Comments closed April 21
Oppose Locatable Minerals
Forest Service · National Forest System lands
- What
- The Forest Service is proposing to update its rules for hard-rock mining operations on National Forest System lands, covering everything from prospecting to reclamation. It's aimed at improving efficiency and transparency while minimizing surface resource damage, but it also explicitly supports expanding critical and strategic mineral extraction. Conservation professionals should watch this closely since it'll affect how mining impacts on soils, water, and ecosystems are regulated across all national forests.
- Where
- National Forest System lands
- How much
- We have no figure for this fight yet; the agency’s own words are under Case.
- Decided
- Comments closed April 21, 2026. No decision document is on file yet.Date from Federal Register ↗, read May 6, 2026.
Where these four lines come from
- WhatOur summary of the Federal Register 2026-03364 ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words under Case.
- WhereThe places and states the notice names, as PLAN read them.
- How muchNo verified figure is on the record for this fight.
- DecidedApril 21, 2026, from Federal Register, the document’s comment close date (federalregister.gov) ↗. Read May 6, 2026. The decision document is the one on file in PLAN’s record.
- Read from PLAN’s record November 9, 2026.
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.
No decision document is on PLAN’s record for this fight yet. When the agency’s decision lands, what it answered goes here.
PLAN's read: high threat
The Forest Service is proposing to update its rules for hard-rock mining operations on National Forest System lands, covering everything from prospecting to reclamation. It's aimed at improving efficiency and transparency while minimizing surface resource damage, but it also explicitly supports expanding critical and strategic mineral extraction. Conservation professionals should watch this closely since it'll affect how mining impacts on soils, water, and ecosystems are regulated across all national forests.
In the agency’s own words
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (Agency), is proposing to revise its regulations governing occupancy and use of the surface of National Forest System lands in connection with prospecting, exploration, development, mining, processing, and reclamation and reasonably incident uses authorized by U.S. mining laws and the Organic Administration Act of 1897. Regulatory revisions are needed to improve the efficiency and transparency of Forest Service regulation of locatable mineral operations conducted on National Forest System lands under the mining laws, and to minimize, to the fullest extent practic…
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: Moose in a summer wildflower meadow. It’s the country this decision sits in, not the site itself. More Than Just Parks.
In court on this ground
This fight isn’t bound to a land unit in PLAN’s record yet, so there are no court cases to show for its ground.
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.
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