Associated Press & KDRV Staff
 
October 15, 2009
 
GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski wants to head off recreational gold miners who may be headed to southwestern Oregon since California imposed a ban on using suction dredges in rivers.
 
The governor sent letters Thursday to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking them to impose a mining ban on federal lands in the region encompassing the Rogue and Illinois rivers, which was proposed by the Clinton administration in 2001.
 
When the Bush administration took office it dropped the idea.
 
The Siskiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon were the site of Oregon's gold rush in the 1850s and Kulongoski notes that the region has some of the best remaining salmon and steelhead habitat on the West Coast.
 
In August, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that temporarily bans miners from using small gasoline-powered dredges to glean flecks of gold from river bottoms until an environmental review determines how much it harms salmon.
 
The bill was part of a long-standing campaign by the Karuk Tribe on the Klamath River and environmental groups to restore salmon runs in Northern California.
 
About 3,500 permits are issued each year for suction dredge mining in California, where people come from around the country to experience the rush of finding raw gold.