The relationship between Idaho’s environmental community and the mining industry has evolved since Cecil Andrus rode his opposition to a molybdenum mine in the White Clouds Mountains to the governorship in 1970.

The two sides still fight over a federal law that requires the federal government to allow mining without royalties on public land if environmental laws are met.

But the industry that sometimes moves mountains to extract the metals we need to live our lives has dramatically improved the technology it uses to protect water quality and reduce impacts on fish and wildlife. And the environmental community, too, has become more sophisticated about how it protects the wild lands and rivers its members cherish.

Read the full story at idahostatesman.com.