Look but don’t touch…
A federal judge has declared invalid the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a gold mining company’s plan to reopen a 4-mile road in a central Idaho wilderness and drill core samples to find out if two of its claims are profitable enough to be mined.
U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill in a ruling Tuesday says the agency violated environmental laws in approving American Independence Mines and Minerals Co.’s plan in the Frank Church River Of No Return Wilderness.
Winmill sent the case back to the Forest Service to do another analysis.
The Idaho Conservation League and four other groups sued the Forest Service following its June 2015 approval of the mining company’s plan that includes 571 truck trips into the wilderness.
Via KXLY