Gold miner loses court fight

[M.E.G.]

https://www.eastoregonian.com/news/...SipDqeynW30xl6-7bU9tR_DpY1tg5QWuDJyewBuTA8juw

 

[firebird]

Forest Service officials by 2017 observed Wasson established a semi-permanent encampment on the claim, violating regulations that prohibit occupancy for more than 14 days in a 30-day period without Forest Service authorization

Seriously?? You can't even live on a claim you pay for?? Is this just an Oregon thing or nationwide?

 

[CoinHunterAZ]

It's the same law here on USFS lands here in AZ. My guess is that some places are more lenient on the rules than others. 14 days is the limit for camping.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Seeing the garbage that the hippies left strewn around when they were "mining" (actually gardening), gives me some inclination as to why these forest regulations were implemented.

Should be flexible towards actual miners but that day will never come.
Unofficially, I've seen them look the other way when people are being respectful.

Wonder what he was doing with 90 gallons of vegetable oil and the poisons?
3/4 ton of contaminated soil? Sounds like that was really what led to the $28,000 fine.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

90 gallons of vegetable oil? Was he making French fries or mining?

 

[Clay Diggins]

Vegetable oil?

I'll bet they found a pile of burlap too!

Heavy Pans

 

[M.E.G.]

Vegetable oil uses https://www.google.com/search?q=use...hrome.0.0l4.8244j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[Bejay]

The USFS and even the CFR's had to address the issue of people filing mineral claims merely so they could occupy the public lands. Thus a whole new era of "agency control" was successfully addressed by the Interior Dept; (which in turn brought forth inclusion of the USFS). I remember when the "hippie" movement really started to occupy public lands and the "staking of mineral claims" was a method to the madness. Removing people (squatters) from the public lands became difficult. Additionally many miners who occupied the public lands for extended periods of time accumulated "stuff". Eventually the miners left and left their stuff on the public lands for the agencies to deal with. That also added to the justification for the USFS and BLM to address "clean up" and how to "control" further problems.


There are good stewards of the lands and there are those who are not. Usually a miner who attempted to scratch out an existence on a claim "failed" and in the process all the old cars/equipment/scrap/RVs /etc were left....because failure does not allow for dealing with repairs and maint...so the old crap was left. I have seen it out of control and I have seen where the tight restrictions have benefitted the public lands.


Of course MEG has always believed in the Public Domain concept asserting the agencies can only control "Public Lands". The reality is that the Surface management Agencies were given the fuel to achieve control over miners because of justifiable instances that needed to be addressed. Sad but true. Of course once the agencies got more control they decided to insert more intrusion on the miners....se we see the NOI & POO issues as well as Bonding etc etc etc


Bejay