Western Mining History and the WHWT

Mining in the West: A proud heritage, a challenging future

"The mining booms of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries left behind a mixed heritage: families supported by wages, wealth acquired by some, a crucial contribution to our national prosperity and high standard of living, a folklore of color and adventure, and thousands of old mines that discharge highly toxic water pollution. The necessity of reckoning with the burdensome aspect of our mining history is now much on the minds of mining communities, managers of the public lands, environmental regulators, mining industry leaders, and environmental advocates."
- From the Center of the American West's report "Cleaning Up Abandoned Hardrock Mines in the West: Prospecting for a Better Future"

Throughout Colorado and New Mexico, rural communities, diverse forests, and precious waterways have been devastated by the mining booms and busts that echo throughout their collective histories. Healthy forests and watersheds are critical to protecting the extensive and diverse life found across the Rocky Mountain West. The Colorado River system demonstrates how crucial it is to conserve and protect natural resources and wildlife sanctuaries in headwaters areas. Downstream ecosystems need and rely upon clean, safe water just as much as the headwaters. In the two states served by the WHWT, lasting environmental degradation as a result of historic mining and industrial flux has severely impacted our natural resources. Hardrock mining companies left as hastily as they arrived, leaving mine lands resembling barren moonscapes. Now, the soils of these abandoned mine lands are either laced with toxins or devoid of nutrients. Pollution seeps from abandoned mines, tailings piles and waste rock piles, staining rivers orange and leaching toxic concentrations of metals like iron and aluminum into streams and groundwater.  These heavy metals concentrations kill fish, stunt plant growth and severely impair the regions’ streams and rivers, preventing them from properly supporting the surrounding ecosystem and wildlife sanctuaries.

By implementing projects to clean up contaminated water, reforesting mine lands, and revitalizing former mining towns, watershed organizations are engaging and restoring their communities. The WHWT places OSM/VISTA members with these organizations and in doing so provides them with a vital resource - human capital. These OSM/VISTA members help the organization grow while working on community revitalization and environmental stewardship projects. After three years of having OSM/VISTAs members at their site, organizations have stronger volunteer bases, more sustainable funding, improved outreach and education programming, and more capacity to address their community's needs.