What the proposal said, and what the decision did

No figure from the proposal has been checked against the decision on this fight yet. What the record does hold is the issues ledger below.

A three-year mining operation would cut roads, dig trenches, and sink a shaft into national forest land near Argenta, Montana.

Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.

In the agency’s own words

The Dillon Ranger District received a Plan of Operations for the Goldfinch Mine located approximately 3.6 miles northwest of Argenta. A 3 year exploration project including roads, trenches and shaft that will be reclaimed after exploration is complete.

Forest Service project page ↗

The groups on this fight

4 groups predicted likely to care in Montana

Predicted likely to care is a guess from the group's sourced work in Montana, with no link to this decision. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.

• American Prairie

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  American Prairie, Montana: Defending its own bison herd, formally protesting BLM's revocation of grazing permits on 63,000 public-land acres.

• Defenders of Wildlife

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, Montana: Named plaintiff in the Rock Creek Mine case, which turned on threatened grizzly bears and bull trout.

• Earthjustice

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, Montana: Counsel in the long-running litigation against the Rock Creek and Montanore mines proposed beneath the wilderness.

• Western Watersheds Project

  Predicted likely to care · a guess

  American Prairie, Montana: Filed a protest against BLM's revocation of the bison grazing permits.

Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.

Who signs it

The notice names no signer PLAN could read. PLAN names a decision-maker only when the document names one.

The ground

The window has closed, so there’s no watch to set on it here.

The photograph on this page: Cutthroat trout, caught and released on a western river. It’s the country this decision sits in, not the site itself. More Than Just Parks.

In court on this ground

No court case we track is over Beaverhead National Forest and Deerlodge National Forest.

Who holds the vote

PLAN’s record doesn’t tie a member of Congress to this fight yet. The scorecard grades the votes and bills that decide public lands; nothing joins a vote or a bill to this decision, so there’s no member to name here without guessing.