FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.— The U.S Bureau of Land Management reinstated a mining ban today that had been allowed to expire across 10,000 acres of the Coconino National Forest in northern Arizona’s Oak Creek Canyon.

“This mining ban is wonderful news for Oak Creek Canyon. It will help preserve the canyon’s rich biodiversity and the endangered species that rely on this beautiful place for survival,” said Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Federal officials never should’ve allowed the earlier mining ban to lapse, but the renewed ban is an important step toward protecting one of the Southwest’s most beloved ecological gems.”

The two-year “segregation” effectively bans new mining claims or the development of mining claims that lack valid existing rights, effective today. It will be in place until the 20-year mining withdrawal is enacted following a public comment period.

Federal officials allowed an earlier 20-year mining ban for the same area to expire in 2019. It was adopted in 1999 to protect the canyon’s biological and recreational values from mining pollution and industrialization.

Forest Service officials have said there is a “moderate potential for uranium to exist” in the canyon.

Oak Creek Canyon is a biodiversity hotspot that drains south from northern Arizona’s Mogollon Rim. The canyon harbors federally protected threatened and endangered species like Mexican spotted owls, narrow-headed garter snakes, Gila trout and an endemic mayfly found nowhere else on Earth.