Oregon’s high desert lands, waters, and wildlife are facing unprecedented threats from industrial-scale mining. On November 9, the U.S. Senate will vote on whether to advance a bill that aims to dramatically weaken regulations on public lands mining. These regulatory rollbacks would make it easier to develop mines and could even increase industrial development in the region. And, this action would be particularly devastating in the McDermitt Caldera, an ecological haven in southeastern Oregon where mining threatens a rare expanse of sagebrush grasslands that are essential to imperiled species, watershed protection, and preservation of cultural resources. 

Urge your U.S. senators to oppose the Mining Regulatory Clarity Act, a bill that would cause irreparable harm to Oregon’s high desert by:

• Allowing mining corporations to dump unlimited amounts of toxic waste on public lands, permanently damaging sensitive ecosystems, contaminating watersheds, and threatening local communities.
• Exempting mining corporations from permitting requirements, making it easier to build roads, pipelines, power lines, and other infrastructure through public lands, resulting in lasting damage to essential habitat for wildlife species from pygmy rabbits to pronghorn.

Photo: John Aylward