Criminal Miner Plans to Trash Coho Habitat on Sucker Creek, Again: Please Send an Auto-Letter Today
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- This 2010 image from Sucker Creek, considered the most important tributary for imperiled Coho Salmon on the Rogue River, shows the total destruction of public lands and wildlife habitat allowed by the 1872 Mining Act
Remember the miner who illegally bulldozed through endangered Coho salmon habitat in Sucker Creek, dumped sediment into the stream, logged riparian old-growth trees and diverted feeder creeks to facilitate his gold fever in September of 2009?
Well, he's back. After being found guilty of illegal mining on Forest Service lands and declaring bankruptcy thereby avoiding costs to remediate the site, he's moved his mining equipment a few miles downstream to BLM forests next to Sucker Creek where he hopes to continue trashing Coho habitat and public lands.
Click here to read last week's Mail Tribune
coverage.
He is again proposing to clearcut old-growth forests on the banks of Sucker Creek, then dig down to bedrock and construct holding ponds in the riparian reserve. The mining would require driving heavy equipment and trucks through Sucker Creek itself in a portion of the watershed designated as Coho critical habitat.
Please Click Here to Send an Auto-Letter Now. (You may receive a reply from the DOJ that the address you wrote is not monitored, but we have spoken to the Attorney General's office and they have assured us they will read and record all messages sent to this address)
Despite the fact that Sucker Creek is the most important Coho tributary to the Rogue River, the BLM has every intention of sacrificing endangered fish and their habitat to feed Mr. Tracy's criminal greed. Having already made up their minds that public lands mining is more important than salmon habitat, the BLM intends to rely on an Environmental Assessment rather than an Environmental Impact Statement and has indicated that it doesn't care if Mr. Tracy has the appropriate state permits or not.
However, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) can help rein in the wild-west illegal mining frenzy on the public forest lands in the Sucker Creek watershed. Please Click Here to Send an Auto-Letter asking the DEQ and the state Attorney General to protect public lands and endangered fish from illegal mining.
