Drove up yesterday to the Cascade Mountains where I've gone mining for the last forty years. The claim I use is on one of those WA State 'now closed to mining' rivers/streams. The State WDFW says that all small scale mining (using engines AND motors) are restricted to specific stream locations that do not have any gold. If you want to legally go mining you need to apply for a permit which, coincidentally, will never be issued. The governor signed the bill last March.
Interestingly, I passed several people operating small dredges and high-bankers on a couple of the banned rivers and it's now nearly two months since the "ban" went into effect. I did not see one Forest Service trooper or WA State WDFW officers in sight. I also noticed that many of those mining were packing serious heat.
For the last several years there's been a number of 'greenie' groups that got connected with State government (campaign donations) all working to outlaw all forms of mining, and using CA and later OR as their models for banning what we love to do. These groups includes the liberal 'fish-hugger' types. Officially in WA all we have now is panning and sluicing.
LD