PFUSA
March 25, 1999 at 08:58:05
Hi Everyone, let me introduce myself. My name is Stan Meager and I am the VP of People for the USA, Happy Camp chapter. The presidents name is Ken Oliver, we are both full time miners, prospectors, dredgers, whatever it takes. RockChuk has asked me to come on this forum to answer some of your questions about our orginization. I've been reading your posts, this is a very active site with intelligent people, and it's a pleasure to be here.
I'll let you know a little about what's been going on here in Siskiyou County, if you don't know already. Siskiyou County is a large county located in Northern California along the Oregon border. We have high mountains, great rivers and streams for fishing, rafting and plenty of gold. the largest piece found was by the Hudson Bay trappers. They found several chunks in the bottom of the Salmon River, the largest was 160 lb., they thought it was brass and spent 3 days deciding if it was worth hauling back to Seattle, finally deciding it wasn't. Logging, mining and tourist were the major attraction until the Forest Service started a campaign to rid the public lands of anyone living on them, regardless if they had a right to be there or not. From 1987 to 1993 this campaign burned close to 3000 miners cabins, a lot of history went up in smoke. I had claims on the South Fork of the Salmon River. In 1987 you could count a dredge every quarter mile or so, now you can count them on one hand for the entire river. Judges even ordered one lady to watch as they burned her out. Then came the enviro-whackos. They spiked our trees and injured our loggers. One even died because of their spiking. They brought with them the spotted owl and shut down half the logging in our county, now they are back for the rest. We have watched as wilderness came and took land, botanical areas took more, sensitive areas took their share and now the National Marine Fisheries Service is here to claim whats left and attack private property. We have fought back with thousands of letters and calls to the federal government, joined orginizations that fight for property rights, got county ordinances passed to bring the feds down to the county level. Our stand is "not one more inch." NMFS started out wanting 300' on both sides of all salmon or possible salmon bearing streams. In this buffer zone, all human activity will cease. This would include many homes, including mine. They want to control the level of the river so they want control of all water use in the county. They want regulation of ranches, farms, and irrigation in the county. They want all animals fenced off from any stream, control of all wells, gardens, orchards, anything that may have any affect on run off to the rivers. They will virtually own all our private property through regulation without paying one red cent. We fought back and they recended but now the rumor is they no longer want the 300', they want ridge top to ridge top. We are in the middle of possibly another Boston Tea Party because we will not give one inch. All I hear from valley to valley is "lock and load." That's where we are now, along with Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
I don't claim to know everything but if I can't answer it myself, I'll find someone that can. So ask away. Stan
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