such as changes in precipitation seasonality and reduction of snowpack (Dalton et al. 2018)”.
This highlights water sustainability concerns raised by the public, local residents and water rights holders, about the combined impacts of lithium and/or uranium or other mineral exploitation across the Caldera – in lands Vale BLM itself now admits face significant climate threats – reduced water flows, and threats to vegetation recovery and native biota. The same Vale office that wrote the above in the proposed RMP amendment rubber-stamped the Jindalee water well with no public comment, no hydrological studies and no NEPA process.
New BLM Conservation Initiatives and ACEC Guidance Support Caldera Designation and Interior Department Mineral Withdrawal
BLM has several conservation initiatives underway that are relevant to protection of public lands from mining the boom environmental and cultural crisis unfolding in the Caldera landscape. BLM has also issued new ACEC guidance.
BLM Conservation Initiative – Protection of Intact Landscapes, and Designation of ACECs
A new BLM conservation initiative is described in this 4/3/2023 Federal Register Notice:
Conservation and landscape health. “To support efforts to protect and restore public lands, the proposed rule clarifies that conservation is a use on par with other uses of the public lands under FLPMA’s multiple-use and sustained-yield framework … the proposed rule would amend the existing ACEC regulations to better ensure that the BLM is meeting FLPMA’s command to give priority to the designation and protection of ACECs. The proposed regulatory changes would emphasize ACECs as the principal designation for protecting important natural, cultural, and scenic resources, and establish a more comprehensive framework for the BLM to identify, evaluate, and consider special management attention for ACECs in land use planning. The proposed rule emphasizes the role of ACECs in contributing to ecosystem resilience by providing for ACEC designation to protect landscape intactness and habitat connectivity”.
As described by Cal Wild, the proposed rule enables the identification and protection of intact landscapes. The Caldera landscape is right now a largely intact landscape greatly threatened by lithium and uranium mine degradation, destruction and permanent loss. These lands certainly qualify for protection. They are the “best of the best”, an identified Sage-grouse stronghold and habitat restoration area, and one of the few remaining relatively intact sagebrush landscapes in the West. The Caldera is key connectivity and linkage habitat between the tri-state Owyhee to the east and Hart-Sheldon to the west for Sage-grouse, Pygmy Rabbit and other wildlife populations. Federal agencies identified the Oregon Great Basin lands as high value sagebrush species preservation habitat 25 years ago in ICBEMP ecoregional assessment scientific reports and analyses. NDOW documents have long highlighted the area’s wildlife prominence.
Nearly all the Caldera lands were identified by the USFWS COT report in 2013 as stronghold Sage-grouse habitat, and in 2015 this was reinforced with the ARMPA Focal Habitat designation, and then in 2023 by BLM identification of the Caldera as part of the Montana Mountains restoration habitat unit.
Several recent federal initiatives emphasize Tribal involvement and protection of cultural values on public lands. The events of the past several years in relation to Thacker Pass lithium mining demonstrate the importance of this landscape to many Great Basin Tribes, reported to be 22 Tribes. See federal court filings by Tribes in litigation over Thacker Pass, and Mighty Earth GM Wants ‘Everybody In’ on Greenwashing, information many media articles reporting on statements by tribal members and elders.
The Biden Administration 30X30 initiative and executive order to address the climate crisis, and the Conserving America the Beautiful report, are relevant to the Caldera mining threat emergency. As described by NRDC:
“This initiative seeks to reverse the negative impacts of biodiversity decline and climate change by protecting more natural areas, and to increase access to nature for communities that lack it. Upon his announcement, President Biden directed his administration to create a report that outlines how 30×30 will support the efforts of people across the country to achieve the nation’s habitat conservation goals”.
Caldera ACEC and Mineral Withdrawal actions would support the Proposed Conservation Rule and Initiative key components including:
- Conserving lands and water for the benefit of all people. The Quinn aquifer is already over-allocated – with 90,000 acre/ft. groundwater allocated each year but only 60,000 acre ft. estimated inflow. Numerous Montana Mountains springs are already going dry under existing degradation and exploitation levels and climate stress, as described in the King’s River Pyrg petition. The Thacker Pass Public Scoping Report shows public concern that previous exploratory drilling there caused springs to dry up by drilling boreholes too close to springs. Hard rock mining both uses huge amounts of water and also excavates deep open pits that draw down and permanently wreck water tables and dry up springs in their surroundings – water crucial for biodiversity preservation, Sage-grouse broods and other wildlife. The Paiute consider springs to be sacred.
- Support for voluntary stewardship efforts of private parties. The Western Rivers Conservancy acquisition of the Disaster Peak Ranch for watershed-wide Lahontan Cutthroat Trout habitat restoration and wildlife represents a significant private investment – an effort that development of massive lithium and/or uranium mega-mines would wreck.
- Use science as a guide. Ecological science including federal ICBEMP assessments and NDOW documents for over 25 years show the tremendous biodiversity and wild lands natural value of the habitats targeted for mining boom destruction for terrestrial and aquatic species preservation. Experts also believe the Caldera’s unique location and characteristics can provide important archaeological information and insights on human adaptations to previous climate stress and harsh extremes in the Great Basin region.
- Improving access. Mega-mines restrict or hinder access to public lands – for example the Thacker Pass mine site public lands are posted with No Trespassing signs and are off-limits to the public for the next 45 years. Aggressive Lithium Nevada mine security personnel have accosted the public even on public access routes. Fite, personal experience while attempting to drive on Pole Creek access route.
Hooded Lithium Nevada security guard hindering public access on the Pole Creek public access road to the Montana Mountains, June 2023.
By putting ACEC, Mineral Withdrawal and any other necessary protections in place, the future of the landscape could shift to sustainability, and be based on restoration work expanding sagebrush and sustainable clean water flows, and actions to buffer climate change stress. Local jobs could focus on actual restoration, resilience and cultural protection, wildlife population preservation and wild lands values – instead of hard rock mining’s disturbance, degradation, destruction and pollution footprint and cultural loss. Imagine what a $650 million dollar, or billion dollar, federal funding infusion could do for community-based sustainability, biodiversity conservation and buffering climate change stress by protecting the lands’ ability to absorb CO2 and moderate temperatures. Compare that to the toxic polluted landscape the community and region faces with lithium and uranium mining.
BLM’s 2022 Habitat Connectivity IM Highlights how Important the Caldera Landscape Is
A recent BLM 2022 Instruction Memo, Habitat Connectivity on Public Lands IM-2023-005, describes:
“The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), as amended, includes a congressional declaration of policy that “the public lands be managed in a manner that will …provide food and habitat for fish and wildlife…” (Section 102(a)(8)). FLPMA also identifies “fish and wildlife development and utilization” as one of the six “principal or major uses” of the public lands (Section 103(l)), and “wildlife and fish” as one of the resources expressly included in the definition of “multiple use” (Section 103(c)). Existing BLM policy directs the BLM “to manage habitat with emphasis on ecosystems to ensure self-sustaining populations and a natural abundance and diversity of wildlife, fish, and plant resources on the public lands” (BLM Manual Section (MS) 6500, rel. 6-114 (Wildlife and Fisheries Management) Section .06 Policy). This IM builds on that policy by directing BLM state offices to explicitly consider habitat connectivity, permeability, and resilience as a means to ensuring those self-sustaining populations.
Management of habitats for wildlife, fish, and plant species, in consultation and collaboration with states and Tribes, is a core part of the BLM’s long- standing agency practice. However, the management of the connections between and within priority habitats (for both migratory and non-migratory species) has, in some cases, received less attention and, with increasing habitat fragmentation and degradation, maintaining habitat integrity and connectivity has become a significant need”.
“BLM recognizes the state and Tribal authority and expertise over fish and wildlife management, seeking here to do its part to by ensuring that fish and wildlife have intact, connected habitat on our public lands”.
The IM recognizes connectivity as part of BLM’s mission. Its significance is described on the “Conservation Corridor” website:
“Perhaps the most significant element of the memo is that it establishes that conserving and restoring habitat connectivity is central to the BLM’s “multiple use and sustained yield” mandate set out in the Federal Land Planning and Management Act of 1973 (FLPMA). The memo states that conserving habitat connectivity is essential for ensuring self-sustaining populations of wildlife species, which are one of the six principal multiple uses of federal public lands under FLPMA. Linking habitat connectivity to the BLM’s overarching mission elevates it as a priority for planning and proactive management”.
These are identified as: “habitats on BLM-administered public lands that support or facilitate priority species movements and other ecological processes, such as seed dispersal, migrations, and stopover sites.”
Also: “The policy also opens the door for officially protecting the identified areas of habitat connectivity under a broader land conservation designation. Shortly after issuing the habitat connectivity memo, the BLM issued IM 2023-013, which encourages BLM state offices to consider habitat connectivity when evaluating whether to designate an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). Thus, federal, state, tribal, and non-governmental stakeholders could point to areas of habitat connectivity as justification for establishing an ACEC to facilitate fish and wildlife movement and migration, an objective the agency has now explicitly acknowledged is an important element of their mission”.
Mule Deer moving through the Jindalee claims block area in spring 2023.
Hard rock mining activity is tight now destroying connectivity between species seasonal ranges essential for survival – through outright destruction of habitat, intensive heavy equipment operation and other human disturbance and new fence obstacles of all kinds -including extensive chain link fencing right now being built all over the Thacker Pass mine site – severing the pass connection between the Kings River and Quinn River valleys.
McDermitt Creek access roading and claims development would restrict big game and Sage-grouse use of seasonal ranges and impede animal movement – including movement from the Caldera up onto or down from the higher elevation Oregon Canyon Mountains region, in what was likely a prehistoric big game movement pathway too.
Additional Background Information on Caldera Landscape Relevant and Important Values – and Need for Expedited/Emergency ACEC Review, Withdrawal, and other Protective Actions
The relevance and importance of all remaining sagebrush habitat in the Caldera was elevated even more by the 2012 Holloway and Long Draw wildfires, and then by the ensuing often failed and/or flawed agency post-fire rehab efforts. Now in 2023, the Thacker Pass lithium mine is being bulldozed into a Pronghorn migration pathway, and Sage-grouse Priority habitat. Focal habitat is under grave threat of both lithium and uranium mining activity, as shown on the ONDA Claims Map.
Just to the south of the Thacker Pass mine site, sagebrush habitat has been almost entirely eliminated in the Double H Mountains where Sage-grouse leks have already blinked out due to a series of fires and flawed BLM rehab actions including extensive seeding use of exotic species. The Sage-grouse range is shrinking and habitat becoming more perforated. There are large naturally occurring lower elevation salt desert shrub gaps in Sage-grouse habitat to the south. Now the Thacker Pass mine is destroying the last remaining low elevation south-facing Sage-grouse winter habitat in this region of the Caldera landscape. See Declaration of Terry Crawforth, past Director of the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW). The Montana Mountains have long been known as a premier area for Sage-grouse in Nevada, and home to a productive high-density population of Sage-grouse. Thacker Pass mining threatens not only the lower elevation winter habitat, its noise and disturbance footprint extends up to the bellwether Montana-10 lek in the mountains, and foreseeably other leks as well.
Thacker Pass open pit mining and groundwater use threatens springs in proximity in the Montana Mountains, including Sage-grouse brood rearing springs required for summer brood rearing and survival. Mining development or exploration drilling of the huge bands of claims held by Lithium America and others, as shown on the ONDA Claims Map threatens life-giving water here with water loss and desiccation, and the endemic Kings River Pyrg faces potential extinction from Thacker Pass aquifer drawdown impacts.
Vale BLM allowed Jindalee to pursue a water right under the umbrella of the old 2018 amended Notice (under which BLM allowed Jindalee to disturb and destroy sagebrush over significantly more than 5 acres of land – as a result of questionable “reclamation” results that BLM has claimed met standards. See attached WLD letters to OWRD and to BLM submitted with comments on Jindalee water right of July 2023, and other WLD letters to BLM on Jindalee soil and habitat disturbance and poor reclamation actions, and significant continuing and expanding erosion and degradation. Jindalee thus obtained a NEPA-less “temporary” water right for water that would be used in the next stage of Jindalee exploration, shoehorning the well in under the old 5-acre Notice-level activity.
Outstanding and Unique Geological Values
The keyhole shaped Caldera itself is an extraordinary and unique geological feature. It represents the origin and initiation of the Yellowstone hotspot track 16+ million years ago. An extinct super-volcano, it extends approximately 45 kilometers long and 35 kilometers wide. See Map at Nevada Bureau of Mines site. The hotspot led to the formation of a sequence of calderas. Henry et al. 2017 describe its geologic features, and it:
“… illustrates many aspects of caldera development, including abundant pre-caldera magmatism, voluminous caldera-forming eruption, a complex ring-fracture fault system, and post-collapse magmatism and resurgence”.
Its unique properties had been the subject of numerous geological studies, for example Greene 1976, Rytuba 1976, and Glanzman and Rytuba 1979. The latter contains dozens of references to lithium long before the recent mining boom gripped the region. There was past 1977 drilling by Chevron in the Montana Mountains, as exploration for uranium where lithium was detected. See also USGS 2016 Yearbook. Lithium deposits in the Caldera had been known for many years, and so has the uranium deposit in the Oregon Mcdermitt Creek watershed. Now with the lithium boom, each new neocolonialist miner that shows up tries to claim they have come across some immense new discovery, and that permanently ripping open the earth, destroying the best of the best Sage-grouse habitat, and depleting and polluting precious high desert waters, will be a great and good act that will somehow save the world from climate change.
It’s theorized that the hot spot warmed a magma chamber causing an eruption ejecting 1000 times more magma than Mount St. Helen’s.
Doebrich 1996, map figure 11 illustrates the dramatic drop-off from the western Montana Mountains down into the Kings River Valley by the northern extent of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan. This is a highly scenic area with great vistas of other Great Basin “sky island” ranges.
A significant amount of recreational rockhounding activity takes place in the Oregon Caldera, with people traveling from long distances to seek opal, agate, jasper, petrified wood and fossils, and to sightsee.
The unique geological features are now on the verge of being permanently destroyed – an area of public lands unique in the world would be permanently torn apart and gutted for fleeting human exploitation. The CBD Lithium Tracker website shows lithium claims and projects are popping up at breakneck speed across Nevada and the West.
Further, alternative battery materials are already being developed – sodium ion and aluminum-air batteries that would be cheaper and safer than lithium-ion batteries. Exploitation of the minerals here will itself have a large greenhouse gas footprint, harm the aquifer, and the lithium will likely be used in GM’s over-sized trucks and luxury or War vehicles.
ACEC designation and federal Mineral Withdrawal action are critical to prevent the permanent destruction and obliteration of these unique geological values for fleeting gain, causing permanent immense biodiversity, cultural, archaeological, wild lands, watershed and unique geological site loss or destruction.
There are lithium claims proliferating all over the West. Recently a project in Wyoming was announced with lithium claims in a new type of clay deposit – pegmatite. Alternatives to lithium batteries are already being researched and developed (sodium-ion and aluminum technologies, for example), and the mining boom may rapidly subside – as they all have – leaving only a wrecked, dried out, poisoned environment in its wake.
The map above was contained in Thacker Pass litigation filings on locatable mineral presence. It shows much lower concentrations of lithium in the Oregon Jindalee, Aurora, FMS claims block areas. Higher concentrations up in the Montana Mountains are located where Lithium Nevada repeatedly told the public it would not mine because of the great value for Sage-grouse and other wildlife.
This lower grade lithium in the McDermitt Creek region provides further support for ACEC designation and Mineral Withdrawal – lest areas be destroyed irreparably by speculators, or projects get half-way done and then fail, and the land and sacred places be ruined forever.
New bulldozed area with sagebrush and all habitat destroyed at Thacker Pass. This used to be a Pronghorn movement corridor, hard winter habitat for Sage-grouse, and home to Burrowing Owls, Long-Billed Curlew and other wildlife. August 2023.
Further Evidence Supporting Caldera ACEC Designation Under BLM Criteria
The Caldera’s outstanding Relevant and Important Sage-grouse stronghold and other regional, state and nationally (or globally) significant biological and biodiversity values for terrestrial and aquatic species have already been explained in detail.
Importance Criteria may include: The value, resource, system, process, or hazard described above must have substantial significance and values in order to satisfy the “importance” criteria. This generally means that the value, resource, system, process, or hazard is characterized by one or more of the following: Has more than locally significant qualities which give it special worth, consequence, meaning, distinctiveness, or cause for concern, especially compared to any similar resource.
All of the threatened values (cultural sites, threatened and sensitive plant and animal species from Sage-grouse to Pygmy Rabbit), the uniqueness of the natural Caldera landscape as the origin of the Yellowstone hotspot, the unique McDermitt Creek basin, the key geographic location that serves as critical linkage habitat between the Sheldon-Hart Sage-grouse populations and Owyhee populations – all have far greater than local importance. Protection of all remaining sagebrush is even more vital in the aftermath of the Holloway, Long Draw and other fires. The importance of preserving this landscape was all laid out in federal and state agency documents and scientific papers spanning 25+ years.
As we have described, significant pollutants and hazards may be present both in association with old mines, as well as in the earth that may be disturbed in mining activities, or erode in wind and water, or would be deposited in dust or from processing in the course of lithium, uranium or other mining activities.
Any mine in the McDermitt Basin, in the Montana Mountains if Lithium Nevada goes back on its word and tries to pursue lithium claims development up there, or if the Nevada Jordan Meadows FMS claims region is developed, would require powerline proliferation, and major access road upgrades, with a tremendously harmful construction and operational footprint resulting in major adverse impacts to habitats for rare terrestrial and aquatic species. Noise, visual disturbance, erosion and pollution would emanate outward. Mega-mine roading alone would have a substantial noise and visual disturbance footprint, as well as a direct wildlife mortality footprint. See for example, this recent article summarizing “Wildlife and the Inescapable Impact of Road Noise”, High Country News 9/1/2023.
“The essential insight of road ecology is this: Roads warp the earth in every way and at every scale, from the polluted soils that line their shoulders to the skies they besmog. They taint rivers, invite poachers, tweak genes. They manipulate life’s fundamental processes: pollination, scavenging, sex, death”.
As the soil erosion, sagebrush habitat destruction and fragmentation, and other impacts of the Jindalee Notice level exploration disturbance have already shown, sufficient regulatory measures to protect the environmental values of public lands are greatly lacking at federal and state levels.
Many irreplaceable Caldera values also have highly vulnerable qualities. Fragile sagebrush community recovery from disturbance is very slow, or impossible if flammable or other weeds invade. These lands are facing an unprecedented mining boom and have very fragile attributes or characteristics. Sage-grouse stronghold habitat areas and rare plant communities are highly vulnerable to cheatgrass takeover, small populations of Pygmy Rabbit and White-tailed Jackrabbit are vulnerable to extirpation, and a host of other species and features are all vulnerable to adverse change.
Cultural locales, sacred places, traditional foods, a landscape vital to understanding human adaptation to climate stress – are on the verge of being piecemealed away. This is also the site of events important to American history in the Snake War of extermination which have long been swept under the rug. The areas targeted for the most severe Jindalee drilling disturbance are a hotbed of plant community diversity, have great biological soil crusts and are exceptionally free from cheatgrass.
Exemplary Caldera qualities, as described herein, include stronghold habitat for wildlife and other sensitive terrestrial and aquatic species habitats, and agency-identified sagebrush and stream system restoration watersheds where significant public funds have already been spent and where private lands were purchased specifically for species conservation (including ODFW funds using Ruby gas pipeline mitigation dollars), unique cultural sites and high densities of geophytes and other traditional use plants, a unique geological landscape where the Yellowstone hotspot originated, and beautiful biodiverse WSA and LWC lands with many BLM-recognized outstanding values, and untrammeled scenic viewsheds. This landscape still has dark night skies and is serene quiet open space. This landscape has been recognized as vital for sagebrush species preservation for over 25 years – including in the federal agency ICBEMP ecoregional assessment process and scientific reports upon which BLM was supposed to rely in conducting science-based management.
This is a prize Western landscape previously considered secure from large-scale human disturbance and development – identified 10 years ago to be in need of a Mineral Withdrawal. Yet now the sudden mining boom, as recognized by USFWS in the 2013 COT Report as being a “non-imminent” threat, poses a grave and imminent threat of massive mining degradation and permanent loss of crucial Sage-grouse Focal habitat. BLM Sage-grouse plans in 2015 recognized this was among “the best of the best” remaining sage landscapes, and determined a Mineral Withdrawal was essential for Sage-grouse survival. This was one of the bases for USFWS determining “adequate regulatory mechanisms” were in place on public lands, and that ESA listing was Not Warranted. The large blocks of sagebrush habitat in this OR-NV borderlands region a provides habitat for a host of sensitive sagebrush species. The mining boom is already causing habitat loss, fragmentation and destruction in a landscape home to an essential and irreplaceable population of Sage-grouse and other sagebrush biota.
Jindalee’s 2023 EPO threatens severe roading and drilling disturbance of clay soil rare plant assemblages -rendering sites highly vulnerable to erosion and weeds; causing watershed disturbance and pollution of LCT streams, expanded cheatgrass/weed infestation s that will ultimately choke rare plant and sensitive species habitats, soil disturbance potentially releasing toxic materials into the air, water, and indigenous food plants, and cultural site desecration and obliteration.
The disturbance that has already taken place, and that is foreseeable, is particularly alarming because BLM itself has identified the Caldera as part of a restoration landscape. How do you “restore” a landscape while tearing it apart with 30 miles of new weed-proliferating roads – or justify huge pit strip mines and mine waste heaps, and drawing down aquifers for hundreds of years and likely permanently destroying the water table?
Retaining this landscape in its intact, natural state aligns with all the current Interior Department initiatives for connectivity and conservation. Tearing apart currently intact blocks of mature big sagebrush habitat is in dead opposition to fulfillment of these initiatives (Corridors, 30×30, Conservation Rule, elevation of ACECs, emphasis on resilient and resistant landscapes). It is also sharply at odds with the Interior Department’s claims of integrating cultural protections and voices.
This is an area of long-hoped-for restoration of mainstem and tributary streams of the McDermitt Creek watershed for Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, to secure the species long-term persistence and survival. Private lands purchased by Western Rivers Conservancy for conservation purposes are now surrounded by Jindalee mine claims. Effective restoration and habitat connectivity would be extremely unlikely or impossible with mine development. Exploration disturbance (Jindalee, Aurora and FMS exploration imminently threaten a series of McDermitt Creek tributary streams.
The values and resources at stake – biological, cultural, wild land ecosystems, a quiet place with clean air, dark skies, perennial flows in springs and streams, connected watershed systems and McDermitt Creek stream networks, survival of Sage-grouse and other sensitive species habitats and populations highly vulnerable to irreversible flammable and other weed infestations in this identified sagebrush stronghold and “anchor” landscape, rare plants and unique clay soil assemblages in a landscape specifically identified for a mineral withdrawal and for restoration for Sage-grouse and LCT, and where there are potential toxic material hazards and significant soil erosion, all require special management to protect (or appropriately manage) the important and relevant values.
As explained herein, current management plans including the Winnemucca RMP and the SEORMP and proposed amendment are not sufficient to protect these Relevant and Important resource values facing unprecedented threats and permanent loss. A dramatic sea change in management is needed.
ACEC designation is also supported because the needed management action is considered unusual or outside of the normal range of management practices typically used. The entire landscape is under great threat of expanding permanent disturbance and loss from an unprecedented mineral boom threat being aggressively hyped by mining companies. There are toxics already present from past mining, and more hazardous minerals and toxics will be released with new mining disturbance. There is a national controversy over McDermitt Caldera mining and what is perceived as an unjust energy transition and that is emblematic of continued racism. There are hundreds of media accounts of this controversy. There is an aggressive and highly unusual Lithium Nevada SLAPP suit that seeks to suppress speech and protest freedoms, including voices of indigenous Protestors whose ancestors were slaughtered by the US government here.
Thacker Pass and the McDermitt Caldera is at the epicenter of the international debate over a just energy transition, social justice, corporate governance, the environmental costs of an energy transition, and efforts at green-washing hard rock mining. Native American massacres took place here and the trauma still haunts the community. The mining boom is now opening the pain back up. Tribes have submitted Traditional Cultural Property evidence. However, it’s recently been reported that BLM never transmitted the documents to the National Park Service, the official custodian of the records:
“… Eben said the BLM never sent that to the National Parks Service – and that could mean the difference between protection and destruction. Property listings under the National Register of Historic Places generally offer no protections, unless “the property is involved in a project that receives Federal assistance, usually funding or licensing/permitting,” per the NPS”.
Did BLM not transmit the Traditional Cultural Property records so that the designation wouldn’t be a speed bump or impediment to Lithium Nevada gaining huge federal loan subsidies – first $650 million, now talk of $1 billion?
The Snake War, the bloodiest of American Indian Wars, is an important and neglected part of American history exposing genocidal settlement and land grab policies. Water is already over-allocated in the Quinn system, and perennial flows are further threatened by mining use, mining pit aquifer drawdown, other existing uses, climate stress and aridification. Oversight and regulation of the Caldera’s borderlands ecosystem is fragmented between two states and two BLM offices. Several agencies in each state also have various oversight duties. There has long been significant concern over pollution of all kinds from lithium and/or uranium mining here.
The change in management is difficult to implement without ACEC designation. There are no adequate existing regulatory controls to address the enormity and complexity of the issues faced, such as the “non-discretionary” nature of the 1872 Mining Law, BLM’s out-dated mining regulations and inadequate state controls and regulations – thus requiring a Mineral Withdrawal- and to address the severe irreparable harm caused by an unfettered mining boom. Two different states are involved in managing these lands but the wildlife populations, stream systems and cultural landscape spans state lines. Both BLM offices have flawed land use plans with allocations for mining and other uses that never took climate change stress, current large-scale declines in biodiversity, and the cultural importance and sensitivity of Caldera lands into account. Sensitive species habitats, vital seasonal use areas, and overall ranges are contracting under climate stress, weeds, wildfires and overall existing levels of human disturbance.
With current Jindalee exploration activity, there are minimal efforts to prevent irreversible soil loss and harm with every new rainstorm event – for example, the soil erosion from the existing drilling damage and minimal deficient “reclamation” that WLD has been pleading with BLM to have Jindalee address. A BLM e-mail of 8/17/2023 from Vale BLM’s Larisa Bogardus, in response to WLD Jindalee drilling erosion impacts photo-documentation states that BLM is rolling existing unreclaimed Jindalee drilling disturbed sites forward into the new EPO round of 267 drill holes, 30 road miles, and 100 acres of all around disturbance. This means that lands torn up for years already by previous drilling could remain inadequately “reclaimed” even under vale BLM’s exceedingly low reclamation bar – for 5 more years. BLM states:
“If the proposed plan of operations for exploration is approved, the previously authorized Notice Level of Operations would be closed, and the associated reclamation obligations and financial guarantee requirements currently in place would be transferred to the approved plan”.
Note that the Notice-level drilling “financial obligations” – which we assume means the bond – are minimal in the context of lithium boom and speculation – so there’s little incentive for the miner to take adequate or protective action. A WLD watershed site visit in September following the Bogardus 8/17/23 found no additional efforts made to address ongoing erosion following rainstorm events. Extreme weather events are expected to increase under climate change stress. What appears to be taking place is the miner plans to use currently eroding road and other areas in the next stage of exploration, so there’s little incentive to go to much trouble or expense “reclaiming” previously disturbed eroding sites now, no matter how many tons of soil wash away, or how much cheatgrass invades.
The Caldera landscape is crucial for biodiversity conservation, as described herein – a Sage-grouse stronghold and linkage habitat between the western Great Basin population Sheldon-Hart areas and the northern Great Basin population of the Owyhee. It’s the only remaining larger stream system for restoration of a Quinn meta-population of Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. Climate stress and aridification from existing levels of grazing, roads, fire and other disturbances are eating away at water sustainability. Caldera waters are part of the Quinn River system, where ground water is already over-allocated.
The McDermitt Creek basin and various areas of the Montana Mountains contain fragile sagebrush communities often with intact biocrusts and few weeds, and limited cheatgrass. The disturbance associated with mining exploration, development, access routes etc. pose a grave risk of irreversible flammable and other weed expansion and ultimate site dominance dooming sagebrush communities.
The unique geographic and vegetative features and characteristics of the area – especially in relation to claimed areas of lithium and uranium – elevate the severe harm and irreversible damage to biotic resources like Sage-grouse and many other noise and disturbance-sensitive wildlife species that would result from mining in this great habitat (see letter of Jim Jeffress). Jindalee, FMS and some Aurora claims-targeted areas are arced by leks that would suffer unimpeded straight-line views and sound travel emanating from mining activities within the McDermitt “bowl”. Further, the Basin contains relatively low elevation critical winter range for Sage-grouse, Pronghorn and Mule Deer, and transitional range, too. It also borders and some claims areas and the access route lie within occupied California Bighorn sheep habitat.
A very large north-south band of FMS claims in Sage-grouse wintering and nesting habitat is overlooked by critical high bird abundance leks by the east face of the Montana Mountains – and those leks too would suffer straight line unimpeded noise and sound transmission disturbance from exploration and mining activity. This area was the focus of the Rebholz 2007 thesis and subsequent scientific paper that estimated very high densities of Sage-grouse inhabiting the Lone Willow PMU.
Lithium Nevada holds claims running in a band north and south of the West side of the Montana Mountains. These have become even more vital as habitat with the Thacker Pass mine construction, and inevitable harmful impacts on the Montana-10 and other leks, and a large area of Sage-grouse Focal habitat. Headwater springs of LCT stream systems are located here too, along with King’s River Pyrg springs with jeopardized flows. Further, portions of the area were identified in the Winnemucca RMP as Bighorn Sheep habitat. Cliffs and rock outcrops on the west side of the Montana Mountains above the Kings River valley are vital Golden Eagle and raptor nesting sites. A Mineral Withdrawal would provide an opportunity for Lithium Nevada to relinquish the Montana Mountains claims the company told the public it was not going to develop – as the claims up in the Montana Mountains claims are in sensitive wildlife habitat whose value is too great to destroy.
The Caldera landscape (distant from any major population center) also suffers from a major lack of adequate existing systematic biological and cultural/archaeological inventories – so still unknown and unstudied habitat use areas, cultural locales and materials may be disturbed, degraded, fragmented and/or destroyed as the mining boom frenzy plays out piecemeal – with the totality of their significance never adequately studied or understood.
Foreseeable Destruction of the McDermitt Basin, Montana Mountains and other Caldera Sagebrush Habitats Will Never Be Able to Be Effectively Mitigated
Given the unique setting of the McDermitt Basin arced by leks with straight-line visibility and sound paths, the high value leks right by and on east facing slopes overlooking the FMS band of claims below in crucial winter habitat, and the prime Sage-grouse and other wildlife habitat in the upper Montana Mountains, it is impossible to mitigate the harm that would be caused by mining development here. The minerals are located in the worst possible places for sagebrush-dependent wildlife.
The only mitigation possible is not mining. There is no intact large block of replacement habitat of sufficient size, i. e. no entire functioning landscape that can magically support a whole new Sage-grouse population, or that has the extraordinarily high values and complex compressed habitat configuration of the Caldera lands, which makes them such ideal Sage-grouse habitat, that could be purchased or ‘improved” to replace it with. See letter of Jim Jeffress and Declaration of Terry Crawforth describing the ideal Sage-grouse and wildlife habitat conditions found here – all compressed close together into one area in a crucial geographic location for sagebrush species habitat connectivity between ecoregions. Retired agency biologists are free to express biological opinions that politics-stifled current agency staff cannot.
Any efforts to try to assert that “restoration” elsewhere could somehow compensate would be absurd – and under even the best of weather circumstances, “restoration” is daunting, and fraught with uncertainty and a high risk of failure. Even if “restoration” were to be partially “successful”, it would take a very long time – and again, the unique habitat configuration can’t be duplicated. The area’s crucial location for sagebrush species connectivity and biodiversity also can’t be replicated. A new gaping hole in east-west habitat connectivity would result with the scale of foreseeable mining development in both states. The Oregon habitat north of the caldera that connects with the Owyhee region near Highway 95 is poor quality. It is highly likely that the Sage-grouse range would contract and shrink further if the claims blocks are developed.
The extremely controversial Thacker Pass lithium mine has focused national and global eyes on the cultural and biodiversity values of the Caldera. Further destruction of this landscape’s sacred sites and sagebrush will be taking place on the national and international stage. BLM management failures will be on full display, and the agency will be seen abandoning the basics of sagebrush and Sage-grouse habitat science and preservation laid out in federal agency reports and research for over 25 years.
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For all of these reasons, we petition BLM and the Department of the Interior to amend the SEORMP and the Winnemucca RMP to designate the McDermitt Caldera Sagebrush Sea ACEC, (or an appropriate indigenous name), develop appropriate management prescriptions for the ACEC, withdraw all lands within the proposed ACEC from mineral entry pursuant to FLPMA, 43 U.S.C. § 1712(c), BLM regulations at 43 C.F.R. §§ 1610.5-5 and 1610.7-2, and the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. § 555.51, and take any other possible actions to protect the Caldera.
The APA provides that an “interested person may appear before an agency or its responsible employees for the presentation, adjustment, or determination of an issue, request . . . or in connection with an agency function.” 5 U.S.C. § 555(b). When the agency is presented with such a matter, the agency “shall proceed to conclude a matter presented to it . . . within a reasonable time.” Id. The APA also requires that “[p]rompt notice . . . be given of the denial in whole or in part of a written application, petition, or other request of an interested person made in connection with any agency proceeding.” Id. § 555(e); 43 C.F.R. § 14.3 (same); 5 U.S.C. § 551(5), (12) (“agency proceeding” includes “rule making.”). Unless affirming a prior denial or when the denial is self-explanatory, “the notice shall be accompanied by a brief statement of the grounds for denial.” Id.
The McDermitt Caldera area meets BLM’s regulatory criteria for relevance and importance as it comprises “the best of the best” Sage-grouse habitat, is high in biodiversity, is home to a broad spectrum of sensitive and rare plant and animal species, is a sacred cultural landscape that contains irreplaceable cultural values in a place still used for food, medicine and spiritual purposes. It also contains exceptional scenic and wild lands values and is geologically unique. In addition, various imminent threats to these values all require “special management attention.”
BLM regulations define “relevance” as “a significant historic, cultural, or scenic value; a fish or wildlife resource or other natural system or process; or natural hazard.”. The McDermitt Caldera falls within this definition as a “significant”—indeed, an irreplaceable— “natural system or process” as decades of NDOW documents, the Jeffress letter, and a host of other information shows it is unique and extraordinary. It is also geologically unique, as the origin of the Yellowstone hotspot, a peninsula and sky island at the northern extent of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan ad the current Lahontan basin, and has unique mineral deposits. A similar place exists nowhere else on Earth.
The nationally significant biological and ecological value of this sagebrush Sage-grouse stronghold were recognized by BLM through the 2015 ARMPA Mineral Withdrawal, which has never been completed, but was considered an instrumental part of the regulatory framework needed to ensue Sage-grouse survival. Federal and state fish and wildlife agencies and biologists have recognized the high value of its habitats in numerous reports and publications for decades.
There is also a raging conflict over the ongoing and foreseeable destruction and loss of a sacred landscape and the cultural and environmental values tied to it. The Lithium Nevada SLAPP suit represents aggressive corporate strong-arm tactics. Legal scholars have explained that the purpose of such suits is to suppress dissent and restrict freedom of speech – trampling on basic Constitutional rights of US citizens. This is a highly unusual situation that has arisen in a conflict over public lands uses – where BLM “streamlining” and “fast-tracking” and failure to undertake long-known necessary basic consultation and species protections and other process flaws have exacerbated conflicts.
The proposed ACEC also meets BLM’s criteria for “importance.” Under BLM regulations, “importance” requires “substantial significance and values.” This “generally requires qualities of more than local significance and special worth, consequence, meaning, distinctiveness, or cause for concern.” The “substantial significance and value” was recognized by BLM through its 2015 designation of Sage-grouse focal and Priority habitats across nearly all the Caldera, the scientific studies showing significant Sage-grouse population effects in the aftermath of wildfires, the site tenacity of Sage-grouse following those fires, further elevating the critical importance of all remaining sagebrush habitat blocks in this region. BLM has just identified the Montana Mountains region as primary Sage-grouse and Lahontan Trout Restoration area and allocated funds for this work. The Caldera contains long-identified Lahontan Cutthroat Trout habitat and restoration habitat, and several sensitive aquatic species including two fish species at the northern geographic extent of their ranges. Two climate-sensitive declining native leporids (Pygmy Rabbit and White-tailed Jackrabbit) inhabit its sagebrush communities. The sagebrush communities are also home to high density of declining and sagebrush dependent migratory songbirds. There is a blending of floral and faunal elements at the intersection between communities. The Caldera is positioned at the northern extent of former Lake Lahontan. Much of the area was a peninsula extending into the northernmost lake area. Lands to the south in the Lahontan Basin are primarily salt desert shrubland or burned cheatgrass lands. The Caldera is the southern extent of the range of some declining sagebrush species and is becoming the southern edge of the Sage-grouse range in this region as the bird is being reduced and extirpated in isolated ranges to the south. There are unique plant species assemblages on exposed clay soil ridge areas, and splendid biocrust sites. Oregon legislature documents identify the lands as a very high priority for the state conservation plan goals. A river conservation group has made a substantial investment in land acquisition, and Oregon legislature documents show the very high importance of these watersheds. Volunteers have already invested their time in many projects, and mitigation funds for the highly controversial Ruby gas pipeline have been used in this landscape that now hard rock mining is poised to destroy.
Proposed mine exploration sites are in close proximity, or immediately adjacent to, proposed BLM Wilderness Study Areas and LWC lands, and proposed Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers in Oregon. These wilderness-worthy lands would suffer unimpeded intrusive sight and sound disturbance from mining destruction of lithium and/or uranium claims into the contiguous Wilderness-worthy areas. Wildlife that are recognized as integral to wilderness land values will lose irreplaceable winter, breeding, nesting, brood rearing, fawning, kidding, lambing, migration and other seasonal habitats that they need to survive, and thus populations will be diminished or extinguished. The BLM’s Oregon Wilderness Study Report found many outstanding values – including wildlife values and scenic values, and noted the significant diversity in plant communities, and these outstanding features would be impaired or ruined over large areas of the WSAs with mine development activity.
The landscape is the site of two Native American massacres and events surrounding them. Tribes, elders and traditionalist groups speak of the significance of the whole landscape. They have said time after time that excavating the Thacker Pass landscape is like bulldozing Arlington cemetery. The people continue to use the landscape for many purposes. It is unceded territory. At least 22 Tribal groups have affiliations with this land. Thacker Pass has now become a significant national and international symbol of an unjust energy transition and green colonialism. A very high degree of controversy over mining here exists.
Studies to show the full significance of the Caldera archaeological values in the context of human adaptation and survival in the Great Basin are just beginning. BLM’s own 2012 Fuels EA describes the broad array of cultural sites already known to be present with the relatively limited past surveys, and the presence of over 400 fragile springs, and provides some insight into human occupation of the region. Vast areas have not been studied – in a unique location near the divide between the Great Basin and Interior Columbia Basin systems, and at the border of several floristic communities. Integrated archaeological studies may illuminate the importance of past climate refugia and shed light on human adaption to severe drought, aridification and harsh conditions. A high density and diversity of root plant food sources is present and threatened with both outright loss and pollution contamination.
Mining activity not only spreads highly flammable invasive species, it also brings a dramatically increased human disturbance footprint into a landscape, increasing human harassment and other impacts to wildlife, and elevating wildfire risk and potential for human fire starts, both from the intensive drilling activity anticipated, as well as the onslaught of 1000 workers in a Man Camp for Thacker Pass mine construction. There is a strong association between Man Camps and missing and endangered women and girls, adding to worry and stress in the community.
Water is very precious and disappearing. The last best hope for restoring stream systems and establishing a Quinn meta-population of the Threatened Lahontan Cutthroat Trout is the bi-state McDermitt Creek watershed system. Areas of the mainstem stream are surrounded by claims, and many of its tributary headwaters in Nevada lie in Lithium Nevada claim blocks. An endemic springsnail, the King’s River Pyrg, is threatened with extinction from Thacker Pass mine and also expanded lithium claims development development in the Montana Mountains.
Hazardous or toxic minerals are found in soil and rocks soils that will be disturbed by road blading and/or drilling and in material being mined – include uranium and other radioactive elements, arsenic, mercury and others. Toxic materials may be released into the air from lithium processing – that is now moving forward to processing plant construction at Thacker Pass. – yet no final emissions control design had been decided upon at the time of project authorization. The community faces the specter of toxic uranium processing, in a controversial project long thought dead. A prospective uranium miner is envisioning the mine of the future – moving uranium and/or lithium out of Oregon and down onto purchased Nevada private land where there are perceived to be fewer controls.
We are currently faced with large-scale biodiversity loss and a global extinction crisis. Plant and animal conservation is essential to preserving our natural heritage. By protecting the McDermitt Caldera, we can ensure that critical elements of Oregon’s, Nevada’s and the United States’ irreplaceable biological diversity is preserved for future generations.
The various threats faced by sensitive and rare species and a host of other values clearly require “special management attention” warranting ACEC designation and protective federal agency actions. The fact that there are numerous mining-jeopardized sensitive species and extraordinary biodiversity, cultural and wild lands values at stake compels this conclusion. BLM defines “sensitive” or “special status” species as: “(1) species listed or proposed for listing under the [ESA], and (2) species requiring special management consideration to promote their conservation and reduce the likelihood and need for future listing under the ESA. The objectives of this designation are “to conserve and/or recover ESA-listed species and the ecosystems on which they depend so that ESA protections are no longer needed for these species,” and “to initiate proactive conservation measures that reduce or eliminate threats to Bureau sensitive species to minimize the likelihood of and need for listing of these species under the ESA.” BLM must “ensure that actions requiring [BLM] authorization or approval . . . are consistent with the conservation needs of special status species and do not contribute to the need to list any special status species.
BLM must also manage sensitive species and their habitats “to minimize or eliminate threats affecting the status of the species or to improve the condition of the species habitat,” by, among other things, “prioritizing Bureau sensitive species and their habitats for conservation action.” In other words, BLM must implement “practices to reduce or eliminate threats affecting the status of the species or improve the condition of the species’ habitat on BLM-administered lands
basic systematic biological inventories have not been conducted for many terrestrial species here. Mine consultant data is limited in scope and effort, overlooks biota, doesn’t survey whole taxa to any degree, fails to address the complex biotic communities of the Caldera in any meaningful way, and ignores the importance and significance of the very high public land values at stake. All the mining-threatened values face other cumulative threats. BLM’s own Sage-grouse plan Mineral Withdrawal and Focal and priority habitat allocations, and BLM’s recent identification of the lands as a high value Restoration habitat for both Sage-grouse and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout show the lands warrant ACEC status and a Withdrawal. Management under BLM’s default “multiple use” policy has failed to adequately protect habitats, a living culture, cultural sites, watersheds and wild lands. Designating the threatened Caldera lands (and potentially adjacent areas of the Trout Creek and Oregon Canyon Mountains) as an ACEC with a reasonable buffer to prevent further impacts, will help ensure that BLM complies with its own special status species policy. Further, BLM is required under FLPMA to prioritize the designation of ACECs, something that has not yet occurred in the development and implementation of the SEORMP amendment and Winnemucca RMPs.
We therefore request, pursuant to FLPMA, the APA, and BLM’s own regulations, the designation of an ACEC and all other necessary actions to protect the Caldera’s unique biological, ecological, cultural, geological, wild lands, dark sky, clean air and peaceful quiet natural open space values.
Management Direction
The ACEC designation and RMP amendments should also include management direction to protect and recover sensitive and imperiled species in their native habitat, and to prevent further degradation, loss and/or impairment of described Traditional Cultural Properties and other sacred sites, cultural use areas and materials, and archaeological sites.
At a minimum, this should include withdrawal of all lands within the ACEC from mineral location. BLM’s ACEC Manual explicitly recognizes mineral withdrawal as an appropriate management prescription for protecting ACEC values. See BLM Manual 1613 § 1613.33.C, also Mineral Policy Ctr. v. Norton, 292 F.Supp.2d 30, 42 (D.D.C. 2003).
BLM should also deny any future requests to develop or extract locatable minerals within the proposed ACEC. This would be consistent with the purpose of the ACEC designation, BLM’s special status species policy, and BLM’s statutory mandate to prevent “unnecessary and undue degradation” of the public lands. FLPMA, 43 U.S.C § 1732(b). FLPMA, “by its plain terms, vests the Secretary of the Interior with the authority—and indeed the obligation—to disapprove of an otherwise permissible mining operation because the operation, though necessary for mining, would unduly harm or degrade the public land. In other words, if mining claims cannot be utilized without violating FLPMA’s environmental requirements, then they cannot be developed.
In addition to prohibiting future mining development, BLM should take steps to re-acquire any interests in mineral rights within the proposed ACEC area that may have already vested.
The ACEC designation should also include management direction to reclaim any roads or other disturbances from mining exploration that has already occurred. Motorized travel, including OHV use, should be limited to existing, designated routes within the ACEC. Finally, BLM should develop appropriate and effective conservation and recovery measures.
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ADDENDUM
BLM delayed and never moved the Traditional Cultural Property designation for an area of the Thacker Pass forward. Lithium Nevada has bulldozed much of the proposed area.
Lithium Americas Thacker Pass mine ultimately received 2.26 billion in US government loan subsidies.
Lithium Americas is now openly talking about more several phases of Thacker Pass mining (Phase 1 and 2 were analyzed in the EIS). This would mean greater lithium mining habitat disturbance, water use, impacts to ground and surface waters, lithium processing emissions and cultural landscape impacts. https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/even-as-lithium-prices-drop-industry-expansion-in-nevada-still-underway
In March 2025, Vale BLM released a Jindalee HiTech Draft Exploration EA with a 5-day comment period. https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2025844/570 . After public outrage and receiving 1500 public comments in that 5-day period, BLM quietly extended the comment period to a full 30 days. https://www.opb.org/article/2025/04/01/lithium-project-in-southeastern-oregon-gets-public-input-extension/
“Under the existing authorized Notice, HiTech has disturbed 4.13 acres in the Project Area. Additionally, to continue exploring within the Project Area for mineral resources, HiTech requests authorization to disturb as much as 99.2 acres by:
- Constructing up to 261 drill sites with sumps;
- Constructing up to 30.2 miles (163,559 linear feet) of roads;
- Constructing a 300-foot by 300-foot laydown and storage area;
- Constructing up to 40 groundwater monitoring wells; and
- Constructing a 10-meter meteorological monitoring station.
Both the acres disturbed under the existing Notice and the proposed EPO will total 103.3 acres”.
The 2025 EA is largely similar to what was described in project scoping, with only a minor drill site reduction.
Jindalee now seeks to drill down to 800 ft., and potentially use sideways/directional drilling.
“Planned borehole/drill hole lengths (total vertical depths are dependent on borehole angle from
horizontal) would range between 300 and 800 feet below ground surface. The maximum length
for exploration drill holes would be 800 feet with an average drill hole length of 600 feet”.
The average depth to groundwater in boreholes already drilled shown in Jindalee’s 2025 EPO/Plan of Operations was 179 ft. They apparently kept drilling boreholes down as far as 600 ft.
The 2025 EA Sage-grouse information includes:
“The most recent 2024 ODFW sage-grouse lek data identifies 2 occupied, active leks within the Project Area, and 20 occupied leks (12 active, 8 inactive), 5 pending leks (2 active, 3 inactive), and 9 unoccupied (inactive) leks within 4 miles of the Project Area., the nearest is located approximately 490 feet from proposed Project disturbance”.
This does not appear to include potential lek and Sage-grouse population information in Nevada. The project area is less than 4 miles from the Nevada line, and the population spans the state line.
The EA admits to direct disturbance of 16% of the rare plant habitat in the project area – but the indirect effects will be far greater
Jindalee officials stated in mining promotional material that the miners were traying to follow in the footsteps of Thacker Pass, seeking US government grants and subsidies. A DOE “CRADA” grant was obtained for “research”, apparently with the aid of Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. https://investingnews.com/jindalee-secures-strategic-agreement-with-us-department-of-energy/
The Wyden-Merkley Malheur wilderness and land use bill and/or Monument designation did not move forward in 2024. It had excluded lands by the Jindalee project.
The Oregon Desert Land Trust is now seeking to acquire the Disaster Peak Ranch. https://www.oregondesertlandtrust.org/disaster-peak-ranch/
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