Grand Canyon Issues
What Can You Do?
Write comments to support Secretary Salazar’s proposed ban on new uranium claims within Grand Canyon watersheds and call your congressional representatives and ask them to support the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act.
Social Media Links
Our accomplishments include a successful lawsuit and a 20-year ban on new mining claims.
Recent Accomplishments
- Joined with the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club in filing a suit that successfully challenged a “categorical exclusion” granted by the Kaibab National Forest after it approved a uranium exploration project without any analysis of its environmental impacts. As a result of this exclusion, Vane Minerals began drilling 39 test holes, some within 2 miles of the South Rim, in 2007.
- On January 9, 2012, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar ordered a 20-year moratorium on thousands of new mining claims that threaten to industrialize watersheds, which drain directly into Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. The ban was achieved through an unprecedented and formidable coalition of tribal, business, and civic leaders, hunting, fishing, ranching, and conservation groups, water, wildlife, city, and county officials, and nearly 300,000 individuals who commented favorably on the proposed moratorium. The decision culminates a successful, four-year campaign that the Trust initiated in response to a surge in new mining activity.
Please see our chronicle, which summarizes many of the actions, events, and articles that are shaping the future of uranium mining on public land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park.
Your donations and membership dues make our work in Grand Canyon possible.
