Northern Plains Resource Council
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The Northern Plains Resource Council (NPRC) is an American grassroots conservation and family agriculture group. The organization was established in 1972 by ranchers in
Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...
who united in opposition to coal industry efforts to strip mine in the
Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very ...
.


Background

The
Fort Union Formation The Fort Union Formation is a geologic unit containing sandstones, shales, and coal beds in Wyoming, Montana, and parts of adjacent states. In the Powder River Basin, it contains important economic deposits of coal, uranium, and coalbed methane. ...
, situated largely under the
Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very ...
, is the richest known coal deposit in the world, with 100 billion tons of coal recoverable by
strip mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...
. In October 1971, one year after the passage of the
Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the primary respo ...
, the ''North Central Power Study'' was published. The study was written jointly by 35 utilities from Oregon to Illinois along with the
United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and operatio ...
. It called for the exploitation of coal reserves west of the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
and included plans for strip mining and power generation.


History

The Northern Plains Resource Council was formed on April 27, 1972 with the goal of providing a "unified, more powerful counterforce in public 'discussions' with the users of non-renewable resources (minerals), particularly including the coal strip-miners." The foundation was spearheaded by the Rosebud Protective Association and the Bull Mountain Landowners Association with the assistance of environmentalists from the Montana Wildlife Federation and the
Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...
.


Northern Plains programs

As of 2020, Northern Plains has member task forces that address issues in the following areas: * Coal * Oil and Gas *
Keystone XL Pipeline The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010, formerly owned by TC Energy. It is now owned by South Bow, following TC Energy's spin off of its liquids business into a separate publi ...
* Agriculture * Soil * Clean Energy * The Good Neighbor Agreement with the Stillwater Mining Company


Organizational structure

Northern Plains is governed by a Board of Directors, composed of delegates representing its affiliate groups, along with at-large delegates and officers elected annually by the membership. Northern Plains includes 13 affiliate groups in 10 Montana counties. They include: * Bear Creek Council (
Gardiner Gardiner may refer to: Places Settlements ;Canada * Gardiner, Ontario ;United States * Gardiner, Maine * Gardiner, Montana * Gardiner (town), New York ** Gardiner (CDP), New York * Gardiner, Oregon * Gardiner, Washington * West Gardiner, ...
area) * Beartooth Alliance (
Cooke City Cooke City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Park County, Montana, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 77. Prior to 2010, it was part of the Cooke City-Silver Gate CDP. The community s ...
area) * Bull Mountain Land Alliance (
Shepherd A shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations; it exists in many parts of the globe, and it is an important part of Pastoralism, pastoralist animal husbandry. ...
area) * Carbon County Resource Council ( Red Lodge area) * Central Montana Resource Council ( Lewistown area) * Cottonwood Resource Council ( Big Timber area) * Dawson Resource Council (
Glendive Glendive is a city in and the county seat of Dawson County, Montana, United States, and home to Dawson Community College. Glendive was established by the Northern Pacific Railway during the building of the railroad line. The town of Glendive i ...
area) * McCone Agricultural Protection Organization (
Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...
area) * Rosebud Protective Association ( Colstrip area) * Sleeping Giant Citizens Council (
Helena Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer * Saint Helena (disambiguation), this includes places Places Greece * Helena ...
area) * Stillwater Protective Association ( Stillwater area) * Yellowstone Bend Citizens Council (
Livingston Livingston or Livingstonemay refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North Am ...
area) * Yellowstone Valley Citizens Council (
Billings Billings is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billin ...
area) In 1979, Northern Plains co-founded the Western Organization of Resource Councils, a regional network of community organizations that now has member groups in seven Western states.


References

{{reflist


Further reading

* Billings Gazette editorial, “A truce that profits and protects,” May 11, 2000. * Anne Goddard Charter, Cowboys Don’t Walk: A Tale of Two, Western Organization of Resource Councils, 1999. * Kye Cochran, “Cantankerous Cowman Gave Montanans Courage,” High Country News, republished in Mother Earth News, Jan-Feb 1979. * James Conaway, “The Last of the West: Hell, Strip it!” Atlantic Monthly, Sept. 1973. * Patrick Dawson, “A unique outfit marks two decades of scrappy life,” High Country News, Feb. 24, 1992. * Keith Edgerton, “Bridging Ideology in Rural America: The Northern Plains Resource Council, 1971-1975, unpublished faculty paper, Montana State University – Billings, 2002. * Cody Ferguson, This is Our Land: Grassroots Environmentalism in the Late Twentieth Century, Rutgers University Press, 2015. * Greg Gordon, “Neighborhood Struggles: The Story of the Northern Plains Resource Council,” Orion Afield, Summer 2000. * High Country News, “Pat Sweeney and the Northern Plains Resource Council,” Feb. 1, 1974. * Alvin M. Josephy Jr., “Agony of the Northern Plains,” Audubon, July 1973. * Wallace McRae, “Things of Intrinsic Worth,” in Cowboy Curmudgeon and Other Poems, Gibbs-Smith, 1992. * The New York Times editorial, “A Promising Accord in Montana,” May 17, 2000. * Michael Parfit, Last Stand at Rosebud Creek: Coal, Power and People, Dutton, 1980. * Michael Parfit, “A gathering storm over synfuels on the Big Sky range,” Smithsonian, March 1980. * Ray Ring, “Ranchers’ group adopts practical strategy,” High Country News, Dec. 17, 2001. * Wallace Stegner, “Crow Country,” essay in American Places, Dutton, 1981. * K. Ross Toole, The Rape of the Great Plains: Northwestern America, Cattle and Coal, Little Brown and Co., 1976.


External links


Northern Plains Research CouncilWestern Organization of Research CouncilsDakota Resource Council
Environmental organizations based in Montana Non-profit organizations based in Montana 1972 establishments in Montana