ALL MINING CLOSED IN KALIF

[Hoser John]

Court makes it tougher on small-time gold miners
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By JEFF BARNARD
AP Environmental Writer
By JEFF BARNARD
Last modified: 2012-06-01T23:42:31Z
Published: Friday, Jun. 1, 2012 - 3:36 pm
Last Modified: Friday, Jun. 1, 2012 - 4:42 pm
Copyright 2012 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A federal appeals court ruling Friday makes it tougher for small-time gold miners to work their claims on federal lands across the West.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in a split decision that the U.S. Forest Service has to consult biologists from other agencies before allowing miners to do anything that might harm salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act. The ruling overturned a District Court decision.
The case was brought by the Karuk Tribe in Northern California as part of a longstanding battle to protect struggling salmon from mining on the Klamath River. The tribe traditionally depended upon the salmon for food.
"The Forest Service's decision to place the search for minuscule flakes of gold above the needs of people who rely on clean water, and especially wild salmon, was unconscionable," Leaf Hillman, director of natural resources for the Karuk Tribe, said in a statement.
A mining group said the ruling makes it virtually impossible for people to use suction dredges on rivers through federal lands with protected species. The dredges are gasoline-powered vacuums that suck the gravel from river bottoms and concentrate the gold.
Jerry Hobbs, president of Public Lands for the People in San Bernardino, Calif., said most miners will not be able to afford the high cost of environmental reviews required to get approval. He predicted about 100 miners would go ahead and use their dredges illegally, because state and federal authorities are not likely to enforce any ban.
The ruling comes on top of a moratorium issued by the California Legislature against using suction dredges to mine for gold. The moratorium, which expires in 2016, grew out of another lawsuit brought by the tribe demanding tougher state controls over suction dredges.
The Forest Service had no comment.
The Klamath Tribe's lawsuit came after a district ranger on the Klamath National Forest in 2004 approved plans by the New 49ers gold mining club and three miners to use dredges to mine for gold.
The appeals court ruled that a low-level approval process known as filing a notice of intent amounted to an agency action covered by the Endangered Species Act. It also found that the mining clearly met the legal hurdle of "might affect" critical habitat for salmon, triggering consultation with biologists for the NOAA Fisheries Service, which oversees protected salmon. The court noted that consultation in some cases could be handled informally, without an extensive review.
A dissenting justice wrote that the mining was already approved by the 1872 Mining Act, and the approval of a notice of intent did not qualify as a separate agency action triggering consultation
Read more here: Court makes it tougher on small-time gold miners - AP State Wire News - The Sacramento Bee CAN YA ALL FEEL THAT FRIGGN GDMF KARUK LOVE NOW?? Edit Post Reply Reply With Quote .
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[golden optimist]

Time to move out of state John!
Leonard

[CalGoldDredger]

At least Judge Smith had some common sense but 7 of the judges were full of shxt. Sad!

From Wallstreet Journal...

By Justin Scheck

“Here we go again,” Ninth Circuit Judge Milan Smith wrote at the beginning of a Friday dissent in a mining case in which he joined prospectors, regulators, environmentalists and a remote Indian tribe exasperated by fighting over the use of suction equipment to mine the dregs of California’s gold rush.

The issue, which the Journal wrote about in this story, is a long-running tension between recreational miners who like to suck up river sediment looking for gold and the government agencies that regulate them.Some federal and state agencies have paved the way for a California moratorium on the practice to be lifted; others are trying to keep the practice banned.

On Friday, an en banc majority opinion said the U.S. Forest Service improperly approved recreational gold mining in some California rivers because it didn’t consult with other agencies about endangered fish.

Judge Smith, and three judges who joined his dissent, were unimpressed.

He opened with an excerpt from Gulliver’s Travels accompanied by an illustration of Gulliver bound by Lilliputians. He quoted too from Dante (“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”) and from the Journal’s April story, and wrote that the majority decision is the latest in a series of Ninth Circuit environmental cases that “ undermine the rule of law, and make poor Gulliver’s situation seem fortunate when compared to the plight of those entangled in the ligatures of new rules created out of thin air by such decisions.”

Perhaps most striking was the indictment of the  Ninth Circuit in Mr. Smith’s closing.

“No legislature or regulatory agency would enact sweeping rules that create such economic chaos, shutter entire industries, and cause thousands of people to lose their jobs. That is because the legislative and executive branches are directly accountable to the people through elections, and its members know they would be removed swiftly from office were they to enact such rules,” he wrote.

“Unfortunately,” he added, “I believe the record is clear that our court has strayed with lamentable frequency from its constitutionally limited role.”

[russau]

California and the entire Nation needs a clean sweep come election day! i just hope i can get through the rows of "people" waiting for their free handouts so i can get to the voting booth!

[CalGoldDredger]

Time to move out of state John!
Leonard

Would have to move far or wide as new Fed ruling covers all western states not just Cal.

[golden optimist]

Lets all move to alaska and get our 3,000 ounces. Did you see the Goldfathers? If not, it's on again monday night 8:00 mountain time.He holds up a large pan full of gold and says "around 60 pounds".

I've really enjoyed the show as they've shown rockerbox, long tom, and just pan prospecting and all the way to huge mining. They even showed and mentioned reclamation on the last show.
Leonard

[dickb]

Hi GO:

If I held that pan in my lap, my heart would stop cold, Just can't imagine getting all that gold. Now you see why they carry "BIG GUNS".

I agree with you that it's great to see some well run mining operations. Reclaiming the land is just as important as digging it up in the first place. Besides you have to put the muck somewhere and by making it smooth afterwards allows you to reforest the land and log it over when its mature. I think it's called continous use.

First show that I watched that I felt the miners knew what they were doing, and not a bunch of drama. As for working at night, they need some light plants to keep the site safe.

JMHO

Dickb

[russau]

im game to move! heck id move to almost anywhere! im from Misery!

[CalGoldDredger]

The ruling doesn't include state, city, private lands just Forest Service Lands but last time I checked Forest Service was National including Alaska.

[golden optimist]

Much of alaska is state lands.
Leonard