On August 14, 2026 the Forest Service announced the first official public comment opportunity regarding US Critical Materials’ plans to “explore” their Sheep Creek mine claim in the Bitterroot National Forest of Montana near the Idaho border. Location matters, and the Sheep Creek mine could hardly be in a worse place for a mine.
The approximately ten-square-mile area of the proposed Sheep Creek Rare Earth Exploration Project sits at the doorstep of Blue Joint Wilderness Study Area and the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, and within the Allan Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area. Wilderness values like solitude, silence, and remoteness could be impacted by the close proximity of industrial mining activity and associated development. The mine site is also in the headwaters of the West Fork of the Bitterroot River, home to threatened bull trout and a unique, non-hybridized and genetically diverse west-slope cutthroat trout population that has statewide significance.The mine site and surrounding area also supports iconic species of resident and migrating wildlife, like rocky mountain sheep, wolverine, elk, mountain goat, and Northern Rockies fisher. The area is also exceptional wildlife habitat suitable for recovery of locally extinct wildlife like Canada lynx and grizzly bears.
In fact, the proposed mining location includes a linkage area critical for connected wildlife habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recovery plan for grizzly bears, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, relies on natural migration into this very area. The Idaho/Montana state line near Sheep Creek is a wildland migration corridor through the densely populated Bitterroot Valley heading into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated Grizzly Bear Recovery Area. The proposed mine site interrupts this important and at-risk linkage area. Mining is fundamentally incompatible with preserving Wilderness, wildlife, and clean water. Incredibly, the Forest Service is conducting the environmental review using a “Categorical Exclusion” (CE), the most superficial analysis available to the agency. Use of CEs is prohibited where significant or unknown impacts are involved.
The Forest Service is accepting public comments on the Sheep Creek Rare Earth Exploration Project through September 13, 2026.
It is very difficult to stop a mine no matter how much damage it would do. A groundswell of public opposition is critical right now, so please submit your own comments by September 13. Comments are not limited to science and economics, though such comments can be effective. Your love for the wildlife, wildlands, and surrounding Wilderness count for a lot. |
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