On June 15th, Congressman Raul Grijalva and Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the “Save Oak Flat Act” into the House and Senate respectively. This legislation seeks to repeal the Resolution Copper land exchange bill that will transfer 2,400 acres of public Forest Service land at Oak Flat in Arizona to a foreign mining company as soon as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is completed.

Photo courtesy of Manny Rangel

The land exchange bill was attached to the 2014 “must-pass” National Defense Authorization Act at the last minute without any public input or scrutiny. If Resolution Copper becomes the owner of this land, they intend to operate a huge block-cave copper mine at Oak Flat that will destroy all of the rock climbing and bouldering, as well as lands that are sacred to several Native American tribes.

We thank Congressman Grijalva and Senator Sanders for their efforts to reverse the land exchange with the Save Oak Flat Act. The House bill (HR 2915) currently has thirty co-sponsors and the Senate bill (S 1375) currently has four. You can help by asking your representatives to support the “Save Oak Flat Act”.

The Access Fund is also working closely with the US Forest Service throughout the EIS process to ensure that any and all mitigations to the proposed mining plan of operations are considered.

For more history, and ways to get involved, visit: www.accessfund.org/saveoakflat