Suction dredge mining

[JasonB]

Tell that to people who mine for a living. I thought that it was ironic that Bill being an attorney got the facts wrong.

I'm all for discourse, and differences of opinion being aired freely. I'm wondering though, how many folks do you know that "mine for a living"? I know a lot of folks who mine for a hobby, and a way to get out there away from it all, but not so much to make a living, though I could certainly be in the wrong crowd on this one. Either way, I'd say that times change and that we as people have to change with them. Fact is suction dredging is pretty abrasive to our streams, and one persons "wants and needs" must be weighed against all others. I'm pretty happy with the move; personally I think it was LONG overdue.
JB

[Darian]

Almost everything we debate/discuss on this board relates somehow to water issues. In the case of suction dredge mining, water quality and disruption of spawning gravels are of concern, among others.

However, I find the reduction of suction dredge mining to the level of a hobby a bit inaccurate. First, equipping for this activity is quite expensive. Second, there's a bunch of laws on the books (local,state and federal) that must be complied with that runs up the cost as well. Maintaining a mining claim requires more than putting up stone monuments marking the boundaries of the claim. Now that gold has drastically increased in price, it's even more likely that hobbiests (if there are any) will be shut out.

I've met a few of these guys (suction dredge and panners/sluicing) on valley and mountain rivers (especially below the Hwy 49 bridge over the No. Fork Yuba) and they were uniformly serious about making money and protecting their rights to their claims to the point of warning people off with firearms. Obviously, there may be exceptions....

Aside from the obvious ecological/environmental concerns, I think what bothers me about this situation is that we (I include myself here) are really only concerned as we want to protect fisheries so that we can exploit them for ourselves and, unless we have a commercial or guides fishing license, we're nothing more than hobbiests ourselves.

Now, having said all of that, It's my belief that the banning of suction dredge mining in our rivers/streams is a good thing until a real assessment of the practice impacts is completed.