The following letter was sent today by the president of a small northern California gold mining company questioning the governor's signing into law the "ban on ALL dredging in California." During the Depression years some families were fed on the gold that was extracted from local streams.

Gold mining could again be a viable industry in the State when Californian's need jobs if only Schwarzenegger had the foresight to support the industry as the government in Quebec has so wisely chosen to do which has created jobs and tax revenues.

The expanded anti-gold mining posture of the State is just more silly non-sense coming from governments south of the border.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

State Capitol Building

Sacramento CA 95814 August 7, 2009

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

The local newspaper publisher and editor just phoned me asking what I thought about our governor signing into law the ban on all dredging in California. I replied that he probably would not sign it because the legislature cannot preempt federal law. He said, “Wrong, he just announced that he signed it.” I’m shocked. If you have some time for reconsidering, please get your staff to do some detailed research.

I dredged years ago (1976 to 1981) in the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains. I started when the California Department of Fish and Game was the responsible agency to monitor and protect wild life (fish). The men and women were well educated and trained to perform these important public benefits. I still live in the Sierra and see the creeks and streams daily. Fish and Game has been compromised in conducting its mandates.

As summer progresses those deep water holes in the intermittent watercourses (dredging) provide a safe habitat for fish insects and other aquatic life. If anyone told you that public welfare or fish well-being is compromised by turning over the underwater aggregate, they are wrong. The Fish and Game scientists put zone categories on the waterways to prevent dredging during spawning time. If anyone told you that recreational dredging significantly altered the stream gravel or banks, they are ignorant of not only the facts about dredging and the effects of winter in the mountains. I have stood by the banks of a raging river during winter and listened to boulders the size of a hummer rolling downstream unabated. A dredge is like a whisper in a hurricane.

Dredging is lots of fun, very educational and is a family activity. It is also ecologically sound. Native Californians familiar with the gold bearing waterways in our State see gold miners, both recreational and professional as extensions of our culture and heritage. For those reasons alone I ask you to reconsider what you have done by signing a very unlawful, un-American and certainly an “unCalifornian” piece of political legislation.

The positions stated above are readily provable. Come on up to the California gold country and see for yourself. California is deeply in financial trouble. Gold creates new wealth, increases the GDP and spreads money around the rural communities. The cities will eventually learn that not much of value is produced inside its limits. The nation will soon learn what it is like when the bulk of our necessary resources must be imported. Dredging for gold in California dates back to its beginning. It is not a big activity. Dredging is symbolic of the free will, pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit that makes this state great. You made a mistake with this one. I encourage you to correct it.

Sincerely from a fifth generation Californian

Michael Meister Miller