MAMMOTH, Ariz.—On the banks of the San Pedro River lies one of the American Southwest’s few remaining old-growth mesquite bosques—a streamside forest in more than 3,000 acres of riparian ecosystem that is one of Arizona’s last intact landscapes.

Known as the 7B Ranch, the mesquite forest is vital to the area’s biodiversity. It is the centerpiece of a land exchange between Resolution Copper and the federal government that paves the way for the company to dig a massive copper mine roughly 60 miles north that will lead to the destruction of a site sacred to the Western Apache. The San Carlos Apache Tribe has been fighting for years against the proposed Resolution Copper mine and is actively engaged in litigation over it with the federal government. The Trump administration has signaled it wi

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