Gold Prospecting on East Fork San Gabriel - mini documentary

[carpanglerdude]

Just found this interesting documentary about Gold Prospecting on East Fork San Gabriel. Not exactly fishing-related, but it is also a popular fishing area and video discusses the conflict between prospectors and Forest Rangers over usage of the water. Enjoy! Also has shots of the Santa Ana Sucker fish, a key species in the discussion.

[old pudd fisher]

That was good thanks.

[Marley]

My high school Agriculture teacher took the class camping at Camp Williams Memorial Day weekend, 1978. The canyon was just recovering from being virtually destroyed by flood waters and there wasn't a whole lot of scenery but the water had trout and the exposed hillsides had gold. Or, so Barney thought. He had a "claim" that he worked just upstream of the camp, and he introduced us to panning for gold. He collected enough dust to color the bottom of a vial, none of us kids wound up with anything but DFG fish. That's the weekend I discovered that I could catch trout, been gut-hooked ever since. Never have found any gold, although it's obviously there.

[DockRat]

They shut down suction dredging a couple years ago in California.


Legislative Status

The legislature and Governor have enacted SB 1018. A part of this legislation applies to suction dredge mining.

The law now requires the Department of Fish and Game to report to the legislature on or before April 1, 2013 on suggested legislative changes and a fee structure. The previously established date of June 30, 2016 for the current moratorium on suction dredge mining to end has been removed from law. Suction dredging, including the method known as “booming”, is prohibited within 100 yards of any California river, stream or lake (Fish & G. Code, § 5653 subd. (d).).

The Department has not yet determined the exact steps or time-frame for meeting the requirements of this legislation. When the Department has determined the steps to comply with current law, this website will be updated.

Further, there are also several existing lawsuits which will likely affect the future of suction dredge gold mining. For these reasons, the Department cannot currently predict when, or if, suction dredge will be lawful in California or when permits may be available to interested miners.

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/suctiondredge/