Miners to battle 'illegal road' charge
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GEORGE SEXTON Miners charged with making an illegal road, shown here, say they used a road that has been there for many years. The road is near Days Gulch Botanical Area.
A
group of miners will rally around two other miners they say were
unfairly cited by the U.S. Forest Service for creating an allegedly
illegal road to access their mining claim along Josephine Creek west
of Kerby.
"These guys were cited incorrectly," said Bob Bernhardt of
Grants Pass, who has a claim next to the two miners. "That road
was used during the Biscuit Fire (2002). I don't want a bunch of
people thinking we don't care about the environment."
Bernhardt said he talked to the gold miners on Friday and they said
they'll contest the citation.
"If they decide to fight it, we'll put the knowledge of our
organization behind it, to help rectify it," added Kerby Jackson
of the Southwest Oregon Mining Association.
Last week, the U.S. Forest Service cited the two miners, saying this
particular road is illegal or "user created." The agency
wouldn't release their names or any details such as possible
penalties, citing the federal Privacy Act. On Tuesday, the Daily
Courier filed a request with the Forest Service to obtain that
information under the federal Freedom of Information Act. The agency
has yet to give an answer to the request.
The road in question is deeply rutted and muddy, and a sign along it
warned people to stay out. The sign has since been taken down.
George Sexton of the environmental group Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands
Center alerted the Forest Service to it. The degraded area is near the
Days Gulch Botanical Area, a boggy area with some rare flowers.
He stands by his interpretation that it's a new road.
"It was a meadow prior to this year's rains," Sexton
said.
Berhnardt said he looked at Google Earth - an online satellite
imagery service - and the road is visible, and he's talked to others
who say the road was there when their grandparents mined there. Images
on Google Earth are usually months or even years old, so it can be
used to see what an area looked like before.
Roy Bergstrom, Wild Rivers District ranger in Cave Junction, said he
also consulted Google Earth, with a date of 2007, before he went into
the field to investigate.
"We zoomed in, and we couldn't even see a two-track there,"
Bergstrom said. "I'm not saying somebody hasn't driven in there
in the past, but we looked on the satellite view to see if there was
an obvious track in there, because I wanted to be fair.
"You couldn't see the degree of surface damage that is in there
now."
A maze of roads and/or trails is visible on satellite images of the
confluence of Days Gulch and Josephine Creek, near where gold was
first discovered in Josephine County in 1851.
The Forest Service earlier said that "Much of the vegetation has
been destroyed and will be difficult to correct. The interdisciplinary
team is assessing damage to estimate the costs for the repair work
needed to restore the road to as close to its prior, unroaded
condition as soon as possible. We will sign the area to inform forest
visitors it's not OK to travel on an illegal roadway."
Bernhardt said "one of the problems we have is keeping
four-wheelers from Cave Junction off of it," and that the miners
have been asked to go easy on the road when it's muddy.
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Reach reporter Jeff Duewel at 541-474-3720 or
jduewel@thedailycourier.com
