Smith River Protection
What makes the Smith such a remarkable place?
Located in west-central Montana, the Smith is the only river in Montana that requires a recreational permit, awarded via a lottery system, in order to float the corridor. Boaters embark from Camp Baker near White Sulphur Springs, and travel nearly 60 miles over several days, camping beneath towering limestone cliffs in a canyon that seems to go on forever.
Jaw dropping views await around every bend and the river features world-class angling for wild brown and rainbow trout. But fishing is such a small piece of the Smith’s story: it’s a place of great recreational, ecological and cultural value for many people who have visited this valley from around the globe for thousands of years. Floating the Smith is “a bucket-list trip” for many people and those that know it well will drop everything when given a chance to return.
Why is the Smith under threat and what is MTU doing to defend it?
In 2014, a foreign owned mining company, Sandfire Resources, Inc. applied for a copper mine exploration permit on a major headwater tributary to the Smith River, Sheep Creek. Sandfire proposes to mine in a sulphide ore body, which makes this mine a high risk for producing acid mine drainage. Acid mine drainage is environmentally devastating and requires permanent water treatment.
On April 9, 2020, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) released their Record of Decision(ROD) permitting the Black Butte Mine. Montana Trout Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, and a coalition of partner organizations, including Montana Environmental Information Center, American Rivers, and Earth Works! initiated legal action to stop the mine on June 4, 2020.
Our coalition asserts that DEQ failed to adequately protect the Smith by awarding a mining permit to Sandfire and ignored the comments of a record 12,000+ people in opposition to the Black Butte project. We also believe the mine threatens Montanans’ constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment. On April 11, 2022, a Montana District Court agreed and vacated the mining permit on July 5, 2022. Unfortunately, on Feb. 26, 2024, the Montana Supreme Court overruled the lower court and reinstated the company’s permit. We are awaiting another hearing on our challenges to the mine’s water rights claims before the court later this spring.
What can I do to help save the Smith?
While the time for public comment on the Mine has passed, Sandfire and others have nearly 700 mining claims on public lands in the watershed. MTU and our partners are continuing to protect the Smith by encouraging the U.S. Forest Service to stop potential public land mining in the area through a mineral withdrawal. Add your name to our petition asking the USFS to take this essential step to preserve the Smith for future generations.
In addition, MTU continues to incur significant costs in our fight to defend the Smith. Please visit our donation page to make a contribution today.
Smith River Protection Timeline
A visual history of our fight to protect the Smith.
Learn More About the Smith River and the Mine
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The “richest acre” is Camp Baker
For “Throwback Thursday” – a social-media thing where people post about things in the past – Tintina Resources posted a photo of a Montana historic-point sign informing travelers about the Smith River Valley. Tintina Resources loved that the sign says the Smith River Valley contained the “richest acre of ground in the world” if you…
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Drink a beer for the Smith River
On May 22, head on over to the Ten Mile Creek Brewery at 48 N. Last Chance Gulch in Helena from 5-8 p.m. to get your Smith River pint glass and a beer for $10. Now’s the time to step up to help save the Smith and it’s not bad when you can get a…
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Modern mining? Company sell-outs
Let’s say – just hypothetically – that there was a mining company out there run by people who could guarantee that a small mine wouldn’t cause any environmental problems. This is obviously hypothetical because no such company or mine exists. If it did, it would be good, but there would be no guarantee that company…