IDAHO, USA — Mining company P4, a subsidiary or Bayer AG, has agreed to give over $5 million in a trust fund to benefit the sage grouse and other native wildlife.
The agreement from the company stems from a 2021 lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians that challenged decisions made by the Bureau of land Management stating 1,559 acres of land used by the animals would be approved to be strip-mined for phosphate.
"I'm glad this agreement will help conserve greater sage grouse and curb the harms of this mining project," said Lori Ann Burd, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Environmental Health Program. "This case helped make clear that the federal government can't simply ignore the environmental harms of phosphate mining. This is a great start, but we've got to do much more to confront the mining industry's threats to sage grouse and other imperiled animals and plants."
The money will be used to restore and conserve habitat; "more than $2.4 million to acquire land to protect wildlife habitat connectivity, and $300,000 for sage grouse population surveys. The company also agrees to operational restrictions of its Caldwell Canyon phosphate mine in southeast Idaho to minimize the mine's impact on sage grouse," stated a news release.
