About Us
Who We are:
Save Our Cabinets is a small Montana non-profit organization established in 2009 to protect the 94,000-acre Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area in northwestern Montana, and to conserve and restore the wildlands and resources of the Cabinet Mountains. Our goal is to prevent destructive activities, including hardrock mining, which would impact the Cabinet Mountains Ecosystem, while fostering an appreciation of its wilderness character, native wildlife, and pristine air and waters. Our current focus is the Libby Exploration Project, which is Phase 1 of the proposed Montanore mine. Save Our Cabinets shares an office in Trout Creek, Montana with the Rock Creek Alliance. We operate under the 501(c) 3 of the Rock Creek Alliance, which is our fiscal sponsor.
What We Do:
Save Our Cabinets works to keep the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness free from the environmental consequences of hardrock mining by preventing the construction of the proposed Montanore and Rock Creek mines, and by promoting reform of the 1872 Mining Law. This archaic law allows corporations to mine national treasures, such as the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness.
Save Our Cabinets has reviewed and submitted comments on the various phases of the permitting process for the Montanore mine and the Libby Exploration Project (Phase 1); hired experts to evaluate aspects of the mine proposal related to groundwater hydrology, water quality standards, grizzly bears, and bull trout; and provided information to assist the public in formulating comments. We also have filed litigation challenging state and federal permits.
Save Our Cabinets supports gaining new wilderness designation to protect the remaining remnants of wildlands in the Cabinet Mountains that are threatened by road building and motorized recreation.
Save Our Cabinets advocates for the protection of habitat for the many species that are native to the Cabinet Mountains, and preserving and strengthening the Endangered Species Act that has the power to protect and recover imperiled species such as the grizzly bear, lynx, bull trout, wolverine, and fisher.
Montanore mine
Libby Exploration Project
The Cabinet Mountains
The Cabinet Mountains are a mountain range in western Montana and northern Idaho. Spanning eastward from Idaho’s Panhandle to the Mission Mountains of western Montana, much of the range is encompassed by the Kootenai and Lolo National Forests, with the far eastern portion falling within the boundaries of the Flathead Indian Reservation.
The Cabinet Mountains still harbor islands of wild country that rival any in Montana, but these pockets of wilderness are rapidly disappearing. Past, present, and future
