Political Action
DFG Suction Dredging info page: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/suctiondredge/
Gold Prospectors Association of America: http://www.goldprospectors.org/
Senate Committee on Natural Resources: http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/sen/committee/STANDING/NRW/_home1/PROFILE.HTM
Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife: http://www.asm.ca.gov/acs/newcomframeset.asp?committee=26
You may wish to address your concerns to the respective chairs of each of these two policy committees and have folks who live in the districts of the members who sit on these committees reach out to them since they are tasked, with among other responsibilities, oversight of the DFG.
Latest Up Date on SB 670. There is no good news. Check out the link below.
http://www.goldprospectors.org/Communication/LegalInformation/tabid/157/EntryId/159/Setback-for-PLP-in-lawsuit-against-SB-670.aspx
Mining is under attack. Please check out this web site as they are fighting to protect our rights as miners.
http://www.plp2.org/
Contact the Governor and let him know how you feel about the ban on suction dredging.
http://gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php
The latest from The Department of Fish and Game on Suction Dredging
www.dfg.ca.gov/suctiondredge/
Info from the DFG's Public Hearing in Fresno on March 22. 2011
Dept of Fish and Game holds a Public Hearing
On March 24th I attended the Dept of Fish and Game’s Public Hearing with regards to suction dredging. The department was mandated by an Alameda Court Order to perform an environmental impact report as required by law. The report was just completed and is currently open for public comment. The public will be able to make comments on the report up to May 10th. The report is very in depth as it is over 600 pages long and has 2000 appendences. The report was compiled by a private company for the DFG. It includes letters from all the major players in the issue of suction dredging in California. There are reports from all the Forest Service Ranger Districts in the state, reports from environmentalists, biologists, and from the mining community including Pat Keene from Keene Engineering. It is very detailed and complete. The EIR also details what species are affected by suction dredging in California and are listed in sections K and L. The primary species that is affected throughout California is the Yellow Legged Frog and is considered a species of “Concern” of becoming endangered. The DFG states that the frog’s numbers have dropped by 95% in the last century. The DFG has analyzed the report and has made a draft of the new suction dredging regulations. These new regulations are now available for review on the website listed below and the DFG is taking public comment until May 10th.
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/suctiondredge/
Suction Dredging to open in November of 2011
After attending the meeting there is good news to report. According to Mark Stopher, the person in charge of updating the suction dredging regulations, he said that suction dredging will open in November of this year. They will start selling dredging licenses that will be good for 2011 through 2012. With all good news there has to be some bad news. After reviewing the proposed regulations, the new rules will be so restrictive that it may be impossible to dredge in your favorite spot. One of the officials said that there are many streams in California and it would be impossible to take every waterway or species into account when making the new regulations. If they had to look at every issue, they would be bogged down with looking at every insect and fungi in the whole state. This would make it impossible to get dredging started again. So the DFG used a broad bush when making the new regulations. Some areas may see greater suction dredging latitude. For instance Stanislaus County will be open all year long with the exception to three rivers that will be open a good part of the year. However most of California will see more restrictions and less time in the water. Mariposa County was open all year to suction dredging outside of the National Forests, the new classification depending on the elevation are greatly reduced.
There are things that suction dredgers can do before the DFG casts these new regulations in stone. The DFG is taking public comment on the new rules. You can tell the DFG your feelings on the rules verbally at one of the upcoming 3 public meetings, or you can simply write an email to Mark Stopher at the email address listed below. Stopher stated that every comment will be investigated. The DFG admittedly used a broad brush to make these rules and admit that there may be room for improvement. So if you think that the rules do not represent the environmental needs or don’t meet the needs of the miners, write the DFG today before it is too late.
How to get your concerns to DFG and keep Suction Dredging open
Since this is my Website I would like to give my opinion on the way to give comments to the DFG. During the Public Hearing many people stood up and talked about how screwed up the DFG was and how suction dredging doesn’t harm fish or the environment. Well unless you are an accredited university professor of marine biology who has completed numerous studies of fish and other creatures that live in the waterways of California, you really can’t say if suction dredging does or doesn’t harm fish. The DFG has letters and reports from many different experts who do have solid credentials in the field that state that there is evidence that suction dredging does hurt fish. Also don’t say how wonderful miners are and how miner are the best stewards of the land, because the DFG has countless pictures of silted out streams, suction nozzles in steam banks, camping too close to the streams and waterways leaving camp and human waste behind their mining activities. The fact is that for every one of these statements, they have an expert and evidence to the contrary. You can however give the DFG specific issues with their proposed regulations. Read the proposed regulation and become an expert on what it says. Look up information about the Yellow Legged Frog and learn when the frog is at its critical stage of development. After you educate yourself a little, email Mark Stopher at dfgsuctiondredge@dfg.ca.gov and tell him why his new regulation won’t work and give him a solution to the problem. Give him specific counties, forests, BLM regions, Claim sites or streams that are negatively affected by the new rules.
For example in Mariposa County the streams run dry between July and September. This is the only time that the new proposed rules allow suction dredging. As we know you can’t dredge in a dry stream. Also there needs to be water for an endangered frog and fish to live in. With this information, let the DFG know that they need to take another look at this area as endangered fish and frogs will not be affected. Ask the DFG for a solution to this issue. In this case I would ask the DFG to reclassify the area to a “Class H”, open all year long. If the DFG doesn’t know what we want, they can’t fix it. I believe that the DFG is open to working with the miners to make a strong set of new regulations that represent the environment and the people who use it.
