Keep the Medicine Bow WILD Alternative
Where To Write
Key Issues

A proposed mining development in the Medicine Bow National Forest is threatening to destroy the heart of the Mowry Peak Roadless Area and Potential Wilderness.

Wetland in the Mowry Peak Roadless Area © Biodiversity Conservation Alliance

Located in the eastern Sierra Madre of southeastern Wyoming, the Mowry Peak Roadless Area is a hidden wilderness gem of the Medicine Bow ( Information on Mowry Peak and a map). Its ruggedness, high elevation, and remoteness has kept the area pristine, providing incredible backcountry opportunities. The area supports high elevation wetlands that are vital to sustaining forest health. Because of decades of extensive logging, road building, and other development, only a handful of areas on the Bow remain natural and special enough to qualify for wilderness protection. Mowry Peak is one of those areas, yet a Forest Service mining proposal will leave the heart of this vital wildland a developed mess.

The Lost Cabin Mine lies at the top of Vulcan Mountain, a beautiful mountaintop in the heart of the Mowry Peak Roadless Area. Under the Forest Service's proposal, heavy machinery will be brought to the Lost Cabin Mine to develop old mine sites, dig up historic mine tailings, dig new prospect pits, and rebuild old roads that are nearly reclaimed. The proposal could open the door for more extensive and damaging mining in the Mowry Peak Roadless Area.

Specifically, the Lost Cabin mining proposal calls for the reconstruction of 1.6 miles of road within the Mowry Peak Roadless Area to facilitate heavy machinery and other vehicle travel. Heavy machinery would be brought into the Roadless Area to dig out four old prospect pits and dig four new ones. Trails for heavy machinery would be built in the roadless area to access the prospect pits. In total, the operation plans to go on for five years.

Under the Lost Cabin mining proposal, parts of the Mowry Peak Roadless Area would no longer qualify for wilderness protection and would lose all backcountry value. Because the mining activities will occur on top of Vulcan Mountain, a very prominent and popular mountain in the Roadless Area, the development will be highly visible and disruptive. Habitat for rare and imperiled species, like the threatened lynx and the imperiled boreal toad, also stand to suffer immensely. Water quality is also threatened. Not only are high elevation wetlands at risk from the proposed mining, but streams face a potential for increased sediment and possibly heavy metal pollution and acid mine drainage.

The Forest Service is currently asking for comments on the Lost Cabin mining proposal. Now is our time to weigh in. If history is any lesson, mining is a boom and bust activity, possibly providing short-term profits, yet leaving long-lasting scars upon the landscape for many generations. The natural, irreplaceable values of Mowry Peak must not be sacrificed as part of the Lost Cabin mining proposal.

Please write, call, or e-mail Melissa Martin with the Forest Service on or before December 15 to express your support for protecting Mowry Peak. Tell Melissa that the Forest Service can and should pursue a No Action Alternative for the Lost Cabin mining proposal to fully protect wilderness, wildlife, and water quality.

Write:
Melissa Martin
Medicine Bow National Forest
2468 Jackson St.
Laramie, WY 82070

Call:
(307) 745-2371

E-mail:
mmmartin@fs.fed.us.

Points to Include in Your Letter

• The Lost Cabin mining proposal threatens to eliminate portions of the Mowry Peak Roadless Area from wilderness consideration. Please ensure that no part of the Roadless Area is eliminated from wilderness consideration and that wilderness qualities are fully protected.
• The Lost Cabin mining proposal threatens the solitude, naturalness, and backcountry recreation opportunities found in the Mowry Peak Roadless Area. Please ensure that these values are not jeopardized or adversely impacted in any way.
• The Lost Cabin mining proposal poses tremendous impacts to the visual quality of the Mowry Peak Roadless Area because of its location on top of Vulcan Mountain. Please ensure that visual quality is not degraded in any way.
• The Lost Cabin mining proposal threatens water quality and wetlands. Please ensure the proposed mining complies with the Clean Water Act and regulations in place to protect wetlands and water quality.
• The Lost Cabin mining proposal threatens to degrade habitat for the threatened lynx. Please ensure that lynx habitat is not adversely impacted and that opportunities for lynx restoration in the Medicine Bow are not jeopardized.
• Please fully address the impacts of future and more extensive mine development that might occur should the Lost Cabin mining proposal go through.
• Please fully address the cumulative impacts of past mining to wilderness, wildlife, and water quality.
• In assessing the costs and benefits of the Lost Cabin mining proposal, please give fair and objective consideration to the value of the Mowry Peak Roadless Area and the loss of this value that would occur if the proposal is authorized.
• Please select the No Action Alternative for the Lost Cabin mining proposal to fully protect wilderness, wildlife, and water quality.