Big, conical-shaped Eight Dollar Mountain, a striking landmark in the Illinois Valley near Selma, is home to rare plants, biological preserves and, now, 115 new mining claims covering 2,376 acres staked by a Canadian company hoping someday to dig nickel mining pits there on public land.

Any mining would be years off, if it ever happens, but the possibility has raised concerns.

“Mining and the rare plants just don’t go together,” said Kristi Mergenthaler, conservation director for the Ashland-based Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, which recently took possession of a 45-acre preserve on the mountain’s east side from The Nature Conservancy. “The history of nickel mining hasn’t been that great.”

Mergenthaler led a short hike at the preserve on May 22, taking a small group a few hundred yards uphill past oaks, pines and fragrant azaleas to visit water-rich fens, home to insect-eating pitcher plants.

“This is a hotspot for biodiversity in an already giant hotspot for biodiversity,” she said.

At the fens, spring-fed water flowed slowly past soggy grasses and pitcher plants whose nectar attracts insects that become trapped inside by downward-facing hairs. Their dead bodies eventually dissolve to feed the plant.

Wildflowers and native grasses were in abundance.

“Absolutely gorgeous,” Mergenthaler said, stopping near a bunch of Purple clarkia wildflowers before continuing on. “Lovely, wonderful grasses.”

The area’s rocky serpentine soil is poor in nutrition and inhospitable to most plants, although the pitchers and others get along by obtaining nutrition from the insects.

“It’s not a place most plants like to grow,” Mergenthaler said.

The nutrient-poor serpentine soil has resulted in the presence of unique plants and wildlife. But that same soil is rich in metals, including nickel, prized by the world for use in batteries powering electronic devices.

The mining company, then known as Spruce Ridge Resources, but now known as Homeland Nickel, announced on March 18 that it had staked the claims on the mountain’s west side and within the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest under an 1872 mining law that allows miners access to underground resources for a nominal fee. Compliance with environmental laws would be costly, as would extraction and processing.

“Our goal is to advance these properties and see them go into production one day,” Stephen J. Balch, the company’s president, told Jefferson Public Radio during an interview published May 7.

Production would mean removing rock down 15-20 meters deep, or about 49-66 feet, crushing it on site and shipping it off site for further processing, according to Balch. Sampling, feasibility studies, financing and approvals would come first, with production possibly a decade or two off.

In addition to filing the claims, the company in the last year acquired the 949-acre Cleopatra claim southwest of Cave Junction, the 758-acre Shamrock property west of Shady Cove and Red Flat claims east of Gold Beach.

The Eight Dollar Mountain claims take in an area equivalent in size to about 1,800 football fields, according to Dave Garcia of the Native Plant Society of Southern Oregon, who was on the hike.

“It’s a worst-case scenario,” he said.

Garcia, in a JPR interview published May 7, said the mining would involve stripping away a top layer, blasting and digging through rock and eventually extracting nickel from pulverized rock using an acid leach and lots of water.

“It’s a nasty process,” he said.

Garcia faulted the Forest Service for not protecting the property. But Scott Blower, district ranger for the agency, said there’s environmental laws that provide protection.

“We have a (National Environmental Policy Act) process that protects the resources that are out there,” Blower said in a telephone interview. “They still have to comply with all the environmental regulations.”

“We have lots and lots of concerns,” Blower continued. “We have wildlife concerns out there. Water quality is a very high concern.”

The mining law allows people to stake a claim if conditions are met, including payment of $250 per claim.

“Anybody in the public can come here, do a bunch of research and they may stake a claim for mineral rights,” Blower said. “I have mining claims throughout my district.”

“They don’t own the land,” he said. “They just own what’s salt and peppered into the land.”

Blower’s Wild Rivers Ranger District takes in an area generally southwest of Grants Pass, reaching as far north as the Rogue River and as far south as the Red Butte Wilderness just south of the Oregon-California border. The district includes the Kalmiopsis Wilderness on the west and the area around the Oregon Caves National Monument on the east.

The mining company, Blower said, “has come to the Rogue Valley and spent a bunch of money.” It recently filed a plan of operations for the Cleopatra holdings, located near the southern tip of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, between Brookings and O’Brien.

Eight Dollar Mountain, which possibly got its name from an $8 gold nugget found there in the 1850s, is mostly publicly owned. Agencies responsible for properties there include the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Oregon State Parks, in addition to the Forest Service and the Conservancy. Its western half, where mining is proposed, is a designated botanical area, but the mountain isn’t a pristine wilderness. Its summit is adorned with a communications tower and its lower reaches have at times been abused by off-road vehicles and trashed by visitors. The nearby river is a popular summertime destination.

The Wild and Scenic section of the Illinois River runs from the mountain’s south and west sides to the river’s confluence with the Rogue River near Agness. Nearby attractions include the Eight Dollar Mountain Botanical Wayside, where a boardwalk leads to fens with pitcher plants and where the milelong Jeffrey Pine Loop Trail leads downhill to the Illinois River.

To reach the wayside, take Highway 199 south to Eight Dollar Mountain Road, about 3.5 miles south of Selma. Turn west and drive eight-tenths of a mile to the wayside. Park in a large dirt lot to the left of the road. The trailhead to the boardwalk is uphill, while the Jeffrey Pine trail leads downhill to the river.

The Little Falls Trail, Eight Dollar Bridge and the Days Gulch Botanical Area are within a few miles farther along the road, also known as Forest Service Road 4201 and also as the TJ Howell Botanical Drive. For more information and maps, visit bit.ly/3VIR8SJ.

The SOLC’s preserve, which is open to the public by permission, is one of three preserves whose transfer from The Nature Conservancy was announced in April. The other two are the Sharon Fen Preserve at 5,000 feet elevation in the upper Bear Creek watershed in Jackson County and Rough and Ready Creek south of Cave Junction in Josephine County. Three other preserves near White City were transferred between the two organizations two years ago. SOLC now protects 13,000 acres across 84 properties, most of them in Jackson and Josephine counties.