4 groups have it in their care
BLM land in Oregon, 7,200 acres, managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
The defenders
4 groups are on the record for McDermitt Caldera, each tied to it by a source our editors read, in the order they carry the weight. Give directly; nothing routes through us.
Leading the fight
Friends Group · Bend, OR
Anchors the McDermitt Caldera Coalition on the Oregon side and fought the BLM’s December 2025 approval of the Jindalee/HiTech lithium exploration project through the permitting process.
18 staff + 115 volunteers75¢ to the workFounded 1987
On the ground
Legal · Hailey, ID
Co-plaintiff in the Thacker Pass litigation that won a 2023 ruling that BLM violated FLPMA in approving the mine’s waste dump.
18 staff85¢ to the workFounded 1993
Also in the fight
Advocacy · Oakland, CA
Oregon chapter formally opposed HiTech Minerals’ 267-well exploration plan during the March 2025 BLM comment period and mobilized members through its eastern Oregon organizer.
10,895 volunteers81¢ to the workFounded 1892
Watchdog · Washington, DC
Coalition partner opposing the McDermitt Exploration Project, criticizing the fast-tracked December 2025 BLM approval and pressing for 1872 Mining Law reform.
58 staff + 11 volunteers75¢ to the workFounded 1988
On the ground in Oregon
More ways in
The situation
In December 2025, the BLM approved exploratory drilling across 7,200 acres of public land in the McDermitt Caldera, a volcanic landscape straddling the Oregon-Nevada border that holds one of the largest lithium deposits on Earth. The approval lets an Australian mining company drill at 168 sites and build 20 miles of new roads through habitat critical to greater sage-grouse and Lahontan cutthroat trout. The Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, whose homeland this is, was not meaningfully consulted. Exploration is the first step toward an open-pit mine with a projected 63-year operating life.
Source: Earthworks · December 8, 2025
No public comment window is open on McDermitt Caldera right now. A call script is ready on the Public Lands Action Network, and the groups above are how the fight gets funded and argued in the meantime.
Your move
Straight to their own donation page. Your dollar never passes through us.
Their donation page ↗SpeakCall your representativesA ready call script on McDermitt Caldera, plus any comment window as it opens.
Public Lands Action NetworkFollowWatch the mapEvery threatened place in the country, tracked, with who stands for each.
Threatened Lands MapBuild my lineup around McDermitt Caldera: the leading group here opens it, and the other seats fill from this record.
4 groups on the record, Oregon Natural Desert Association with 18 staff + 115 volunteers. That is who is holding it. Find your way in.
