Eight Recommended Wilderness Areas totaling 139,400 acres are proposed in the Custer Gallatin National Forest’s land management plan, unveiled to the public on Friday.
Groups say mining would risk rare plant in Pryor Mountains sfchronicle.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sfchronicle.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Groups say mining would risk rare plant in Pryor Mountains
March 12, 2021 GMT
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) Conservation groups filed a petition with government wildlife officials Thursday seeking protections for a plant that’s found only in the arid foothills of the Pryor Mountains along the Montana-Wyoming border, where a mining project is being proposed.
The thick-leaf bladderpod is a small, flowering plant that depends for survival on a fragile type of soil that’s made of lichens, mosses and other organisms.
Researchers say the plant is largely limited to an area of only about 23 square miles (60 square kilometers) in southcentral Montana. The region receives as little as 8 inches of rain annually on average.
BRETT FRENCH
A Mexican-based companyâs proposal to explore for gypsum along the base of the Pryor Mountains, if approved, could threaten a rare plant species â the thick-leaf bladder pod.
Thatâs the contention of several conservation groups that have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare the species threatened or endangered, thereby protecting its habitat from the project.
The Bureau of Land Management issued a Finding of No Significant Impact for the four-acre drilling plan near Gyp Springs last year, meaning it didnât believe the work merited more intensive scrutiny under an environmental impact statement. But the drilling has not yet been authorized.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) Conservation groups filed a petition with government wildlife officials Thursday seeking protections for a plant that's found only