The crew at Cascadia Wildlands is getting serious about defending salmon from section dredging! This is a group that has supported wild fish on a number of issues over the years, and it’s great to see them focusing on this problem.
From the Cascadia Wildlands site:
Recreational prospectors are suction dredge mining for gold in prime salmon spawning streams. This reckless activity typically involves using a gasoline-powered motor with a long vacuum hose connected to it that sucks up the river bottom gravels in an attempt to locate flecks of gold.
California recently took action to ban this harmful practice. That has led to a new “gold rush” here in Oregon and other states in Cascadia. Iconic places like the Lower Rogue River, the Illinois River, and the South Umpqua River in Oregon have become ground zero for this activity. With salmon and steelhead populations struggling in Cascadia, it is important that this practice is banned elsewhere. Please add your name below and join with other anglers, conservationists, and recreationists in calling for the governors in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska to do everything in their power to encourage their legislatures, state agencies, and the federal entities operating within their states to take all possible legislative and enforcement actions to protect salmon and steelhead habitats from this unnecessary and destructive endeavor.
Sign the petition here, to send a note to legislators.
You can also join the Ban Suction Dredging Facebook Group. They’ve got background on Suction Dredge Mining here. And here. Check out Cascadia Wildlands salmon post here.
-MS
