[8] Two communities and much of Butte's previously crowded east side were consumed by land purchases to expand the pit during the 1970s.

[citation needed] The Berkeley Pit is located within the Butte Mine Flooding Operable Unit, a part of the Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site.

Once discovered, officials made efforts to haze the birds off of the pit's water and prevent more from landing in the area.

Fish and Wildlife Service found that the dead geese succumbed due to drinking the acidic metalliferous water.

[14] After this event, Atlantic Richfield (AR) and Montana Resources (MR) further enhanced the waterfowl protection efforts which had been in place since 1996.

A new Waterfowl Protection Plan was developed and allowed for adaptive management, testing, and incorporation new tools and techniques.

Deterrents such as Phoenix Wailers, a type of noise machine, and propane cannons that mimic gunshots are placed around the rim of the pit to keep birds from landing.

[15][16] When waterfowl do land on the surface of the pit, personnel use firearms, hand-held lasers, and unmanned craft to haze them.

Intense competition for the limited resources caused these species to evolve the production of highly toxic compounds to improve survivability.

Natural products such as berkeleydione, berkeleytrione,[18] and berkelic acid[19] have been isolated from these organisms which show selective activity against cancer cell lines.

The Butte mining district is characterized by the Late Cretaceous boulder batholith which metamorphosed surrounding rocks during the Laramide orogeny.