A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2022
OREGON
New Oregon mining boom could be a bust for sage grouse
BY BRADLEY W. PARKS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
McDERMITT, Ore. — Ka-
tie Fite crouched behind some
waist-high sagebrush, and her
dog Bell nestled in the plant’s
cozy cavity to shield from
howling winds.
It was the first Saturday in
April, peak mating season for
sage grouse on a remote stretch
of the Oregon-Nevada border.
From where Fite and her dog
sat, they could see more than a
dozen male grouse displaying
their tail feathers and issuing
their signature zip-popping call
to bring all the girls to the yard.
All around the lek — the
flat, open areas where sage
grouse congregate during mat-
ing season — were wooden
stakes marking where mining
companies may one day scrape
away this crucial habitat to get
at the minerals contained in
the cake-soft earth of the Mc-
Dermitt Caldera.
The old supervolcano strad-
dling the state line is laced with
some of the highest concentra-
tions of lithium in the United
States, making it a prime tar-
get for miners and prospectors
looking to feed a growing hun-
ger for batteries to store renew-
able energy and power electric
vehicles.
It’s also some of the coun-
try’s best remaining sage
grouse habitat, which has de-
clined precipitously in the
past century.
“There’s still hope for sage
grouse here, unlike many
other areas,” said Fite, who’s
monitored sage grouse for
decades and now serves as
public lands director for the
conservation group Wildlands
Defense. “But it’ll be a death
knell for sage grouse out here
if industrial mega-mining for
lithium takes place.”
Just a few years ago, the Mc-
Dermitt Caldera was off-lim-
its to new mining claims to
protect sage grouse. But rule
changes under the Trump ad-
ministration opened the door
to extractive industry, and in-
dustry walked in.
Multiple companies have
staked mining claims in south-
east Oregon and are issuing
ness. The industry has re-
sponded.
A wooden stake marks the
Jindalee Resources mining
claim amid a sea of sagebrush
in the McDermitt Caldera on
the Oregon-Nevada border Fri-
day, April 1, 2022. The caldera
is labeled by the federal govern-
ment as the best of the best re-
maining sage grouse habitat.
Jindalee currently holds the
only permit to explore for lith-
ium in Oregon, but at least two
other companies — Aurora En-
ergy Metals and ACME Lith-
ium — have nearby claims they
say could hold promising lith-
ium deposits.
Advocates for the West chal-
lenged the Trump administra-
tion’s decision to abandon the
Nick Myatt/Oregon Department of Fish and WIldlife, File mineral withdrawal in court
Sage grouse males inflate their air sacs during the spring mating ritual.
and won. As a result, the BLM
is again considering a proposal
Fite say the damage to sage
torney for the environmen-
bold statements about the re-
to block new mining claims in
grouse habitat has already
tal law firm Advocates for
gion’s lithium prospects to
prime sage grouse habitat, but
the West, said the decision
lure investors. Meanwhile, the started with exploratory
it’s unclear how doing so now
drilling tearing up patches of to keep sage grouse off the
Biden administration is mak-
would affect existing claims in
ing a big push to build a stand- sagebrush, and that any new endangered species list was
southeast Oregon.
mining would be devastating. predicated on preventing new
alone battery supply chain in
Stellberg said every bit of
“This would represent a to- mines on those acres, called
the U.S., further filling the min-
habitat disrupted by mining
tal, tragic loss,” Fite said. “And I sagebrush focal areas.
ing industry’s sails.
or exploration, especially in
believe it has to be stopped.”
“The concern is that if you
The U.S. is heavily reliant
well-preserved areas like the
allow development to go for-
on foreign imports of raw ma-
McDermitt Caldera, sends sage
ward that there aren’t actually
terials used in batteries, in-
Open for business
grouse closer to Endangered
cluding lithium. That leaves
Sage grouse need sagebrush enough concrete mitigation ac- Species Act protection.
tions to protect the bird in ar-
the supply chain, and thus the to survive. They use the plant
“If this is where we’re going
country’s transition off fossil for food, brooding and shelter. eas that are being mined,” Stell- to be allowing mines to go for-
fuels, vulnerable to geopoliti- The birds do best in areas with berg said.
ward, then we’re left with low-
Interior Secretary Sally Jew- er-quality habitat that just can’t
cal conflicts like the U.S. trade continuous, abundant sage-
ell, under President Barack
war with China and Russia’s
brush and minimal to no hu-
sustain the number of birds
Obama, proposed the mineral that we need to allow the spe-
war on Ukraine.
man disturbance.
“Clearly, the U.S. needs
Excessive livestock grazing, withdrawal. That triggered a
cies to persist,” Stellberg said.
guaranteed domestic supply,” oil and gas production, resi-
two-year period during which
said Lindsay Dudfield, ex-
dential development, wildfire
sagebrush focal areas were
Drilling’s early toll
ecutive director of Jindalee
and mining have chewed away off-limits to new mining claims
Fite slung a camera over
Resources Limited, an Aus-
about half of the sage grouse
while the full proposal under- her shoulder and set out on
tralian company exploring a
habitat the American West his- went environmental review.
ranch roads to get an up-
large lithium deposit in Ore- torically supported.
But President Donald
close look at the Jindalee
gon’s Malheur County. “And
Population declines sent the Trump’s first Interior secretary, mining claim, which covers
so you’ve seen bipartisan sup- birds hurtling toward the fed- Ryan Zinke, made quick work thousands of acres on the Or-
port for the development of
eral endangered species list
of unraveling the sage grouse
egon side of the caldera north
critical minerals projects in
before 2015 when U.S. govern- plans when he took office.
of McDermitt Creek.
the United States growing.”
ment agencies adopted alterna-
Under Zinke, the Bureau of
The company drilled 11
Companies touting south- tive plans to try to save them.
Land Management allowed the holes in December to try to
east Oregon’s mineral poten-
Among other protections,
temporary mineral withdrawal increase its confidence in the
tial, including Jindalee, are
the sage grouse plans rec-
to expire and abandoned the
amount of lithium contained in
several years away at the ear- ommended a “mineral with-
environmental review of a per- its claim. So far, Jindalee esti-
liest from developing mines
drawal” to block new mining
manent mineral withdrawal in mates it has the second-largest
if they get to that point at
claims on 10 million acres of
2017, saying “future mining is known lithium deposit in the
all. Any mine would require
the best remaining habitat in
not a significant threat to sage United States.
state and federal approval that the country — including the
grouse habitat.”
Despite extensive mapping
could face legal challenges.
McDermitt Caldera.
That decision opened the
and monitoring by state and
But conservationists like
Sarah Stellberg, a staff at-
McDermitt Caldera for busi-
federal agencies marking the
area as key habitat for sage
grouse, Lindsay Dudfield says
Jindalee is not aware of birds
lekking on its claim.
“We understand that there
are no sage grouse leks on
our claims,” Dudfield said
in an email, adding that the
company still does not drill
in winter or spring to mini-
mize impact on breeding.
Signs of sage grouse are ev-
erywhere in the claim area,
from stray feathers poking
out of the dirt to piles of the
birds’ Cheeto-like scat. Not to
mention the nearby leks. Fite
says neither Jindalee nor the
government agencies regulat-
ing its activity have taken the
time to look for sage grouse
on the claim.
Over the course of multi-
ple visits, Fite has documented
new roadlets created by heavy
machinery, piles of dead sage-
brush and trash. She called the
damage from exploratory drill-
ing “classic habitat fragmenta-
tion” that, even if legal and per-
mitted, is terrible for the sage
grouse. Breaks in the continu-
ous carpet of sagebrush can, for
instance, invite fire-prone inva-
sive plants like cheatgrass.
“They’re gonna destroy the
habitat in the exploration alone
before they even get to the
mining,” Fite said.
Fite faults the BLM for al-
lowing mineral exploration
to go forward in such sensi-
tive habitat when the agency’s
charge under the 2015 federal
sage grouse plans is to protect
the birds. BLM spokesperson
Brian Hires confirmed in an
email that Jindalee’s claims are
within a sagebrush focal area,
the agency’s label for the best of
the best sage grouse habitat.
However, because the Trump
administration scrapped the
proposed mineral withdrawal
in 2017, “these lands have been
open” to new mining claims,
Hires said.
BLM regulations say any
company exploring for min-
erals just needs to notify the
agency of planned drilling ac-
tivity at least 15 days before
work begins.
See, Grouse/Page A7
Baker County
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DIRECTORY
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