We’ve heard a lot about this one lately. Montana’s Smith River is the edenic trout fishery that could turn cesspool if copper-hungry Tintina Resources gets a “please do” from DEQ to tap the mother lode and belch acid mine drainage into the system.

The other Smith, the one running from southwestern Oregon to the California coastline at Del Norte, is also an angling mainstay—home to some of California’s best wild steelhead water. It, too, could soon host a wretched (in this case nickel) mine in its wholesome headwaters.

And that’s a shame, considering the river’s so good that California Department of Fish and Wildlife considers it “one of the two ‘irreplaceable’ watersheds for salmonid population resiliency.” So says Wild Steelheaders United, which is working to protect the North Fork Smith both for steelhead and instream users, while pushing the Oregon Water Board (OWB) to prohibit transferring the sacred steelhead nectar to outside interests. Aka, mining.

OWB has the power to put a bullet through the deal. But it first needs an artillery of public support. The comment period is now open through Sept. 29. So speak up and say your piece.

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Tom Bie
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Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Category: Daily Drake
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Author: Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

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