When Crevice Mining Group made moves in 2021 to establish a gold mine on lands directly upslope from the Yellowstone River and in plain view from Yellowstone National Park, the team who successfully stopped mining in Gardner Basin and Paradise Valley went to work.

Scott Christensen, executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, announced this week they had raised the $6.25 million dollars needed to buy out the mining group's claim.

"People care about the park, and the lands that surround it, its wildlife, its water resources," Christensen outlined. "Just a really great reminder of how important Yellowstone is to so many people all around the world, and of course here locally as well."

The campaign to protect nearly 1,600 acres of watershed and wildlife habitat adjacent to the park, which went public in May of this year, brought in over 1,300 donations from 47 states and seven countries. Critics of the buyout said it will mean the loss of royalties for state coffers, and good-paying jobs.

The coalition feared mining activities on the south slope of Crevice Mountain would put the Yellowstone River directly below at risk.

Christensen believes preserving landscapes is a better economic path than short term mining projects which, unlike outdoor recreation and wildlife tourism, typically see revenues leaving local communities.

"Yellowstone is more valuable than gold," Christensen asserted. "It generates hundreds of millions of dollars every year for local gateway communities. And that is all at risk on the northern boundary of the park if the river is polluted, if wildlife habitat is lost and destroyed."

The parcel is also one of the few designated places outside the park where Yellowstone bison can roam. The coalition plans to transfer ownership to the Custer Gallatin National Forest to open the area to the public, permanently protect it from future mining, and help wildlife.

"It's occupied grizzly bear habitat, and right in the middle of the northern range elk herd migration corridor," Christensen pointed out. "It's used by mule deer, big horn sheep, and all sorts of different animals that use the park itself."


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California took a big step Tuesday toward the goal of conserving 30% of land and waters by 2030. The Ocean Protection Council adopted a roadmap to decide which protected waters will count toward the goal.

"We're now at 21.9% of coastal waters conserved," said Michael Esgro, the council's senior biodiversity program manager and tribal liaison, "so more than three-quarters of the way to our 30 by 30 goal, here at the halfway point of the initiative. We have another almost 300,000 acres to conserve by 2030."

The Council refined the roadmap over the past year in a series of public workshops and consultations with tribes. The next meeting in September will delve further into the specific criteria for evaluating improvements in biodiversity in protected waters.

Rebecca Schwartz Lesberg, president of a conservation consulting firm, Coastal Policy Solutions, said advocates are pleased that the final draft of the roadmap zeroes in on threats specific to estuaries, where the rivers meet the sea.

"On the open coast, we're worried more about things like fishing and oil and gas extraction and impacts from shipping," she said. "In bays and estuaries, we're more concerned with impairments to water quality from urban runoff and lack of space for marsh migration under sea-level rise."

At Tuesday's hearing, tribal leaders praised the state and tribal cooperation that resulted in the new federal Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. However, Violet Sage Walker, chair of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, said the sanctuary needs more state support if it is to be counted in the 30 x 30 initiative, citing cuts at the federal level.

"I am concerned as national leadership has removed so much of the funding," she said, "so much of the staff and potentially co-management directives from marine sanctuaries and all protected areas."

The roadmap allows for some commercial fishing within the marine sanctuary. Council staff will report back on biodiversity in those waters over the next year.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.


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Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has announced plans to reintroduce a public lands sell-off amendment to the big budget reconciliation package in Congress, after a similar proposal was rejected in the U.S. House.

The House version would have facilitated the sale of thousands of acres of public land in Utah to local governments or private buyers. Backers of the idea said it could help address the housing shortage, improve public infrastructure and allow industries to expand. Similar arguments are now being made by Senator Lee.

Steve Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said the idea is "wildly out of step" with what Utahns want.

"We're all deeply concerned about the precedent that this could set," Bloch explained. "This would start to sell off the fabric of the American West to pay for tax cuts. And if it starts here in Utah and adjacent western states, it can really spread anywhere across the West and into Alaska."

Bloch pointed out the amendment would be only the beginning of public lands being sold. In recent polling, a majority of Utah voters said they oppose giving control over national public lands to state government.

Lee has been an advocate for selling them, especially in Utah, which is made up of about two-thirds public land. But the amendment could prove to be another hurdle for Republicans who want to pass the bill by July 4.

Bloch would like state leaders to have meaningful conversations with public lands advocates. He noted it is a group that includes people from all sides of the political spectrum.

"This is a far cry from your Schoolhouse Rock 'How a Bill Becomes a Law,'" Bloch asserted. "This is not some stand-alone piece of legislation. This is trying to insert public land sell-off into a budget bill, expressly for the purpose of selling them off to pay for tax cuts."

The budget bill now awaits revisions in the Senate and will then go back to the House. In the meantime, Bloch encouraged Utahns and other westerners to voice their opinions.

"We're encouraging our members and supporters to reach out to Senator Lee and tell him that he is simply out of touch with what Utahns, and other westerners, want," Bloch underscored.


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New Mexicans will gather in Las Cruces, Taos and other locations tomorrow for a day of action to defend national monuments and public lands.

The second Trump administration has renewed calls to sell off public lands to save the government money.

Miya King-Flaherty, program manager for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, said advocates will rally to prevent public lands from being turned over to states, industry groups and developers.

"We're really trying to inform the public about these senseless attacks on our public lands that the administration is moving forward with," King-Flaherty explained. "To call on our Congressional delegates in New Mexico to keep pushing back and letting them know that their constituents are behind them."

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., is pressuring Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to release a list of 400 national parks he cited in Congressional testimony which could be transferred to states or localities as the agency seeks to cut 30% of its operating budget.

On June 8, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt, an avid outdoorsman, signed the Antiquities Act, the first U.S. law to provide legal protection of cultural and natural resources on federal lands. It authorizes presidents to establish national monuments to protect historic and scientific sites.

King-Flaherty pointed out in contrast, the Trump administration's approach aims to maximize economic output from federal lands.

"These policies are really meant to allow corporations, multimillionaires, billionaires to exploit our lands at the expense of what the public wants," King-Flaherty contended. "It really just undercuts our democracy."

Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported the Trump administration had included New Mexico's Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in a list of six national monuments for potential mining activities and a reduction in protections. President Donald Trump has already signed a proclamation opening up the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing.