A time out for mining in the Siskiyous
The Oregonian
By The Oregonian Editorial Board
November 21, 2009
A
spike in mining in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area is turning into a dangerous
free-for-all, with hundreds of claims filed in the last eight years. One miner
shot an ATV rider who ventured onto his claim, another has challenged
the authority of the courts to restrict his mining activities and a third
is looking to sell "time
shares" in his claim surrounded by the Kalmiopsis Wilderness even
though he has no permits to do so.
Gov.
Ted Kulongoski, Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio
all have written to top Obama administration officials seeking a moratorium on
harmful mining activity in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area. A moratorium is
certainly needed to stop the land rush and harmful mining activities in the
Siskiyous until Congress has an opportunity to approve long-overdue reforms of
the Mining Act of 1872.
The mining act is one of the last great anachronisms in federal law. Even now,
just after Congress has recognized the world-renowned biological diversity of
the Siskiyous, the mining act allows miners to stake claims throughout the area,
using suction dredges and causing other environmental harm. With the mining act
behind them, these miners view the public land as theirs to exploit.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is leading an effort to write a new national
mining law in Congress, one that would better balance the competing needs and
values in areas such as the Siskiyous. But until the new law and better
protections are in place, Salazar and Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary
who oversees the Forest Service, should order a moratorium on mining in the
Siskiyou Wild Rivers area.
