A 20-year time-out from mining for the North Fork Smith River and Rough and Ready Creek Watersheds and the Hunter Creek Headwaters
On December 30, 2016, the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management of the Department of Interior signed Public Land Order 7859. The administrative action, known as a mineral withdrawal, formally closes 5,216.18 acres of federal public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and 95,895.53 acres of National Forest lands in Southwestern Oregon from location and entry under the mining laws of the United States for a period of 20 years. Like all withdrawals (legislative or administrative) it’s subject to valid existing rights..
The public lands within the withdrawal area have exceptional scientific, social and ecological values. They’re watershed to the National Wild and Scenic North Fork Smith, Smith and Illinois rivers and two important native salmon and steelhead streams that flow directly to the Pacific Ocean along the Wild Rivers Coast—Hunter Creek and the Pistol River.
The North Fork Smith and Smith rivers provides exceptionally clean drinking water to a high percentage of the population of California’s Del Norte County. The Illinois River, downstream of Rough and Ready Creek is a drinking water source for the communities of Cave Junction and Kerby.
Rough and Ready Creek hosts the highest concentration of rare plants in Oregon and is beloved by the local community for its clean clear water and the open space it’s public lands provide. The headwaters of Hunter Creek and the Pistol River is rich with springs and rare plants, a little southeast of Gold Beach, Oregon and about 10 miles inland from Cape Sebastian State Park.
No place for nickel mines | Pristine and botanically rich National Forest lands that produce some of the cleanest drinking water in the nation.
The metal mining industry is by far the largest emitter of toxic pollution the United States. The communities that would be most affected by the development of nickel strip mines in the two withdrawal areas all support the proposed temporary withdrawal and legislation to make it permanent.
Here’s what Rick Bennett, homeowner on the National Wild and Scenic North Fork Smith River, had to say:
“We can’t have a strip mine that takes away our clean drinking water and it’s as simple as that.”
.What the withdrawal will do
The proposed administrative withdrawal, if approved, will have two effects:
- It will prevent the location of new mining claims for the duration of the withdrawal.[1}
- It will require holders of existing federal mining claims to show their claims are valid and comply with the laws of the United States before they’re allowed to mine—as long as the withdrawal is in effect.
Because the withdrawal will be subject to “valid existing rights,” it will fully protect the constitutional and due process rights of the existing claim holders, if such rights are found to exist through the process prescribed by law.
What it will not do
It will not affect other activities such recreation or public access. The withdrawal actually protects the public’s ability to use their lands. Without withdrawal—under current government policy—mining is treated as the dominant use of all National Forest and Public Lands that are open to the purview of the 1872 Mining Law. So as long as areas are not withdrawn, the interests of mining companies (including foreign owned companies) take precedent over those of the American public.
Because the withdrawal is “subject to valid existing rights” it may not prevent mining on existing claims. However, before such rights can be asserted against the United States, the mining claimant has to demonstrate the mining claims are indeed valid. To have a valid existing right, the claimant must establish that “the mineral can be extracted, removed, and marketed at a profit”. United States v. Coleman, 390 U.S. 599, 600 (1968).
According to the U.S. Forest Service, none of the several hundred existing claims in the two proposed withdrawal areas, have been found to be valid and none of the mining claimants have requested a valid existing rights determination.
- Nine special botanical reserves:
- Woodcock Bog Research Natural Area (Meford District BLM),
- Rough and Ready Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern (Medford District BLM),
- Rough and Ready Creek Botanical Area (Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest),
- Oregon Mountain Botanical Area (Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest),
- West Fork Illinois River Area of Critical Environmental Concern (Medford District BLM),
- Lemingworth Gulch Research Natural Area (Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest)
- Hunter Creek Bog Area of Critical Environmental Concern (Coos Bay District BLM)
- North Fork Hunter Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern (Coos Bay District BLM), and
- Red Flat Botanical (Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest),
- The proposed Veva Stansell Botanical Area
- Habitat for sensitive, rare, threatened or endangered species, including coho salmon.
- 143 miles of streams including the headwaters of Hunter Creek and the North Fork Pistol River);
- Numerous rare plant wetlands known as serpentine Darlingtonia fens (one of the rarest vegetation types in North America).
Equally important, the areas provides pure drinking water for thousands of downstream residents and its river systems provide many miles of pristine habitat for wild coho and chinook salmon and steelhead and cutthroat trout. The two Southwestern Oregon Mineral Withdrawal areas are exceptional conservation lands within the nationally outstanding greater Kalmiopsis and Wild Rivers Coast regions.
Overwhelming public support
The public, tribes and local communities have shown overwhelming support for the proposed five year withdrawal and most have asked that the maximum protection be provided. During the two public comment periods and two public hearings, the BLM and Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest received approximately 45,000 comments on the proposed Southwestern Oregon Mineral Withdrawal. 99.9% of all respondents support the withdrawal of these lands from mining.  Read more here.
RNR Resources, hold approximately 1280 acres of mining claims in three areas within the Rough and Ready Creek watershed. Two groups of claims are for proposed mine sites. The mine sites are in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area. The third group of claims is where RNR Resources proposes to construct a smelter and ore drying facility in the Rough and Ready Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern. There are several other claims held by associates of RNR Resources in the Woodcock Bog Research Natural Area.
In addition, the owner of RNR Resources also holds what’s known as the Nicore Claims Group. In 2005, BLM found the 5,000 acre Nicore Claims Group at Rough an Ready Creek not to be valid. The RNR Resources claims are located in the same area for the same minerals (nickel). The claimant is currently challenging the BLM/Department of Interior’s invalid finding so these claims are in limbo.
Our special Mineral Withdrawal and the 1872 Mining Law page provides relevant background information on administrative and legislative mineral withdrawals.
Here’s a sample of recent media for the proposed Southwestern Oregon Mineral Withdrawal. Go to our media page for articles beginning in 2013.
- Federal Register Notice for the proposed withdrawal
- Forest Service and BLM’s press release.
- Del Norte Triplicate’s article on the proposed withdrawal
- Curry Coastal Pilot article on proposed withdrawal
- Guest Opinion in the Medford Mail Tribune by Jack Williams, Senior Scientist with Trout Unlimited
- Guest Opinion in the Eugene Register-Guard by Ken Morrish of Flywater Travel
- Citizens oppose river strip mining (Curry Coast Pilot 9/12/20150
- US Forest Service Press Release (5/29/2016)
- Forest Service Plan would thwart Kalmiopsis mine (Oregon Live 5/5/20160
- Plan to exclude mining near Kalmiopsis moves forward (Medford Mail Tribune 5/4/2016)
 Thousands of acres of federal mining claims were located in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, on the National Wild and Scenic Chetco River, in 1963—a year before Congress protected the area in the 1964 Wilderness Act. In 1988, three of the mining claims were patented under the 1872 Mining Law. The claimant received title to the now Wilderness land for $2.50 per acre. See Developer lays claim to more than gold in Oregon Wilderness (Oregon Live 3/13/2010)
In 1998, it cost the federal government $3.8 million dollars to purchase one claim in the Kalmiopsis at Taggart’s Bar in order to prevent the area from being mined. Read “Old mining claim has big payoff” in the Medford Mail Tribune.
In addition, the miner bulldozed many miles of road into the proposed Wilderness Area in 1963 without notifying the Siskiyou National Forest. The agency then gave the miner a special use permit to regularly maintain the bulldozed mining tracks after the are became part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The scars of the old mining road are still visible on Google Earth.