05/11/2026
Gold Prospector.
The answer to when dredging will be allowed again in California is simple. It was never disallowed. Personal dredging permits are never going to be allowed again because they were an illegal scheme exposed by the Karuke ( probably spelled wrong) Tribe. The scam, California created a recreational mining class in the 90s under the guise of protecting fish habitat. The scam put the fish and game, now called the state fish and wildlife in charge of this new class of recreation and allowed the fish and game to monetize the recreation which they did by offering personal permits for a person to use a dredge in any allowed waterway in California and only for certain times of the year. This practice by California broke several laws under the mining laws and California's own laws. The Karuke ( again, probably spelled wrong) was not happy with the folks up at Happy Camp, apparently and decided to do something about it. They sued California and won . Why did they win? They won because California did not subject the personal permits to the same standards as a property permit. If a person under a commercial property permit wants to activate a mining site they have to go through several processes. They first have to identify any environmental impacts that mining would cause on the land or water way . Depending on the sites an EIR might be necessary. California law requires this for any commercial activity no matter what the new activity is. Federal laws also require the states to oversee and regulate and enforce mining law . By California allowing people to mine by dredging under a personal permit without going through this process broke not only state laws but also federal laws. The only way California could get away with issuing personal permits to mine/dredge is for them to go through the commercial process on any area they allow the activity. No problem right ? After California lost they put a moratorium on issuing personal permits for recreational mining in California. At least until they could figure out what to do. Once they figured out that California couldn’t afford to go through the commercial process that they require of commercial mining they made the ban of personal permits permanent. This is where we get the moratorium of dredging.
However, dredging is not and has never been illegal in California if you go through the process of becoming a commercial miner and get the proper property permits for your property. It is illegal for California to stand in the way of mining when done properly.
Your property permit/mining rights have not been interfered with.
Just like your drivers license, fishing license or hunting license, the dredging license always could be taken away because it’s a personal permit.
Mining laws and rights are about property rights, not personal rights.
Dredging is still legal in California and the rest of the states .
And this is why the small mining industry really needs to get back to the basics of mining districts and fund education to small scale miners so we know how to stay legal and claim our rights at the table to keep the other entities favorable to mining. Mining districts are a part of mining law and have equal powers under the law equal to fish and wildlife or the water board , but the only way to claim that right back is to utilize it and fill the mining districts with members willing to fund the district.
How do I know this ? My name is Robert Guardiola, and I have been to almost every “dredging “ hearing and have been in personal meetings with several clubs and government officials and several phone and zoom calls with both. If you go to the last Zoom meeting on Californias water board site you will hear my discussion with the water board and their attorneys, you will also hear the California attorney correct the water board chair that I was correct when I layed out the process of legal dredging under commercial property permits.
I did not solve this on my own, it was a collaborative effort of the local mining association I was president of and many other leaders in our community. The person who helped me the most, I don’t think he will mind me giving him credit? Was Kevin Bell , Kevin worked in the water industry for most of his life and definitely knows his way around the water laws and applied his expertise to the mining industry in which he is still active. The other person I would also give Credit to , although the enemy of our cause , is Senator Ben Allen , why Senator Ben Allen , because he let the cat out of the bag which helped me send our team in the right direction to search. It was at the hearing AMRA spearheaded to try to define the definition of a dredge . It was that hearing when I knew that no matter what equipment we used ,California couldn’t issue a personal permit.
I can still see old Ben, looking down on miners from his perch in the prominent seats . And I understood that even he didn’t understand what the law actually was.
I forget who just finished speaking, but he looked down on U.S. miners and said “ Be Careful, otherwise we’ll make you mine under commercial laws “
Right then I knew why they always referred to dredging as recreational!
And I knew that we probably would never get another recreational permit to mine , it is just not cost effective for neither the state or miner to comply with that big of an EIR 🤷♂️
But it is possible to dredge , and they even gave us a map with their 2012 map of where we can easily obtain permits and those areas shouldn’t, by Californias evaluation require an EIR 🤷♂️
P.S.
For property permits you go through the regional water board not the state water board 😉
P.S.-P.S. literally hundreds of people helped us arrive at these facts , to those hundreds, please feel free to chime in, I didn’t mention others as I didn’t get their permission to mention them
