Document text
Couple to fight order to vacate BLM gold mine Galice Creek site activity at issue By Paul Fattig GALICE � A federal court judge has ordered a couple who occupy and operate a historic gold mine on Bureau of Land Management property to vacate the site within 90 days. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Hogan of Eugene on Tuesday also ordered Jack and Cheryl Strubel to remove all structures and equipment from the historic Leopold Mine. The Strubels, who have three young children, have indicated they plan to file an appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Hogan�s order comes at the end of a three-year battle between the miners and the federal government. The Strubels say they are abiding by mining and environmental regulations, but the BLM says that isn�t true. The BLM and the U.S. attorney�s office, saying that the mining activity was illegal, asked the court on Sept. 18 to take the action. The mine is about 20 miles west of Grants Pass on the north fork of Galice Creek. It was established in the mid-1800s, a period when gold miners first flocked to the area. The Strubels, who say they bought the mine in 1992, said in an interview earlier this year that they are meeting the requirements of the 1872 federal mining law and have been working to protect the local environment. The BLM, which originally issued a notice for the couple to vacate the land early in 1998, disagrees. The agency on Aug. 30 rejected a plan of operation submitted by the Strubels. The agency has no objections to mining that meets the requirements of the 1872 mining law as well state and federal environmental laws, said Karen Perault, spokeswoman for the BLM�s Medford District. "We have worked very hard to get the Strubels in compliance with those requirements," she said, adding that the request to have them removed was the last resort. In addition to concerns about sanitation and resource damage, there is the problem of the occupants� denying the public access to its own land, Perault said. "It�s not in the public interest for someone to live on public land when they aren�t authorized to do so," she said. "People living on public land illegally make it appear as though it�s private land and intimidate other people who have a right to go on that land." If the Strubels do not leave the site as ordered by Hogan, the BLM will go back to court to seek the assistance of the U.S. marshal�s office, she said. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.