Trout vs. Gold Dredgers in California

“‘They’re messing with heritage here a little bit,’ Kilgore said of a species protection bill for native trout, aquatic and amphibian species moving through the Legislature. ‘Do people forget what put California on the map? It was the independent miners and the discovery of gold.'” That comment by a commercial gold dredger gives you some idea of the rationalization behind a business that requires sucking huge amounts of silt off of stream beds. One thing the miners seem to forget: there is no longer an endless supply of public land and water available to private interests for commercial profit. Peter Hecht in the Sacramento Bee.