Mining STEWART UDALL . Friday, April 19,1996 Morning Edition. Former Secretary of the Interior in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, about the Mining Law of 1872. Udall says the law is hopelessly outdated because it allows companies to mine for precious metals on federal lands without paying any royalties. (4:54) The Mineral Policy Center - NGO working to reform the 1872 Law.
	Mining (NPR, All Things Considered, June 14, 1999). In hearings tomorrow, the US Senate plans to re-examine the Mining Act of 1872, which regulates mining on public land. The most recent controversy over the Act, stemmed from a debate over whether to allow a large open-pit gold mine in Washington State. (5:30)
	“The Last American Dinosaur: the 1872 Mining Law”
	U.S. Mining Many Americans are unaware of mining's impacts on the environment and clean water, healthy communities, and their wallets. Our U.S. program is to designed to expand, organize and mobilize efforts to fundamentally alter mining laws and practices at the federal, state, and local levels.
Montana's Rocky Mountains. Thursday, February 4, 1999. Morning Edition. NPR's John Nielsen reports that a pristine area long fought over by developers and environmentalists may be protected from development. The Clinton Administration has called for a ban on mining in the national forests that cover much of Montana's Rocky Mountain Front range -- about 429,000 acres. The National Forest Service says it's the first of a series of protections designed to preserve wilderness areas. Enviromentalists are delighted, but the mining industry says it's the latest in a series of economically damaging bans.(3:33)
Jane Parlez and Lowell Bergman 2005 "The Cost of Gold \| 30 Tons an Ounce: Behind Gold's Glitter: Torn Lands and Pointed Questions," The New York Times, (24 October 2005).
	There has always been an element of madness to gold's allure. For thousands of years, something in the eternally lustrous metal has driven people to the outer edges of desire- to have it and hoard it, to kill or conquer for it, to possess it like a lover. In the early 1500's, King Ferdinand of Spain laid down the priorities as his conquistadors set out for the New World. "Get gold," he told them, "Humanely if possible, but at all costs, get gold." In that long and tortuous history, gold has now arrived at a new moment of opportunity and peril. The price of gold is higher than it has been in 17 years - pushing $500 an ounce. But much of the gold left to be mined is microscopic and is being wrung from the earth at enormous environmental cost, often in some of the poorest corners of the world.
Jane Parlez and Lowell Bergman 2005 "Tangled Strands in Fight Over Peru Gold Mine," The New York Times, (25 October 2005).
	SAN CERILLO, Peru - The Rev. Marco Arana drove his beige pickup over the curves of a dirt road 13,000 feet high in the Andes. Spread out below lay the Yanacocha gold mine, an American-run operation of mammoth open pits and towering heaps of cyanide-laced ore. Ahead loomed the pristine green of untouched hills. Then, an unmistakable sign that this land, too, may soon be devoured: Policemen with black masks and automatic rifles guarding workers exploring ground that the mine's owner, Newmont Mining Corporation, has deemed the next best hope. "This is the Roman peace the company has with the people: They put in an army and say we have peace," said Father Arana as he surveyed the land where gold lies beneath the surface like tiny beads on a string. Yanacocha is Newmont's prize possession, the most productive gold mine in the world. But if history holds one lesson, it is that where there is gold, there is conflict, and the more gold, the more conflict.
On Point
	2005 "The Real Cost of Gold," NPR - WBUR - On Point, (28 October 2005).

Timber
Roads in National Forests. June 16, 1998. All Things Considered. NPR'S John Biewen reports on a proposal to put a moratorium on new roadbuilding in the nation's National Forests. The Forest Service doesn't have sufficient funds to maintain the roads that now exist and wants to reevaluate its policy on roads. The timber industry sees the moratorium as part of a process to further reduce the amount of federal forest available for harvest. (6:00)
U.S. senators take hard line on lumber dispute Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,21:52:46 - Thursday, Mar 1, 2001 WASHINGTON - A group of U.S. senators is calling on the Bush administration to get tough with Canada over softwood lumber exports. Fifty-one senators have signed a letter to President Bush calling for vigorous efforts to reach a new agreement in the long-standing dispute. "It's time for the United States government to stand behind its producers," said Republican Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho.
U.S. imposes penalty on softwood lumber Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 22:19:12 Fri Aug 10, 2001 WASHINGTON - The U.S. has slapped a hefty penalty on Canadian softwood lumber imports, dealing a bitter blow to the billion-dollar industry.
Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE)

Grazing Lands
Livestock Dispute. March 1, 2000. NPR's Howard Berkes reports on the longstanding dispute between ranchers and environmentalists over livestock grazing on federal lands, at the heart of a case the Supreme Court hears today. The Court's ruling will affect about 20- thousand ranchers in 13 western states, who provide about two-percent of the nation's beef. (4:52)
Supreme Court Decision on Grazing. May 15, 2000. NPR's Howard Berkes reports on today's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold current federal grazing regulations. Some agricultural groups had challenged some of the Interior Department's decisions, including allowing grazing permits to be issued to people who were not planning to run livestock on the land. (2:30)

Supplementary Material on Mining and Forests
Conflicts Over Public Lands Policy
When National Political Leadership Changed in 2000

The above links to audio and video material illustrate much of what we could have covered in class concerning the 1872 mining law and how it continues to shape our behavior collectively, as a society, towards the natural resources of this country. In addition to the above resources please consider the following reports which bring the mining and forest issues "up to date" to some extent by reflecting the policies initiated in the final days of the Clinton administration and the the outlook of the current Bush administration.

Mining Issues

Federal Mining Regulations
Morning Edition, Friday, January 19, 2001
Kathy Witkowsky reports on Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt's efforts to toughen federal mining regulations as the Clinton administration comes to a close. (4:01)

Bush Retracts Clinton Regs
Morning Edition, Thursday, March 22, 2001
NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports that the Bush administration is rescinding environmental regulations that were approved in the last days of Bill Clinton's presidency. The latest rules to be reversed include one that requires the mining industry to post clean-up bonds and another that would reduce arsenic content in drinking water.Earlier, the Bush administration cancelled a rule that would have required lower carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. (4:58)

Spinning the Environment
Bush Calls His Policy Effective, Activists Call it Disastrous
July 29, 2002 -- Environmentalists have complained about the Bush administration "since the day it took office," says NPR's John Nielsen.
Among the issues listed by environmental advocate Greg Wetstone: limestone mining in the Everglades, energy development on public lands, dumping mining waste in lakes, an energy bill with subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. "That's the short list," says Nielsen.
For Morning Edition, Nielsen reports on how the White House and advocacy groups put their very different spins on the administration's environmental policy.
Environmentalists say the Bush administration's environmental policy amounts to major rollbacks in protection laws. Yet others say the administration should be applauded for trying to create order and sense out of a complicated and hard-to-enforce environmental program.
The new regulatory models call for industry compliance that's affordable, and in some cases, voluntary. Such a system will make it easier for businesses to obey environmental laws without going broke, say White House spokesmen. These proposals have strong support in the business community.
Environmental activists maintain they smell a rat. The changes being proposed will only encourage corporate irresponsibility, they claim, by making it easier to log, mine, drill for oil, and pollute the air and water.
Wetstone, chief political strategist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, says the Bush administration is the worst he's dealt with in more than 20 years as an environmental advocate.
Wetstone says controversial issues have emerged so frequently that it's like working in a fire station where the alarm is stuck on.

Strip Mining
Morning Edition, Tuesday, July 30, 2002
From member station WVPB, Dan Heyman reports on recent efforts by the coal industry to appeal a federal ruling about where mining waste can be dumped. Industry officials are basing their appeal on a claim that the greater impact will be felt on mining in Appalachia, and not in streams. (3:16)

Some Forest Issues

Forest Roads
All Things Considered, Friday, January 5, 2001
In the biggest land conservation act in decades, president Clinton has this afternoon approved an order putting nearly a third of the national forest land permanently off limits to road building and logging. NPR's John Nielsen reports. (5:00)

Outgoing President
Weekend Edition - Saturday, Saturday, January 6, 2001
President Clinton has been busy. Yesterday Mr. Clinton announced a sweeping new rule banning logging and drilling in some 60 million acres of national forests. NPR's Brian Naylor reports the action demonstrates how much an outgoing president can accomplish in his waning days. (4:30)

Road-Building Ban
Morning Edition, Tuesday, February 6, 2001
NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports that President Bush has delayed a ban on road-building and most logging in a third of the country's national forests. The ban was put in place in the final days of the Clinton administration. (2:02)

Forest Service Leader Resigns
Morning Edition, Wednesday, March 28, 2001
NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports that the chief of National Forest Service is stepping down. Mike Dombeck says his land management philosophy of stewardship over development is out of sync with the views of the Bush administration. (3:39)

Roadless No More
Morning Edition, Friday, May 11, 2001
NPR's John Nielsen reports on a ruling by a federal judge in Idaho to block a Clinton-era ban on road-building in a third of America's national forests. This ruling comes a week after the Bush Administration said it would let the rule take effect while working to revise it. (3:50)

In New Mexico, a Land Management 'Experiment'
     At Valles Caldera National Preserve, Locals Dictate Property Uses
Sept. 23, 2002 -- Protracted battles over public lands have prompted Congress to try something new: a national preserve that is not administered by federal land managers, but by a board of trustees. From the Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico, NPR's Howard Berkes reports on an unprecedented experiment that could be used on public land elsewhere.
Valles Caldera is a 90,000-acre volcanic bowl, with scenic overlooks Berkes says "seem like the top of the world." William deBuys, chairman of the Valles Caldera Trust, calls it "a hardworking landscape... You can see logging roads just corkscrewing up the side, one road after another. At times it's had tens of thousands of sheep grazing on it. It's been managed as a ranch for over a century, really. And yet it's still in good shape."
     The federal government bought the land two years ago, for $100 million. It's part of the national forest system, but it's not managed by the Forest Service, and not subject to forest regulations. Instead, it's overseen by a nine-member board of trustees appointed by the president. Mostly locals with backgrounds in fields such as ranching, forestry, government, and conservation, these trustees decide what activities to allow in the preserve based on their sense of what best serves the common good.
     The board, says Berkes, "is saddled with a complex mandate: preserve and protect, but consider logging, grazing, hunting, hiking and other uses, and try to be financially self-sufficient in the process. It's new, it's experimental -- and it's already controversial."
     For example, 700 cows now graze in the Caldera's grassy valleys -- a temporary arrangement to help 40 local ranchers stricken by drought. The ranchers are grateful, and they're pushing for more grazing. But they face opposition from critics, including John Horning of Forest Guardians, a group based in Santa Fe. "Every single stream on the Caldera is currently violating water quality standards because of the cumulative effects of logging, road-building and cattle grazing," Horning says. "And rather than abide by the precautionary principle and choose to do no harm, the Caldera board has already approved cattle grazing. And that's the first of what we fear will be a long line of examples of how not to manage a premier landscape."
     Currently, visitors are banned from Valles Caldera's rough dirt roads, so hikers are bused in for organized, escorted tours -- for a fee of more than $40 each. Hunters clamor for a shot at the elk herd. Native Americans expect unlimited access to sacred sites within the preserve. Some people, including David Henderson of the New Mexico chapter of the Audubon Society, worry about how the board will balance these competing claims, and meet the congressional mandate to make the preserve financially self-sufficient: "There's oil and gas resources there, there's timbering potential, there's geothermal potential, grazing, big elk herds, recreation," Henderson says. "There's great possibilities, great opportunities -- but with opportunities, there's room for abuse. And when you have to make money, do you let somebody hike on the property for $5 a day, or do you turn it over to an oil and gas wildcatter to see if they can, in a quick turn around, get you a couple of million in revenue? There's pressures there."
     DeBuys, who chairs the Valles Caldera Trust, says that scientists are now studying the preserve's streams, meadows, forests and wildlife. What they find will guide the board's decisions about future uses. "Where we're headed is into an experiment in land management that has never fully been undertaken before, and that's what's important about this place," he says. "We are collecting the data that will allow us to tell what direction this landscape is changing. And if it changes in a direction we don't like, then we know that's where the line is."

Forestry Stewardship Council.
The Forest Stewardship Council is an international non-profit organization founded in 1993 to support environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests.
It is an association of Members consisting of a diverse group of representatives from environmental and social groups, the timber trade and the forestry profession, indigenous people's organizations, community forestry groups and forest product certification organizations from around the world. Membership is open to all who are involved in forestry or forest products and share its aims and objectives