Dear John,

For the past three years, American Rivers has named Idaho’s South Fork Salmon River as one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® due to a proposal by a Canadian mining company, Midas Gold, to construct a massive open-pit gold and antimony mine in the river’s headwaters.

The proposed Stibnite Gold project would bury valleys with hundreds of millions of tons of mining waste, threaten wild salmon and steelhead, and likely would impair water quality for hundreds of years. Tell the U.S. Forest Service that it must fully analyze environmental impacts and a full range of alternatives before allowing this destructive project to move forward!

The South Fork Salmon River is a national treasure that provides critical spawning habitat for chinook salmon and steelhead as well as world class whitewater recreation opportunities and fishing. If allowed to proceed, the Stibnite Mine not only would harm water quality in the South Fork Salmon River, but it could also contaminate the Main Salmon River into which it flows – one of the most sought after permitted multi-day river runs in the country.

Last August, the US Forest Service released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Stibnite Gold project. The massive proposed cyanide vat leach mining operation would result in:

• Three massive open pits which together are nearly the size of 400 football fields
• Reroute creeks into artificial tunnels and ditches 
• Establish a 400-acre toxic tailings pond that would fill Upper Meadow Creek 
• Adversely impact one of Idaho’s most cherished rivers for centuries

Unfortunately, critical analysis on the environmental impacts of this project is deeply flawed or missing entirely.

Please take action to protect Idaho’s South Fork Salmon River today. Tell the Forest Service you expect a thorough and lawful environmental review!

For the Rivers,