Cave’s eye view of Montana’s Smith River. All photos courtesy of Montana Trout
David Brooks, Montana Trout Unlimited
Since it became the only river in Montana with a permit system in 1989, applications to float the Smith River have skyrocketed from less than 200 to roughly 15,000 over each of the last three years. And for good reason. With only one public put-in and take-out site for 59 miles of river, lucky permit holders and their crew experience the kind of rare, unplugged, multi-day river trip that has made the Smith one of the most coveted floats in the country. Those 59 treasured miles are dotted with scenic designated campsites, wind through deep and steep limestone canyons, offer up blue-ribbon wild trout fishing and wildlife watching, and entice floaters to hike public lands or explore age-old Native American cultural sites and artworks. It’s the kind of place people turn to for their favorite family vacation. Couples get engaged, married or celebrate their honeymoon along the river. And while the vast majority of floaters are private groups of friends and family, the guided trips that the permit system allows are at the heart of Montana’s robust outdoor recreation industry. Unless you just plain prefer concrete to dirt, water, trees, critters, and the big sky above, the Smith River earns its accolades every float season with thousands of people. Fortunately, it has also earned the concern and care of many of those people, along with the AFFTA grant program.
As special as the Smith River and its surrounding public lands are to Montanans and visitors alike, it is not without its threats. The biggest of these threats is a large-scale copper mine in the headwaters of the Smith’s most important trout spawning tributary. Unfortunately, floaters aren’t the only ones who covet a permit related to the Smith. In 2014, Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) began evaluating a permit application by Tintina, a wholly owned subsidiary of an Australian parent company, to mine copper on private lands adjacent to Sheep Creek, a tributary that flows into the Smith directly across from the boat launch at Camp Baker, where river trips begin. The Black Butte Copper Mine would include miles of underground workings, ore processing facilities, waste and tailings storage, large-scale habitat disruption, and, likely, dewatering of Smith River tributaries along with acidic wastewater discharges. The copper in the region is found in ore that is also high in sulfide, which when exposed to air and water through mining, milling and storage can create acid mine discharge that lasts, well, forever. Because the risks of this mine are considerable for the present and future of this iconic fishery, Montana Trout Unlimited (MTU) began a campaign to protect the Smith from that fate.
Since 2014 MTU has led a multifaceted campaign including educating the public and elected officials, connecting with business stakeholders, especially in the outdoor recreation community. Not surprisingly, Smith River lovers from Montana and beyond have joined this effort repeatedly, often, vigorously and in great numbers. AFFTA has been an early and multi-year investor and supporter of the work to protect the Smith River for all its many values and for the diverse people who love it. From hiring experts to help us identify technical concerns with mining copper in the headwaters of the Smith, to turning out thousands of public comments during the DEQ’s environmental analysis, AFFTA’s support has helped us successfully delay this harmful mine proposal more than once.
Despite public opposition and expert analysis showing that the Black Butte mine risks degrading and diminishing the best source of cold, clean water that the Smith River depends on, DEQ issued the company a permit in 2020. With the unwavering support of fellow conservation groups (Trout Unlimited, Montana Environmental Information Center, American Rivers, EarthWorks, and EarthJustice), we challenged that permit in district court. The court delivered a huge win for the Smith River in Spring, 2022, by ruling in our favor and revoking the permit for this mine. We now stand ready to defend that win against the company and DEQ’s appeal to the Montana Supreme Court.
As we defend our court victory, we are also promoting a mineral withdrawal on the public lands adjacent to Sheep Creek within the Smith watershed. If the US Forest Service establishes a mineral withdrawal, it would prevent Tintina or any other mining company from mining on those public lands. Tintina told its investors it plans expand on to Forest Service property in an effort to create a 50-year major mining complex and, to those ends, has already invested in staking more than 10,000 acres of mining claims on public lands. Because protecting the Smith River depends on protecting the surrounding land, especially National Forest, we’ve seen the same outpouring of support for the mineral withdrawal as we have for stopping the mine. In particular, Montana’s Tribes have joined in the request for a withdrawal to protect the wealth of cultural sites on public lands within the Smith watershed. Led by the Fort Belknap Indian Community and Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, we recently received an endorsement of the withdrawal by the 13 Tribes that make up the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council.
Without the support of AFFTA, along with many other individuals and businesses that cherish the Smith River, there would be a copper mine operating alongside its headwaters right now. Thank you! We aim to continue defending and protecting this sacred river and know that we will not be alone.
