Fishing made easy

Original Post:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TroutUndergroundFlyFishBlog/~3/162042721/

A battle is brewing over suction dredging — the activity where someone sucks up streambed gravel, attempts to filter out the gold and other heavy metals, and then cycles the rocks back into the water flow.

Miners say it’s harmless; fish advocates and biologists say it does harm fish habitat. I’d say the dangers are pretty clear — especially if we’re talking about spawning beds (when it would be disastrous).

Right now, the fight is on in California over AB 1032 — a bill that:

• Eliminates suction dredging from five particularly sensitive waterways;
• Empowers the California Department of Fish and Game to limit suction dredging in designated sensitive habitat areas while the department conducts a long-term environmental analysis of this activity;
• Protects spawning grounds for Coho salmon and other endangered fish, including several species of trout, from the ill-effects of these mining practices; and

Twice I’ve come across suction dredges (just below the meadow sections of Yellow Creek), and while I can’t speak to any long-term damages, I can safely say that fishing in those stretches was pretty much toasted for the duration of my stay.

I wouldn’t say it needs to be wholly eliminated, but mechanical gold mining probably does need to be prohibited in sensitive areas (and at sensitive times).

The bill’s made it through the legislature and is front of the Terminator Governor right now, where CalTrout suggests:

Gold miners are actively lobbying the Governor to veto AB 1032. If the bill is vetoed, the California Department of Fish and Game would be powerless to regulate mechanized gold mining that degrades the quality of sensitive fish habitats.

It’s time to do your part; you can invest a few seconds (literally) and support the battle to limit suction dredge mining in sensitive areas by clicking on: Take Action: Healthy Trout: Worth More Than Gold

Technorati Tags: caltrout, suction dredge, gold mining, mechanical gold mining

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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 29th, 2007 at 13:52:03 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.