Access Fund Supports Efforts to Reform Mining Laws
The Access Fund has recently instituted a broad advocacy campaign to support reform efforts to remedy long-standing problems related to the 1872 Mining Law. These reforms are important for climbers because climbing resources are increasingly being mined and many of our climbing environments suffer from abandoned mining tailings and associated trash.
Recently, the Access Fund, along with members of the Outdoor Alliance www.outdooralliance.net, has partnered with the PEW Campaign for Responsible Mining, the National Environmental Trust, the Environmental Working Group, the Colorado Conservation Alliance, and the Western Conservation Fund to push for reforms to US mining laws.
Mining practices have not seen a legislative reform since 1872 even though mining practices have changed dramatically in the last 135 years. Although we all use hardrock metals in our daily lives, the Access Fund feels that the mining industry must play by the same Leave No Trace rules that all human-powered recreational users practice on public lands and minimize its impacts, especially at special places like our national parks. Equally crucial is the need to plan for the long overdue cleanup of our public lands.
A recent report, “Mining Law Threatens Grand Canyon, Other National Treasures,” www.ewg.org/sites/mining_google/US2007/index.php, shows an 80 percent increase in uranium, gold, copper, and other mining claims in 12 western states over the past five years, including an explosion of uranium claims that could affect dozens of climbing areas.
“In addition to current mining practices that allow the literal destruction of climbing resources around the West through the use of toxic chemical processing, large-scale dynamite blasting, and massive earth-moving machines,” said Access Fund policy director Jason Keith, “the Access Fund has a stake in efforts to rehabilitate the half-million mines across the country that negatively affect the climbing environment at many of our favorite climbing areas like Indian Creek, Utah and Telluride, Colorado. For these reasons, the Access Fund and its Outdoor Alliance allies support reasonable efforts to provide more effective oversight on future mining practices and provide funds to clean-up the over 500,000 abandoned mines that negatively affect recreational experiences across the country.”
On August 16 representatives of the Access Fund/Outdoor Alliance, Environmental Working Group and the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining held a press conference to discuss findings that show that 10 of the West’s national parks, including Yosemite, Arches and Joshua Tree National Parks, are at new and growing risk as mining claims cluster around their boundaries. An MP3 audio file of this conference is available at www.PewMiningReform.or
In coming weeks the Access Fund will be working with the Colorado Conservation Alliance and the Western Conservation Fund to target specific federal representatives, urging them to support current bills in Congress that would reform critical aspects of the 1872 law. See www.mineralpolicy.org/pubs/HR2262.pdf for text of this proposed legislation; more background info can be found here www.net.org/mining.
Contact Jason Keith at 303-545-6772 x102 or jason@accessfund.org for additional details on how the Access Fund is working to limit destructive mining practices, which negatively impact the climbing environment.