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--> --> Smith a key player in fate of Wild Rivers Sen. Gordon Smith has plenty on his plate these days, including the Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Monument in southwestern Oregon. The 1.25 million acres of wildlands stretch from Grants Pass to Gold Beach, and according to former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt it is "probably the most important, the most biologically significant, unprotected area in the American West." Babbitt, and former President Clinton, believed this to the point they placed a two-year moratorium on new mining claims on 700,000 acres of these wild lands prior to Clinton leaving office. Now, U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth has implored Interior Secretary Gale Norton to lift the ban. He wants Norton to do so with no regard for public opinion, and with no intention to analyze the effects of the mining claims. This, despite Norton's complaints that Babbitt designated the Cascade-Siskiyou Monument without properly testing public opinion. And we all know where that led to regarding the local monument. Most of the mining in the designated area is of the hobby variety, and those 1,000 or so claims are not affected by the ban. Babbitt's moratorium only calls a stop to further degradation of streams while the government determines the effects of the mining. And hobby mining isn't as benign as the miners would suggest. In a story reported in The Oregonian (Jan. 15), the lifestyle of a recreation miner, Floyd Higgins, was described. Higgins holds nine claims in the area and every spring since 1983 he has hired a helicopter to help deliver three 55-gallon drums of gasoline, a summer's supply of canned vegetables and supplies, two dogs and Higgins himself into the forest. He works from June through August in a stream, using a suction dredge to mine gold. He supplements his canned-food diet with dried trout and rattlesnake. "It's a hobby," Higgins told the Oregonian. "I make my wife jewelry." Not surpisingly, Higgins is against the moratorium. Jim Martin, retired chief of fisheries for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says even small-scale mining can destabilize stream banks, create excessive sediment and damage eggs and juvenile fish. If the moratorium is lifted the miners will come calling, pumps and pans in hand. There is time to study the environmental impact of this estimable area during the moratorium. Lifting of the ban threatens to shift our resolve from one of preservation to restoration. Gov. Kitzhaber and all five members of Oregon's congressional delegation favor upholding the ban. They are in tune with the Oregonian philosophy of preserving our precious wild lands. Smith needs to play along, on key, on cue. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing