Black Hills National Forest sent Custer County a clear message by giving a proposed gold drilling exploration project just west of Custer City the go-ahead.

The Forest Service issued a “categorical exclusion,” which means that they do not plan to do any further environmental review of F3 Gold’s proposed Newark Project.

While the Forest Service admitted that the project would be in Custer’s municipal watershed (French Creek), it denied that there could be any impacts on water. Tribal consultation is completely lacking. The presence of sensitive species is acknowledged, but the Forest Service concluded that there would be “no effect” or that it would be adequate to stop drilling at 3 of the 36 drill pads in the winter. The Forest Service bought the idea that the drilling and reclamation could be completed within a year.

There were 485 public comments on this proposed project. These were minimized, given a vague response, or ignored in a series of “responses” from the Forest Service. The Forest Service’s documents are available at  Black Hills National Forest – Home (usda.gov) The proposed project is expected to start in 2024.

In better news, the Forest Service put another proposed gold exploration drilling project on “Hold” — the Ponderosa project in the northern Black Hills. We believe this is a result of action by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, with assistance from NDN Collective.

We are continuing to gather information on both of these decisions, and we’ll put out more information and next steps as they become available. 

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