Save Our Smith
The Pat Barnes Chapter of Trout Unlimited continues to work hard to protect the Smith River.
The Smith River drainage is located south of Great Falls in Meagher and Cascade Counties of west-central Montana. The river drains the Big Belt Mountains on the west, and the Little Belt and Castle Mountains on the east. From the confluence of the North and South forks, the Smith River courses about 120 miles through a broad agricultural valley then into 45 miles of spectacular deep limestone canyon country. After leaving the canyon, the river rolls through a valley edged by rolling hills and comprised of grasslands and cultivated tracts.
Approximately 125 tributaries contribute to the Smith River. Besides the 50-mile-long North Fork and 38-mile-long South Fork, Big Birch, Newlan, Rock, Sheep, Eagle, Tenderfoot and Hound Creeks are important tributaries. Several, such as Sheep and Tenderfoot Creeks contribute high-quality water to the Smith’s mainstem and serve as important spawning tributaries for the Smith’s famous wild rainbow and brown trout.
The Smith is under threat from a proposed mine on one of it’s most important tributaries, Sheep Creek. Tintina Resources, a foreign owned mining exploration company (that has never operated a mine) has proposed putting an underground copper mine next to Sheep Creek in the upper Smith drainage.
Sandfire Resources, an Australian company that recently took over Tintina Resources, is proposing a large underground copper mine next to and underneath Sheep Creek, one of the two most critical tributaries of Montana’s famed Smith River. Sandfires’s interests total about 12,000 acres, and include 7,500 acres of private land and the underlying mineral estate, as well as the mining claims it has on adjoining federal land. Sandfire promises its Black Butte mine will include “state of the art” environmental protections, and that this foreign company cares just as much about the Smith River as Montanans do.
For more information, go to smithriverwatch.org