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Sierra Club Lawsuits

Proposed Mine Expansion Threatens Critical Grizzly and Trout Habitat

Case Updates:

February 29, 2008

The Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem in northwestern Montana provides a narrow strip of habitat in a sea of logging, roadbuilding, mining, and increasing development. This area supports the critically endangered Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear population and holds some of the most productive bull trout habitat in the Columbia River Basin. However, this important wildlife habitat is in danger of being damaged by the construction of a large silver and copper mine adjacent to and literally underneath it. The proposed Rock Creek Mine’s construction and operation activities will likely impair the grizzly’s ability to use habitat south of this area and will add sediment to local waters, harming the bull trout’s spawning habitat. On February 29, 2008 the Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice lawyers from Bozeman Montana, along with Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Pacific Rivers Council, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Trout Unlimited, Earthworks, Cabinet Resource Group, Natural Resources Defense Council and Rock Creek Alliance, filed a federal lawsuit urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do its job by protecting these species as called for by the Endangered Species Act.

Details and Documents:

Mining Proposal Called Wildlife Threat
March 5, 2008, by Becky Kramer, The Seattle Times

Groups File New Lawsuit Over Rock Creek Mine
March 5, 2008, by Jim Mann, Daily Inter Lake