Claiming Public Lands

Environmental activists have long complained that an antiquated federal law makes it easy for mining companies to develop public land for mining. Efforts to reform what’s known as the Mining Act of 1872 stalled under President Clinton. So now some groups are using the very law they say is broken to claim public land and protect it. From member station KRCC in Colorado Springs, Eric Whitney reports on the new campaign and competing bills in Congress that would re-write the law that permits mining on public land.