Tell the Forest Service: No Roads in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness!
The Forest Service is considering a request to allow large equipment to be driven through the Kalmiopsis Wilderness to access a private in-holding on the Chetko River so that it may be developed for suction dredge mining and so that further infrastructure may be built to facilitate recreational gold miners to be helicoptored into this remote site, known as Emily Cabin.
KS Wild is extremely concerned about the impacts that proposed
motorized mining activities within the Wilderness will have on the
irreplaceable resources there.
It is important that the portion of the Chetco River within the
Wilderness remain a quiet, remote place, where salmon spawn and the
water clarity and color are pristine. Motorized suction gold mining
will create sediment plumes and alter the riverbed within the
Kalmiopsis Wilderness.
We are also extremely concerned by the proposal to allow motorized access on trail 1129 through the Wilderness to access the mining site at Emily Cabin. The 1129 trail is largely recovered from past motorized use. Re-opening the route would involve crossing several wet areas and seeps that are botanical hot-spots and would threaten to spread the root disease that kills rare Port-Orford Cedar trees. Most importantly, Wilderness ceases to be Wild when large mining equipment is transported on designated hiking trails through the Wilderness.
Please take a brief moment to send an automatic letter to the Forest Service if you share these concerns.
The Klamath-Siskiyou Region
Fire Ecology and Policy
Responsible Use
