Recreational suction dredge mining is a popular method of gold mining in the Pacific Northwest. In exercising a "right to mine" under the Mining Law of 1872, miners run dredges in waterways of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, disrupting essential salmon and steelhead spawning grounds and releasing dormant mercury into the water. This Chapter begins with an examination of the environmental impacts of past and present gold mining methods. Next, the Chapter compares a recent California moratorium on suction dredge mining with the broad discretion exercised by the United States Forest Service (USFS) in regards to mining in national forests. The section concludes that neither the statutes nor the Ninth Circuit, when given the opportunity in Siskiyou Regional Education Project v. U.S. Forest Service, impose adequate Hmitations upon USFS, an agency that takes a hands-off approach to mining. The Chapter then examines USFS's duties under the Mining Law of 1872, arguing that the Law conveyed only a hmited "right" to miners, which USFS and Department of the Interior can lawfully restrict. Finally, the Chapter presents possible relief from suction dredging in the Siskiyou in the form of a proposed amendment to the outdated Mining Law of 1872, extended wilderness rndesignation for the area, and a congressional mineral withdrawal within the forest
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