Following a February decision by the U.S. Forest Service to file an application with the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw 10,024.3 acres of National Forest System land in Oak Creek Canyon from new mining and geothermal claims for the next 20 years, the two agencies have opened a public comment period. 

They will be holding an online public meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 6 p.m. to discuss the matter. 

“The purpose of the requested withdrawal is to protect Oak Creek Canyon … from potential adverse impacts from mining,” the July 25 BLM announcement stated. “Publication of this notice temporarily segregates the lands for up to two years [and] initiates a 90-day public comment period.” 

The USFS previously withdrew 10,500 acres from prospective claims on May 3, 1999, via Public Land Order No. 7387, which expired in May 2019. 

USFS Southwestern Region spokesman Adam Torruella said that no new mining claims have been filed in the canyon since the 2019 withdrawal. 

“The gap can be attributed to a combination of factors, primarily limited administrative capacity, database modernization and other regional mineral withdrawal priorities,” Torruella said. 

Instead, the USFS prioritized processing the paperwork for a 74,689-acre withdrawal of acreage surrounding the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff following the expiration of Public Land Order No. 7467, which imposed a 20-year closure to mining claims on that area as of Oct. 16, 2000. Public Land Order No. 7898 was issued on Oct. 9, 2020, extending the prohibition on mining for an additional two decades. 

“The lands are temporarily segregated from location and entry under the U.S. mining laws, but not from leasing under the mineral leasing laws or geothermal leasing laws or disposal under the Mineral Materials Act of 1947, unless the application is denied or canceled, or the withdrawal is approved prior to that date,” the Federal Register stated with regard to the proposed Oak Creek closure. 

The new proposed withdrawal is 475 acres smaller than the previous prohibited area and does not include Slide Rock State Park or the east mouth of Mund’s Canyon because those two locations are already protected. 

“During the Bureau of Land Management Arizona review of the previous withdrawal’s legal description, BLM and U.S. Forest Service staff identified several parcels where both the surface and subsurface were acquired by the USFS under the Weeks Act [36 Stat. 961], as amended,” BLM Public Affairs Specialist Chris Wonderly said. “Since subsurface lands acquired by the USFS under the authority of the Weeks Act are already closed to location and entry under the U.S. mining laws and are therefore already protected, these acres were removed by USFS from the new succeeding Oak Creek Canyon withdrawal application.” 

Deidre McLaughlin, a lands and minerals program manager for the Coconino National Forest, stated in 2020 that there were no known deposits of commercially valuable minerals in Oak Creek Canyon apart from a “moderate potential for uranium to exist.” 

“We’re co-hosting [the public meeting],” Wonderly said. “The public meeting comes through the withdrawal request … Separate from that will be the Forest Service’s [National Environmental Policy Act] process [that] will have its own opportunity for public input as well.”

Comments about the proposed mining withdrawal can be made until the end of the public comment period on Tuesday, Oct. 22. Comments may be emailed to BLM_AZ_Withdrawal_ Comments@blm.gov or physically mailed to Mike Ouellett, BLM Arizona State Office, 1 North Central Ave., Suite 800, Phoenix, AZ 85004.