The purposes of this report are 1) to shed light on abandoned mining sites and their impacts on public lands; 2) to highlight the accomplishments of the BLM, the Forest Service, and project partners in addressing abandoned mine lands (AML) problems; and 3) to describe the outlook for future AML reclamation efforts. Examples throughout the report offer insight into the environmental, health, safety, and economic effects often associated with these sites and illustrate the lasting and acid mine drainage leaching from the positive impacts of reclamation activities on formerly mined lands.
"The public lands of the western United States comprise some 450 million acres of grassland, steppe land, canyons, forests, and mountains. It's an American commons, and it is under assault as never before. Journalist Christopher Ketcham has been documenting the confluence of commercial exploitation and governmental misconduct in this region for over a decade. His revelatory book takes the reader on a journey across these last wild places, to see how capitalism is killing our great commons. Ketcham begins in Utah, revealing the environmental destruction caused by unregulated public lands livestock grazing, and exposing rampant malfeasance in the federal land management agencies, who have been compromised by the profit-driven livestock and energy interests they are supposed to regulate. He then turns to the broad effects of those corrupt politics on wildlife. He tracks the Department of Interior's failure to implement and enforce the Endangered Species Act--including its stark betrayal of protections for the grizzly bear and the sage grouse--and investigates the destructive behavior of U.S. Wildlife Services in their shocking mass slaughter of animals that threaten the livestock industry. Along the way, Ketcham talks with ecologists, biologists, botanists, former government employees, whistleblowers, grassroots environmentalists and other citizens who are fighting to protect the public domain for future generations. This Land is a colorful muckraking journey--part Edward Abbey, part Upton Sinclair--exposing the rot in American politics that is rapidly leading to the sell-out of our national heritage"--
Whether you are a geologist, history buff, or rockhound, this booklet will be a helpful guide to Utah?s mining districts. The booklet is divided up into three parts: the first part provides general information on what a mining district is, how many mining districts are in Utah, types of mineral deposits found at these districts, and landownership issues. The second part includes individual mining-district discussions containing information on location, production, history, geology, mineralogy, and current/future operations. The third part includes a glossary of geologic terms and other useful resources in the appendices, such as a descriptive list of minerals found in the districts, geologic time scale, and a list of mineral resources of the mining districts.
