PNP comment: The New 49ers just get going great guns and (below article) here come the Greenies and government agencies using lies to shut “the people” down.  Suction dredging cleans the gravel and the salmon love to spawn there. Yes, a proven fact. Suction dredging enhances the river habitat and should be encouraged by anyone who wants to help the fish! — Editor Liz Bowen

News from Dave Mack of The New 49ers Club

Lots of members are arriving to prospect along the Klamath River this year.  More cars parked along the side of the road on our properties than we have seen since the early 90′s!  You can read about this, along with the developing situation in Oregon, in our June newsletter:

http://www.goldgold.com/off-to-great-start-june-2013.html

For those of you who are not yet New 49′ers members, please consider the special half-price offer on Associate Membership that we are extending to our Internet subscribers:

http://www.goldgold.com/associatememberoffer

If you are new to our newsletter, you can read some recent back issues here:

http://www.goldgold.com/whats-new

All the best,

Dave Mack

The New 49er’s, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039, USA

     Posted: Friday, June 7, 2013 3:00 pm

Herald and News.com

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — California officials are taking steps to close a loophole that has allowed gold miners to continue using suction dredges on salmon streams despite a state moratorium.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said Friday it is proposing an emergency rule to amend the definition of a suction dredge so that miners can no longer split the equipment in two to keep working.

The dredges amount to giant vacuum cleaners that suck gravel from stream bottoms and settle out the gold.

The action comes at the urging of Indian tribes and conservation groups upset that miners have gotten around a moratorium put in place by the Legislature until the department certifies the practice does no harm to fish and wildlife.

Gold miners are suing to lift the moratorium.

http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/article_d96131cc-cfc2-11e2-ae9c-0019bb2963f4.html

According to the complaint, the State of Oregon is in violation of Federal Law

April 23rd, 2013

Grants Pass, OR – Southern Oregon’s oldest profession is currently under attack by legislation that is currently being considered by the State Legislature. For over 160 years, especially during hard economic times, people in Southern Oregon have looked to the area’s hills and streams for an income, gleaning gold and other valuable minerals from the land through hard work and sheer determination. In 1872, the United States Congress granted the People of the United States with a protected right to go upon certain tracts of the nation’s vast Public Domain to search for and to extract valuable minerals such as gold, silver, copper and platinum.

As the Second Pan American Scientific Congress explained it in 1917, “This was the first instance where a sovereign broke away from the old regalian right and voluntarily ceded to her citizens as a gift, all her mineral wealth on the sole condition that the citizen should go out and possess it.”

Indeed, Congress had “revolutionized the whole land policy of the Government, abdicating in the name of the Nation its authority and jurisdiction over the richest mineral possessions on the face of God’s earth”, for the sake and welfare of its citizens.

In Oregon, this unique right of the American people is currently being threatened by the introduction of several senate bills, SB 401 and SB 838. The bills, which were introduced by Senator Alan Bates (D-Ashland) and subsequently passed by the Senate Environmental and Natural Resources Committee which is chaired by Senator Jackie Dingfelder (D-Portland) and vice-chaired by Bates seek to ban placer mining on certain waterways and place a five year moratorium on all motorized mining inside the State of Oregon. The legislation is also being supported by Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber.

After most elected officials turned a deaf ear toward their concerns, miners within the Galice Mining District, which was organized in 1853 in what is today a portion of Josephine County, Oregon, voted unanimously on April 7th, 2013 to take legal action against Bates, Dingfelder, Kitzhaber and also Senator Peter Courtney who is the President of the Oregon State Senate. The miner’s lawsuit calls for a preliminary injunction against the anti-mining bills and requests that the federal government intervene to assess the legality of the proposed legislation.

“It’s our position that the legislation is patently unlawful,” said Kerby Jackson, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Galice Mining District. “We believe that the senate bills intend to usurp the will of Congress and are in violation of the 1872 Mining Act and the Oregon Admission Act of 1859, as well as Contract, Property and Supremacy Clauses of the United States Constitution and certain provisions of the Oregon State Constitution. We also believe that Mr. Bates and the other respondents are engaging in criminal behavior that is intended to violate the rights of miners in this state.”

“Federal law is clear,” Jackson said, “states and local governments may not ban locatable mineral mining”.

The case is being heard by the United States District Court based in Eugene, Oregon.

For more info, contact: kerbyjackson@mail.com

The Times They Are A-Changin’: Wind, Solar to be Favored Over Mining Claims

 by Chris Clarke

REWIRE

on April 29, 2013 12:30 PM

There’ll be no more of this on possible solar project sites | Photo: cyborgsuzy/Flickr/Creative Commons License

Despite a growing consensus that the era of utility-scale solar on public lands is slowly drawing to a close, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced that it’s taking measures to ensure that applications for solar and wind projects on the lands it manages are given higher priority than other potential uses. A new regulation to be adopted this week could ban new mining claims and other non-energy proposals from land on which the BLM is considering a solar or wind proposal.

I am very happy to announce that the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (DFW) has denied a recent Petition from the Center for Biological Diversity which attempted to expand the regulatory definition of “suction dredge” to include our new method of underwater suction mining. Had the Petition been approved, our new method would have been prevented by California’s existing state-wide moratorium on suction dredge mining.

It is nice to win one every once in a while. This was a big one.

It now provides a green light for what is adding up to a very productive mining season in California!

You can find more about this in our May newsletter, along with some very helpful advice on how to relate with the U.S. Forest Service in the wake of the recent 9th Circuit Decision.

Please just follow the address below:

http://www.goldgold.com/green-light-on-underwater-suction-mining-5-2013.html

For those of you who are not yet New 49′ers members, please consider the special half-price offer on Associate Membership that we are extending to our Internet subscribers:

http://www.goldgold.com/associatememberoffer

If you are new to our newsletter, you can read some recent back issues here:

http://www.goldgold.com/whats-new

All the best,

Dave Mack

The New 49er’s, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039, USA

Chetco River gravel mining

Written by The Curry Coastal Pilot

April 03, 2013 02:13 am

The Pilot / Jane Stebbins – Three companies granted permits, including Tidewater (above), Freeman Rock and South Coast Lumber Co., will be allowed to continue gravel mining on the Chetco River until a remedy is worked out between government agencies and an environmental group.

United States Magistrate Judge John Acosta last week ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blatantly ignored scientific data and didn’t include community input in granting a gravel mining permit on the Chetco River in 2010.

In addition, the court found that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the federal agency charged with the protection of the critically imperiled coho salmon, failed to correctly evaluate the risks to the species associated with the proposed mining.

The National Environmental Defense Council (NEDC) filed the suit in response to the Corps closed-door meetings that led to a permit for in-stream gravel mining, saying that the Corps and NMFS met with mining industry representatives behind closed doors to approve the permit, in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

What is important to the NEDC is that the Corps intended to use the Chetco River permitting process as a model for larger gravel-bearing streams throughout the state.

The three companies granted the permit include Tidewater, Freeman Rock and South Coast Lumber Co.; they will be allowed to continue gravel mining until a remedy is worked out between the agencies and NEDC.

“Our concern is the continued mining of the river and the significant impacts on it,” said NEDC staff attorney Andrew Hawley. “Everyone can agree on that. The question is what does science say about what the river can support and how much mining can (continue to) go on with the historic mining of over 100 years.”

Two technical teams were formed with the intention of considering developing regional permits for gravel mining where the “activities are substantially similar in nature and cause only minimal individual and cumulative impacts on the aquatic environment,” the court decision reads.

One team was tasked to “ensure progress continues,” while the other, comprised of agency scientists, was to collect, review and analyze data and present recommendations to the first team.

The court repeatedly asked the government attorney why they didn’t comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and they never provided any answers — not in their briefs, or in the oral arguments, Hawley said.

“The end result is they just didn’t do it,” he said. “They need to fix that fundamental failure. We saw a process where they were result-oriented and worked to get there. We have a bad permit as a result of it — one that isn’t protective of the river, the community or the fish.”

The Corps disbanded the teams in October 2010 and made their results available for public review for the first time.

“That was too little, too late,” Hawley said. “They’d already poisoned the well. The experts weren’t allowed to discuss what was necessary. That’s what we want out of this process. We want the river to return to a healthy functioning river that can support all the uses the community would like it to support.”

Fish counts

The court also found that NMFS failed to properly analyze the impacts of mining on the coho population.

By failing to take into account the cumulative effect, NMFS failed to examine the effects of the mining and its impacts on the coho’s continued existence.

NMFS estimates that fewer than 100 coho remain in a river that once numbered more than 60,000 fish.

Some impacts could include altering and destabilizing the stream channel, eliminating the pool or riffle structure, increasing turbidity and sediment levels, causing bank erosion and degrading or destroying fish habitat. These impacts have significant adverse impacts on the salmon by disturbing and eliminating spawning sites, increasing sedimentation and turbidity, blocking sunlight and reducing available oxygen levels for fish eggs, disturbing behavior, migration, and spawning; and limiting food sources, Hawley said.

“They failed to do their job — that’s their one job: to protect this species,” Hawley said. “They painted a picture of an increasing population of coho without any information to back it up. That’s a sad state of affairs that they don’t understand what’s going on with that population.

“It’s disheartening they would spend this much time and resources and still come out with this flawed permit and analysis,” he added. “Now the opportunity presents itself to do it again — and do it right.”

He also wonders what is happening with the draft coho recovery plan that was presented in January 2012 after four years of study.

Winning the case was bittersweet, Hawley admitted.

“I don’t like to win cases like this because all it does is show they’re wrong,” he said. “They knew they were wrong, they knew the community wanted a voice in the conversation. There were several meeting notes where members of the committee — the  DEQ — asked if the public should be allowed in the process. Those aren’t the types of voices we want in this conversation. That’s the wrong approach in a river like this, with a species on the verge of extinction. It feels good that we were able to bring this to light: This isn’t how we want our agencies to operate,” Hawley said.

“This is a great day for the Chetco River and for government transparency,” said Mark Riskedahl, NEDC executive director. “The Corps invited industry to the table to negotiate a long-term extraction plan for the Chetco River, and the public was intentionally shut out of the process. Not only is such an approach unconscionable, but the judge ruled it is illegal.”

“When this came across my desk in 2008, I thought ‘This is a no-brainer,” Hawley said of the case. “It’s important. One of the reasons people come to Brookings is the river; it’s beautiful and spectacular. It needs someone speaking for it.”

            The Associated Press

                    Published: March 22, 2013

                                    FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The state has filed a lawsuit in a fight over access to mining claims near Chicken.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (http://is.gd/y9q9RK) says the state’s lawsuit filed Wednesday challenges the federal government’s assertion that it has ownership of multiple trail rights of way around the Taylor Highway community.

Chicken traditionally has been used by miners to access their claims, but access has been restricted in recent years by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Gov. Sean Parnell says the federal government is overreaching. The state has specified six trails in the lawsuit that total 65 miles and encompass a 400-square-mile area. The state says all the trails originate in Chicken, located at 68 Mile Taylor Highway, and were established by gold miners more than 100 years ago.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/03/22/2835671/state-files-lawsuit-on-access.html#storylink=cpy

Location:

JCLS Medford Library Branch

205 South Central Avenue

Medford, Oregon 97501

March 7, 2013,

6:30 pm

***

·  The attack to shut down Oregon suction dredging has begun – Page 5

www.treasurenet.com › … › Gold Prospecting Forum › Gold ProspectingCached

You +1′d this publicly. Undo

21 posts - Feb 18

Though, Mark Stopher will talk politely to you on the phone.

Make no mistake, the “stakeholder meetings” are solely for the purpose of Stopher and his friends to …

Treat Stopher with the same curtsey he received from the ranchers in Siskiyou County!

March 7- Jackson Co. Public Library, Medford, 6:30 pm.
***

Oregon Senator Bates (Ashland-Medford District) and others have submitted three anti-mining bills to the Oregon legislature.

If these destructive bills are passed into law, it will put a complete end to suction dredge and all other forms of motorized gold mining in the entire State of Oregon! These bills are being pushed by anti-mining activists who want to eliminate the last remaining productive economic activity on America’s public lands.

Just at the time when we have figured out how to do some (limited) underwater suction mining in California, this is not the time for us to lose all of Oregon!

If we do not all pull together and kill these bills right now, we will find ourselves devoting years and years trying to overcome them through expensive litigation. We must flood the Oregon senate with very vocal opposition right now!

You can find all the important details right here:

http://www.goldgold.com/action-alert-january-2013.html

All the best,

Dave Mack

The New 49er’s, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039, USA

Ron Glynn

Wolf Creek, Oregon

http://www.galicemining.com/about.html

Re-organization: The Galice Mining District, which was first organized near the mouth of Galice Creek in 1853, was re-organized by a concerned committee of miners on September 2nd, 2012 who felt that many needs of the miners were not currently being met by any existing organization or mining district. The committee met at the property of the reman family in Douglas County, Oregon for the purpose of re-organizing the Galice Mining District and declared in part:

“that an existing mining district must be activated to achieve the goals of the miners, to wit: to provide guards for their mining rights, their properties and the yields thereof and therefore. It was agreed that the re-organization of the Galice Mining District was necessary to the achievement of said goal. The Galice Mining District is hereby reorganized.”

 It was motioned and unanimously passed to establish four offices to serve the Galice Mining District, including: a Chief Executive Officer who would have the combined powers of a Chairman and President; a Vice Executive Officer, who would have the duties of District Treasurer and to serve as a stand-in when the Chief Executive Officer is not available; a District Recorder, who would have the duties of a Mining District Recorder, as well as of a Secretary. The above three officers would also serve as a Judicial Panel in all grievances or other mining issues brought to the Galice Mining District. Fourth, was the establishment of a District Sheriff/Ranger who has the duty of investigating the complaints of the miners within this district and enforcing the judicial decisions of the above panel, as well as to maintain order at district meetings. For the interim, Kerby Jackson was appointed as Chief Executive Officer; Corey Palmerton as Vice Executive Officer; ida-lee, family of reman as Recorder, George Backes as Head Fundraiser and Ron Thorp as Mining District Sheriff-Ranger.