The Vancouver Audubon Society meets the first Tuesday of the month at 717 Grand Blvd., Vancouver.
The February program was presented to us by Nicole Budine representing Cascade Forest Conservancy. She described the ongoing back and forth her organization has been having with the United States Bureau of Land Management about a proposed mine in the Gifford Pinchot National Park area. A Canadian mining company has been interested for a decade now in doing some exploration for copper and gold deposits in the presently roadless Green River valley.
Budine told us about the impact big machines and drilling would have on hiking, fishing, drinking water, old growth forests, birds in this remote Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument blast zone. It was difficult for her audience to imagine.
Budine has taken small hiking groups into the area and will again this summer.
You can learn more and perhaps find out what you can do to help our Interior Department make decisions that will protect our most prized natural resources. Contact www.cascadeforest.org/stop-the-mine/
