By David O. Williams 7/20/09 10:25 AM
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today issued a notice of withdrawal of nearly 1 million acres of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service land around the Grand Canyon from new mining claims for the next two years to allow for more study and analysis.
The move drew the praise of conservation groups such as the Pew Environment Group, which has been hammering on the antiquated 1872 mining law and the pressing need for reform in light of thousands of new mining claims for minerals such as uranium, copper and gold in and around some of the nation’s most treasured national parks.
“We are pleased that the Obama administration has encouraged Congress to protect our national parks and other special places by modernizing the country’s 1872 mining law,” Jane Danowitz, U.S. public lands program director at the Pew Environment Group, said in a release. “Clearly a law that is powerless to prevent mining just outside one of the most iconic treasures in the world needs to be reformed.”
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