The Polaris gold exploration project is huge. Hecla Nevada/Klondex submitted a plan of operations requesting to drill on Forest Service land at 250 locations south of Bodie Creek on the Nevada side of the Bodie Hills over the next ten years. They have identified 102 drill sites as the first set to be drilled and the remaining 148 would be wherever they want to put them after analyzing the first set of core samples. Thirty drill sites of the 102 known drill sites are on top of East Brawley Peak and its slopes. This is devastating. East Brawley Peak is too wonderful to allow it to be "roaded" up, to have 17 drill pads cleared in the subalpine habitat, to have limber pines removed, to have trucks driving through the sage grouse and pushing them out of their territory. Plus, the views from the top are spectacular. One can see into the heart of the Bodie Hills to the northwest: Bodie and Potato Peaks and the Dry Lakes Plateau with its two ephemeral lakes and classic shield volcano, Beauty Peak and Mono Lake to the southwest. Click here to tour East Brawley Peak. 17 bare spots and lots of roads will ruin the views. People will be kept out of the area for ten years when the project gets underway, but when they are allowed back in, it will look awful and the sage grouse will be gone. This shouldn't be allowed. Help us fight this. The 1872 General Mining Act must be changed to allow the Forest Service to say, "no, not here". Help us start a Beyond Gold Campaign! 

By Lynn Boulton