On the doorstep of Yellowstone National Park, an area known internationally for its abundant wildlife and spectacular scenery, a Vancouver-based junior mining exploration company is causing community ructions over its plan to search for gold at Emigrant Gulch, a fragile ecosystem about four kilometres from the Yellowstone River and 24 kilometres from the park boundary.

Lucky Minerals Inc., a company that lists only the Montana proposal in its financial statements, wants to drill up to 46 core holes on privately-owned land to assess gold, copper, silver and molybdenum deposits in an area where there has been mining in the streambed since the 1880s.

If the results are positive and permits are issued, the company will look for investment to construct an underground mine, which could be in operation in 10 to 15 years, Shawn Dykes, Lucky vice-president, said in an interview.

But the proposal has brought overwhelming opposition from residents who are concerned about both the environmental effects and the company’s finances, which they fear are not solid enough to ensure the area is remediated.

“Lucky Minerals doesn’t appear to have the money to conduct the exploration they’re proposing, let alone the reclamation," said Beth Kampschror of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, after combing through company reports showing that on June 30 the company’s cash balance was $123,838.

A note by the auditors points out that the company will need additional capital to finance ongoing exploration.

“The company has limited financial resources, has no source of operating income and has no assurance that additional funding will be available to it for further exploration and development of its projects,” says the report.

Map of mining claims and leases acquired by Lucky Minerals in Emigrant Gulch, Montana. Emigrant Peak is in the clouds to the background right. Credit: William Campbell.

The cost of filling in the core holes could be about $11,000 for each hole, according to estimates by Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality — which means the company does not have the cash on hand to do the necessary work, said Liz Purdy of Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

But the financial concerns are dismissed by Dykes who said the holes will be filled with cement at a cost of about $2,000 each, and the work will be done to the satisfaction of the Department of Environmental Quality and the Forest Service.

“We will make sure the bats are happy and the frogs are happy and no one can go in and kill themselves,” he said.

It is not unusual for junior exploration companies to have limited available cash, Dykes said.

“Exploration companies never have money because they are always spending it. We go to investors, who invest in the stock and then we go and spend it and then there’s no money left,” he said.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality, in a draft environmental assessment has concluded that, with mitigation, environmental impacts from the exploration will not be significant and has sent the proposal for a 60-day public comment period, ending December 12.

All comments will be taken into account and a decision is likely to be several months away, said public policy director Kristi Ponozzo.

Although there has been a history of companies failing to live up to reclamation requirements, there is now strong bonding legislation and it is strictly enforced, Ponozzo said.

“Before they can do any exploration they have to post their bond. If they can’t post their bond they can’t do any exploration,” she said.

Opposition to the plan is coming from a wide swath of Paradise Valley residents including the Yellowstone Gateway Business Coalition, which describes itself as a pro-business, pro-property rights group “representing thousands of hardworking employees and their families.”

“While not anti-mining, we recognize not all mining is created equal. Our gateway communities — surrounding Yellowstone — are no place for sulphide gold mines,” says a statement from the group, which is distributing lawn signs saying “Yellowstone is more valuable than gold.”

If the natural beauty of the area is compromised, the tourism-based economy will also collapse, say business owners and residents, who are skeptical about claims that a mine would bring prosperity to the area.

“The economic gain is going to be so compressed, it’s going to be like a gold rush, short and fast with a massive amount of damage and it will be gone,” said Colin Davis, owner of Chico Hot Springs Resort and Spa, in a video prepared for the business coalition.

The area has a history of companies arriving, deciding the profit is not high enough and leaving without cleaning up, says Bryan Wells, owner of Emigrant Creek Cabins.

“These mining companies have come here over the years and they have made all sorts of promises — everything they are going to do for the community,” Wells said.

“When things don’t pan out they get amnesia and forget all about the promises they have made and they leave — and they leave a mess,” he said.

According to Dykes those problems occurred in the bad old days when rules were not enforced and companies walked away from their responsibilities.

“You can’t do that today,” he said.

Those fighting against the mine scored a victory this week when U.S Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recognized the importance of protecting the gateway to Yellowstone with a two-year moratorium on gold exploration on public lands in the area.

The business coalition and environmental groups hope the time-out on mining, will turn into a legislated mining ban on the 30,000 acres of public land included in the moratorium.

“Today’s decision buys the community and the Congressional delegation time to discuss and consider the prospect of a longer-term solution,” said Theresa Pierno, National Parks Conservation Association president.

“We call for a full science-backed review of the resources at stake on these lands and the permanent protection of this priceless landscape.”

Although the Lucky Minerals exploration would take place on private land and would not be affected by the moratorium, the original proposal included exploration on public land. That application was withdrawn because the study would have taken two years, but there are hopes it could be revived in the future, Dykes said.

Another application, by a different company, for exploration in an area closer to the Yellowstone Park entrance is on hold because proponents have not yet provided enough information.

Although the moratorium does not affect the private land proposal, it sends a message on the importance of the area, both to wildlife and the local economy.

“Mining in Yellowstone’s gateway not only threatens our jobs and our quality of life. If developed, these mines would industrialize critical habitat for grizzly bears, cut off migratory corridors for elk and risk poisoning the Yellowstone River with acid runoff,” said Michelle Uberuaga, Park County Environmental Society executive director.

Vancouver Company At Centre of Gold-Mining Controversy on Edge of #Yellowstone National Park https://t.co/2hoVvmdZur #bcpoli #cdnpoli #YVR

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) November 23, 2016

The political battle to protect the area from mining has been led by Montana Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat and it is not yet known how the Donald Trump administration will view the push for protective legislation.

Tester, in a letter to the federal government, sent before Monday’s moratorium announcement, said mining is not appropriate near the entrance to Montana’s first national park.

“The local economy in the Paradise Valley and Gardiner Basin is diverse and thriving due to the quality of life, opportunities for world-class fishing and other outdoor recreation, and the millions of visitors that Yellowstone draws through these communities every year. The prospect of large-scale mining operations threatens the unique nature of this area and the livelihoods of the people who live there,” he wrote.

The broad community concern about the mining proposals should send a strong message to whoever is in charge politically, said Jenny Harbine, Earthjustice staff attorney, pointing to devastating environmental impacts from other Montana mines.

“This is a project that threatens our way of life,” she said.

It is also troubling that representatives of Lucky Minerals have been entirely absent from the community, Harbine said.

“In other areas at least the company showed up,” she said.

The community has every right to be nervous, said Ugo Lapointe, MiningWatch Canada program coordinator.

“Generally speaking, impacted communities should always be wary of small, penny-stock companies, with little or no financial capacity, as they can’t afford best environmental and social practices — let alone even respect environmental regulations,” he said.

“In other words, we find repeatedly in our work that there is a strong correlation between increased socio-environmental risks and corporate financial risks.”

Canadian mining companies have come under increased scrutiny since the tailings dam at Mount Polley collapsed in 2014 sending 24-million cubic metres of waste and sludge flooding into nearby lakes and rivers.

Main image: Chico Hots Springs Resort in foreground with Emigrant Peak and Emigrant Gulch proposed mining area behind the locally owned world famous resort. Aerial flight by Bruce Gordon-EcoFlight. Photo by William Campbell.

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Gravel-bed rivers and their floodplains are the lifeblood of ecosystems and need to be allowed to run and flood unimpeded if species are to be protected and communities are to cope with climate change, a ground-breaking scientific study has found.

The broad valleys formed by rivers flowing from glaciated mountains, such as those found throughout B.C. and Alberta, are some of the most ecologically important habitats in North America, according to the team of scientists who have done the first extensive study of the full range of species that rely on gravel-bed rivers, ranging from microbes to bears. The paper was published online Friday in Science Advances.

In the region that stretches from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming to the northern Yukon, gravel-bed river flood plains support more than half the plant life. About 70 per cent of the area’s bird species use the floodplain, while deer, elk, caribou, wolves and grizzly bears use the plains for food, habitat and as important migration corridors.

While everyone knows that fish rely on rivers, the scientists found that species such as cottonwood trees need the river flood to reproduce and the ever-changing landscape of changing channels and shifting gravel and rocks supports a complex food web.

Gravel-bed rivers are much more than water flowing through the channel, said lead author Ric Hauer, director of the University of Montana’s Center for Integrated research on the Environment.

“The river flows over and through the entire floodplain system, from valley wall to valley wall, and supports an extraordinary diversity of life. The river is so much bigger than it appears to be at first glance,” he said.

But the floodplains are endangered worldwide as the flat, productive valleys are attractive for agriculture, roads or houses and it is time to look at gravel bed rivers with new eyes, said Harvey Locke, co-founder of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and one of the study’s authors.

“A wild and free river drives the life support system across the whole landscape and we need to keep them happy,” Locke said in an interview with DeSmog Canada.

“We need to let them be rivers and run free and do our development respecting that need instead of trying to control them.”

That means not building dams or levees that prevent essential flooding, Locke said.

“Flooding is critical to the health of the riparian system and, by extension, organisms across the whole landscape and, when you put in a dam for climate change mitigation you are killing that process. It’s a catastrophe not only for the immediate ecological effects, but it also puts a huge barrier to connectivity so species cannot go up the river to adapt to climate change,” Locke said.

Hydro dams are often touted as green energy, but, in reality they are a huge problem, not a solution to climate change, he said.

Locke emphasized that the scientific study does not look at the controversy behind individual projects such as the planned Site C dam in northeastern B.C., but said he personally regards Site C as a prime example of the problem.

Existing dams on the Peace River have already had a devastating effect downstream, he said.

“And the horror of wrecking more of that beautiful river valley around Fort St. John is an example of not thinking clearly. It’s very bad for the resilience of the landscape,” he said.

Gravel-bed rivers are found mainly in the western U.S. and Canada — and include major rivers such as the Columbia, Fraser, Flathead, Mackenzie and Yukon — and every part of B.C is affected by them, said Locke, who is hoping the scientific paper will attract the attention of groups such as planners and politicians who make development decisions.

“The really big point is that gravel-bed river systems are the heart of the whole landscape and you don’t want to clog the arteries attached to the heart, which is what a dam does,” he said.

Even in protected areas such as Yellowstone and Banff national parks, humans have altered the floodplains, the scientists found.

Hauer said the increasing pressures of climate change mean that species need access to intact gravel-bed ecosystems in order to survive.

“These systems must be protected and those that are already degraded must be restored,” he said.

Biologist and grizzly bear expert Michael Proctor, of Birchdale Ecological, one of the report’s authors, said the research highlighted how river systems are a focus of regional connectivity, not only for grizzly bears, but for all species.

“This paper helped me realize the amazing significance of gravel bed river systems, not just river valleys, as an ecological focus and arena of so much biodiversity and ecological processes,” Proctor said.

“It’s like the narrow pinch point in an hour-glass of influence. Everything is influenced by that pinch point.”

Human settlement and activities in those river valleys and floodplains reduces their biodiversity and significance, Proctor said.

“We need to leave and even restore some portions of these river systems to more of a natural condition,” he said.

Photo: Flathead River by Harvey Locke

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