Archived Campaign that Ended on Feb. 9, 2018.
We have a more thorough and updated article for the 2021 Kilgore Project Proposal accepting comments through Feb 11, 2021.
The Kilgore Project
Yesterday, Idaho Falls’s Post Register reported the Canadian gold mining company Otis intends to expand drilling operations in the Centennial Mountains. They want 3000 more acres to build forest-removing roads and 140 drill sites. This Kilgore Project proposal, so named for its proximity to Kilgore, Idaho, would increase their current drilling operation by 33%. All on U.S. Forest Service land, these miners would compromise 12,000 acres of our pristine, Idaho wilderness.
The Kilgore Project Threatens the Best Grizzly Corridor Between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Bitterroots Heading North
In “Bear Tracks Dilemma,” I go into more depth about how important the Centennial Mountains are to the few remaining grizzly bears in the wild. Basically, the Centennials provide the best corridor connecting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana and upward to Canada. The Kilgore Project will devastate the grizzlies’ most suitable route with noise pollution, heavy machinery, road construction, and drilling extraction. Echoing what I said before, “What Earth is there left for the grizzly?”
#Kill the Kilgore Project Before Feb. 9th!
Books have been written about Idaho’s rich history of saving our wilderness from being destroyed by roads. As Idahoans, we have the honor of linking grizzly populations to the rest of the northern Rockies. In a way, we are the gatekeepers of the majestic grizzly.
We shouldn’t let foreign gold companies take away our loyalty to the wild. We shouldn’t let foreign mining interests dictate our priorities. Up through February 9th, the Kilgore Project is open to the public’s input about this proposal. Let’s tell the Forest Service that we would rather share with Canada the safe travel of our grizzlies than the destructive extraction of our gold.
How to Kill the Kilgore Project by Feb. 9th!
We can send our input to Diane Wheeler at dkwheeler@fs.fed.us. In the subject line, write “The Kilgore Project.”
And please spread this message by word-of-mouth, email, blog, text, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, paper airplaine, you name it!
Let’s be firm in our stance but write respectful emails. I spoke with Diane earlier today, and she was kind and helpful. Our frustration with the issue should not be taken out on her. If we write thoughtful comments, then she and other staff members will represent our collective voice in the meetings ahead.
Archived Comment Advice (We’ve since learned it’s best not to copy ideas but instead to write them in your own words)
Feel free to copy and paste the following statement as the email:
Dear Diane Wheeler,
I write to voice my concern over the proposed Kilgore Project. While reported that it will provide fifteen or so jobs and lead to the potential extraction of gold, a short-term economic value should not have priority over our unique wilderness.
Once there is nothing more to extract, the gold mining will do as it has always done: leave. And along with the jobs that inevitably disappear, the pristine wilderness will also become a thing of the past. If gold mining was sustainable, we wouldn’t have a state littered with ghost towns. Whereas, as Stanley and McCall and Sun Valley and Island Park all illustrate, outdoor recreation is as reliable as each new season. But the wilderness needs to stay wild if we want to bring in outdoor enthusiasts.
The Centennial Mountains provide the best corridor that allows animals like the grizzly bear to move between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the northern ranges of the Rockies in Montana and Canada. This project will require miles of roads and heavy machinery that will scar up the land. The effect roads have on ecosystems is well documented, and the main reason why we as Idahoans have some of the largest wilderness areas in the contiguous United States, like the Frank and the Selway-Bitterroot. We have a rich history of understanding that no resource underground is as valuable as our priceless wilderness.
Also well documented, noise pollution brought by heavy machinery and human activity can devastate the ecosystem and endanger the wildlife that depends on that ecosystem. Snow mobiles have scared our very own Lowland Caribou away from their natural habitats and have driven them nearly to extinction. And in our Centennial habitat, we cannot risk endangering one of the most suitable routes grizzlies have. As Idahoans, we have the honor of linking grizzly populations to the rest of the northern Rockies. In a way, we are the gatekeepers of the majestic grizzly.
Please, do not move forward with the Kilgore Project. Instead, let’s tell Canadians that we would rather share with them the safe travel of our grizzlies than the destructive extraction of our gold.
Sincerely,
Dale Baldwin
February 2, 2018Great article, Alex. Idaho is too great to mess with. Below is the “plea” I sent in protest:
Dear Diane Wheeler,
This email is a plea to stop and desist with any expansion to the “Kilgore Project.” The “value” of gold is nothing compared to the value of Idaho’s pristine wilderness and spectacular wildlife. My youth was spent in this area, fishing, hiking, and exploring. Don’t take those same opportunities away from the youth of this generation. The one constant throughout time in Idaho is the opportunity to explore our great wilderness. Don’t give us another reason to stay inside our homes staring at computers and cell phones.
The grizzly bear is the most majestic creature roaming the USA today. Let’s embrace their existence and cherish those special times when we can catch a glimpse of them in their natural habitat. 800,000 potential ounces of gold seems like a lousy trade for the removal of grizzly bears in Idaho.
Please, keep Idaho’s wilderness wild!
Sincerely,
Dale Baldwin
Alex
February 2, 2018Thanks, Dad!
I love your point about Idaho’s timeless wilderness and your worry about keeping us indoors and on phones for yet another depressing reason.
Please keep spreading the word to as many people as you can that may also be interested in protecting Idaho’s wilderness!
Rich Rusnak
February 9, 2018Greetings Forest Supervisor Diane Wheeler,
As a backpacker and visitor to the CDT in the Centennials, I have a deep appreciation for this areas biodiversity and its key geographic location as a wildlife corridor connecting the GYE to the central ID wilderness complex and to wilderness farther north and into Canada. The importance of this area cannot be understated in that it provides essential expansion habitat and opportunity for genetic dispersal of multiple species currently cut-off by the human development surrounding the GYE. In light of the effects of climate upheaval and its multiple accelerating impacts, it would be an utter disaster in the coming decades if the USFS sells out this biome to the highest bidders for gold or any other industrial-scale operation. Therefore, from my personal first-hand experience of this truly wild and beautiful “keystone” habitat, I write to express my urgent concern regarding the proposed Kilgore Mining Project. This landscape is far too important and valuable over the long term to risk its waters, forest, solitude, rare flora and fauna be further degraded while a tiny number of short-term mining jobs are gained.
As always after mining operations play out the taxpayers are left holding the cleanup bill, often at the price of contaminated waters and sick local residents. The pittance of economic growth during mining will not stay long and the corporation will pick up lay-off workers, homes will foreclose, businesses will shutter their doors. This pristine wilderness will never recover after minings legacy as evidenced by hundreds of sites scattered across the west. Boom and bust is no longer an option under the havoc of Climate Change and humanities multiple effects, Ecotourism will and is an ever-growing component of rural economies, this mine would not serve locals, as the dollars from mining do not trickle down locally, rather are whisked away by corporate motives. Among many rural communities in ID currently, Island Park area is preparing for more visitors to the GYE/YNP via the IDOT’s major road widening and wildlife safe passageways construction in light of human safety and wildlife safety needs. Once wilderness is gone it cannot return, while outdoor recreation keeps giving with each new season.
The Centennial’s provide the best remaining corridor that allows grizzlies (a keystone species) to move between the GYE and the spine of the continent on to Canada. This project will require miles of roads and heavy machinery that will bisect important habitat. The multiple damaging and long-term effects of roads on ecosystems is well documented by science, this area is already crisscrossed and should not endure more. Idaho and America are coming to understand the negative legacy of mining and we are more aware of the value of our remaining priceless wilderness. The people want to protect the more wild country for future generations, regardless of the administration currently in charge of the USFS.
Additionally, noise pollution brought by around the clock mining operations and use of heavy machinery will devastate the ecosystem and multiple species that are already running a gauntlet of hazards to survive, not to mention the havoc bearing down from climate upheavals. America is flocking to experience wildlands as you know by dramatic increases in visitation to our NP system, we cannot risk endangering the landscapes that provide America’s natural heritage their last refugia, nor cut them off from their freedom to roam. The Centennials are this best vestige of opportunity for this ecosystems long-term viability. Rural communities may persist either way, but with an intact working ecosystem, our future generations will be able to proudly stand as guardians of a landscape with all its treasures intact.
Please, prevent the mining under the Kilgore Gold Project. Be a voice for the wilderness instead of a voice for short-term corporate profits than risk a loss too deep to ever recover.
Best Regards, Thank You for taking my comments, I look forward to your response.
Richard A Rusnak Jr.
Alex
February 9, 2018Amen and amen! Thank you for writing such a thoughtful comment! Your points about Climate Change and the Centennials being a “keystone” habitat and the local impact of corporate extraction projects are all fantastic!
Rich Rusnak
February 9, 2018A fellow backpacker sent the following:
Dear Supervisor Wheeler,
I am writing to voice my opposition to the proposed expansion of the Kilgore mining project being considered in the area of the Centennial Mountains. My concerns include the following…
I had the pleasure of visiting and backpacking in the Centennials in two locations in 2016. It was such a wild and beautiful area, with a great diversity of flora and fauna. I am definitely heading back there again to visit more wild lands and enjoy the creatures that live there. However, the proposed mining expansion will drill into 140 sites, destroy close to 3000 acres for road building, and damage up to 12,000 acres of wilderness. This must not be allowed, wilderness and its ecosystem is truly irreplaceable…once damaged it cannot be fixed or remediated.
Mining has a long history throughout the US of causing massive damage to ecosystems. Mining companies always seem to evade responsibility for both the short and long term degradation they cause to the lands they use. This should not be allowed to happen again. It should not be allowed to happen here!
Mining benefits are short-lived. Whatever near-term benefits of jobs and income they provide locally, that will assuredly be reversed over time by damage to water quality, the local environment, the boom-bust cycle for local economies, and permanent damage to fragile ecosystems that most Americans treasure and want protected.
Science has clearly proven climate change is coming due to major impacts by homo sapiens…despite some naysayers, the evidence is overwhelming. With the growing body of climate research it is paramount we protect and retain wild areas like the Centennials to provide the best chance for the area’s species to survive and thrive.
The Centennials, and the area around it, is of huge importance as a biological corridor connecting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to the northern Rocky Mountains and eventually much further north to the wild lands in Canada. Corridors like this are fundamental to genetic diversity and thus survival of keystone species like grizzly bears. Conservation biology has definitively shown that if we protect keystone pieces, then the vast majority of other species in that ecosystem will also do well. The proposed mine would severely damage this corridor and therefore has significant negative effects on grizzly bears and the other species in the whole ecosystem.
Please stop the Kigore mining project. The importance of nature far outweighs that of mining a few more pounds of so-called precious metals.
I appreciate this opportunity to comment.
Best regards,
M.M.
Alex
February 10, 2018Thank you so much for sending and sharing these comments!