The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved a lithium exploration project that would carve 168 drill sites and 21.5 miles of new roads into some of the best sage-grouse habitat left in America. The project is run by HiTech Minerals, a subsidiary of the Australian company Jindalee, and sits in the McDermitt Caldera on the Oregon-Nevada border. The BLM should pause this approval and complete a full environmental impact review before any drilling begins.

Greater sage-grouse have declined by about 80 percent since 1965, according to federal data. This corner of southeast Oregon is a rare bright spot. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife warned that the project "falls completely within core sage-grouse habitat," and the agency says the area holds the only priority population with a rising trend over the past 30 years. Two active mating grounds, called leks, sit inside the project area, with 25 more within four miles.

Local ranchers have spent years caring for this land. Nick Wilkinson, whose family has ranched in the area since the 1800s, runs cattle on ground the company has claimed. He and other ranchers have worked with agencies and conservation groups to protect sage-grouse and the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout. "If the mine goes through, I know I'm done," Wilkinson told Inside Climate News.

The public was first given just five days to comment before the BLM extended the window to 31 days. Conservation groups are now suing, arguing that the agency never studied how pumping 31.5 million gallons of groundwater could affect nearby streams. Jindalee has told investors it expects drilling to begin by the end of September.

Wildlife and working families both depend on this land. Sign the petition to urge the BLM to halt drilling in the McDermitt Caldera until a full review is done — before the sage-grouse and the ranchers who protect them lose it for good.