THE THACKER PASS 6
Lithium Nevada Corporation has filed a lawsuit against Protect Thacker Pass and seven people, including Max Wilbert and Will Falk—co-founders of Protect Thacker Pass—for opposing the Thacker Pass lithium mine. Thacker Pass defendants are charged with Civil Conspiracy, Nuisance, Trespass, Tortious Interference with Contractual Relations, Tortious Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage, and Unjust Enrichment.
Read more about the lawsuit on our legal defense page, in our June 19, 2023 press release, and about our motion to dismiss the lawsuit in our August 21, 2023 press release.
The Thacker Pass defendants are seeking monetary donations to their legal defense fund. You can donate via credit or debit card or by check.
OUR STORY
Protect Thacker Pass is a grassroots movement to protect Thacker Pass and the McDermitt Caldera in Northern Nevada and Southern Oregon from mining projects like Lithium Nevada Corporation’s Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Project.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
We are in a crisis of climate change, biodiversity and habitat loss. Thacker Pass is critical wildlife habitat for threatened, endangered, and endemic species including the greater sage-grouse, pronghorn, Lahontan cutthroat trout, and golden eagles. Thacker Pass, known as Peehee Mu’huh in Paiute, is sacred to regional Native American tribes.
JOIN THE CAMPAIGN
It’s too late to prevent Phase 1 of the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, but there are opportunities to help prevent Phase 2. More broadly, we hope to protect the rest of McDermitt Caldera from Southern Oregon down to Thacker Pass from catastrophic lithium mining.
You can help. You can donate to our campaign, volunteer with us, take direct action, help spread the word, and pressure decision makers.
WHAT WE WANT
The growth of industrial civilization is destroying the last wild habitats on Earth in a mad rush for resource extraction, causing biodiversity to plummet and destabilizing our climate.
Electric cars and grid-storage batteries are no more sustainable than fracked gas or tar sands. True sustainability means that we must use only what the Earth can regenerate, and that use must not degrade the planet.
With every indicator of ecological health heading in the wrong direction, our modern way of life will not last. That is the definition of “unsustainable.” We face a choice at Thacker Pass and around the world: will we sacrifice the planet for temporary material wealth, or will we make a change?
Our goal is to Protect Thacker Pass for the inherent, inalienable value of its land, water, biodiversity, and cultural importance.
Our demands:
- Rescind the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Project permit.
- Designate the September 12, 1865 Thacker Pass Massacre Site and the Thacker Pass Traditional Cultural District under the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) — DONE!
- Withdraw Thacker Pass and the entire McDermitt Caldera from federal mine leasing.
- Reduce our nation’s dependence on cars as part of an emergency shift to a “degrowth” economic paradigm.
Thacker Pass is worth more as an intact, flourishing ecosystem. We will not stop fighting for Thacker Pass until the land is protected.
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We work in solidarity with regional Native American Tribes and traditional people, grassroots environmental organizations, and local communities who are affected by this project. We also stand in solidarity with communities facing off against mining and other extractive industries around the world.
Species of the Week: Sagebrush Lizard
Sagebrush lizards live year-round in the sagebrush steppe, and eat insects and spiders. The lizards love to bask in the sun on rocky outcrops and logs, and hang out with other lizards. Easily frightened, the lizards will seek refuge in rocks, bushes, and burrows when...
Interview with Max on First Voices Indigenous Radio
On Jan. 20th, Max Wilbert joined First Voices Indigenous Radio with host Tiokasin Ghosthorse to discuss the Lithium Americas greenwashed mining proposal for Thacker Pass and the protest camp that has now stood for 25 days on the site.
Chemical Screams
If you look across Thacker Pass from the shoulders of the Montana mountains, the land looks like a quilt the Double-H mountains in the south pulled up to their chin to keep warm during the cold winter nights. The hills that roll towards the valley floor are checkered...
