Feds will lift new mining claim ban

Land in southwestern Oregon was put under a moratorium during Clinton's administration

By PAUL FATTIG
Mail Tribune

The Bush administration is reopening about a million acres of federal land in southwestern Oregon to new mining claims.

It is some 90 percent of the 1.093 million acres of Siskiyou National Forest and 151,970 acres of Bureau of Land Management land included in a temporary moratorium proposed by the Clinton administration just before it left office early in 2001.

According to copies of two federal notices expected to be printed in the Federal Register this week, the Forest Service will cancel all but 82,829 acres of the segregation from new claims in the Siskiyou forest.

The BLM proposes to cancel 118,000 acres included in the original withdrawal. That would leave about 34,000 acres temporarily removed from new claims in the western portion of the Medford District, according to the notices.

Dropping a portion of the ban was criticized by the environmental community but applauded by mining enthusiasts, although they want no federal acreage off limits to new claims.

If the action is taken, the Forest Service would initiate a two-year moratorium on its remaining land. The BLM would continue with the same two-year timeline that began with the Clinton administration, ending it as scheduled on Jan. 22.

Public comments on the proposals will be accepted for 90 days following the official publication of the notices.

The bans do not affect existing claims. Land previously banned from new claims reopens on the morning the notices are published in the Federal Register.

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt requested the temporary ban after announcing he would not recommend a million-plus-acre Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Monument proposed by environmental activists.

The ban was needed to protect "nationally significant ecological and biologic diversity of the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area," he said, adding it would provide the time needed to study the impacts of mining on the region's rich salmon fishery and its rare plants and unique biological diversity.

Canceling all but a portion of the ban threatens both the salmon and the ecosystem, said Dominick DellaSala, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Klamath/Siskiyou Program.

"This is not a good day for salmon," he said. "This is a marginal area for mining. A few flecks of gold is not worth more than the irreplaceable natural resources or salmon in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers."

Longtime environmental activist Dave Willis of Lincoln, a proponent of the Siskiyou monument, said the administration's action removes public input from the process.

"The Bush administration has now cut that process off at the ankles," he said. "In fact, they never even started it.

"This is the installment of the Bush administration's program to cut, drill, dig, stomp and chomp our public lands."

Illinois Valley miner Ron Smith, vice president of the local chapter of the People for the USA, couldn't disagree more. His group has been lobbying to remove the temporary ban.

"This is real good news," he said. "But we knew it was coming. We were assured it was coming. We worked hard to get it canceled. Now we'll be working just as hard to get the rest of the ban canceled.

"Any kind of a ban on new mining claims is totally unnecessary," he added. "Most of the mining done here is small mom-and-pop mining."

Small-scale mining doesn't harm the environment, he said.

"We're glad to hear this, but we'll be fighting the other withdrawals as well," he said.

Late last year U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton to remove the two-year moratorium. The Interior manages minerals while the Forest Service manages surface resources.

The BLM will conduct a study of minerals in the 34,000 acres still included in the ban on new claims, said Karen Gillespie, spokeswoman for the Medford District.

With the partial lift of the ban on new claims, the agency is reopening to mineral entry four areas of critical environmental concern covering 3,300 acres. They include the Eight Dollar, Rough and Ready, French Flat and Crooks Creek areas, all in the Illinois Valley.

But that entry would be closely monitored, said Matt Craddock, a real estate specialist in the district.

No Forest Service official was available to comment on the new-claim ban cancellation Monday afternoon.

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com 

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