Trout Unlimited Petitions WDFW to Outlaw Suction Dredging in Washington

As reported last night on this blog, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is holding a conference call on January 5, 2018, to decide whether to approve a petition on motorized suction dredging.

In response to a query from your editor, WDFW this morning sent the following details regarding this petition:

The petition is from Trout Unlimited and requests the Commission to

1.  Remove motorized suction dredging as an authorized activity in the Gold & Fish Pamphlet, and instead, require individual applications for standard Hydraulic Project Approval (HPAs).

2.  Ensure HPA requirements provide for protection of fish life and habitat necessary to comply with federal law, namely the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Clean Water Act (CWA).

3.  Prohibit motorized suction dredging in rivers and creeks designated as critical habitat for ESA-listed fish species.

Trout Unlimited describes itself as "the nation’s largest coldwater recreational fisheries and conservation organization, with over 5,000 members in the State of Washington."

Among other things, their petition requests the Fish and Wildlife Commission to limit the methods used in small-scale prospecting and mining to those specifically authorized in RCW 77.55.011(21):   Pans; nonmotorized sluice boxes; concentrators; and minirocker boxes.  At present, they are requesting a ban on only motorized suction dredging.  Potentially, however, the reasoning behind this petition could result in a ban on such basic tools as picks and shovels.

If any form of small-scale mining is to survive in Washington, this petition needs to be stopped and some semblance of sanity injected into the process of mining regulation.  For those who are willing and motivated, a communication campaign to the Commission on this topic would be in order.  Their address is:

Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission
600 Capitol Way N.
Olympia, WA  98501-1091

Phone:  360-902-2267
Fax:  360-902-2448

Email:  commission@dfw.wa.gov

Online contact form:  http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/contact.html

The Trout Unlimited petition may be downloaded from the link below:

https://mega.nz/#!xZcECDrA!2C8oVUF5wHJGMvEher6400X0ZjW4oa3nQlyHCuB_c1A