MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A southern Oregon gold miner has been sentenced to a year in federal prison for illegally mining on a salmon stream.
Clifford Tracy of Gold Hill was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Medford for failing to file a plan of operations and post a bond before mining on federal land that is critical habitat for threatened salmon.
He must also pay $4,360 to hire someone to fill the trenches dug on the Stray Dog Mine on Galice Creek, a tributary of the Rogue River near Grants Pass that was mined heavily during the 1850s Gold Rush.
This was Tracy’s second conviction for illegal mining. He was sentenced to probation in 2009. That mine was on Sucker Creek, a tributary of the Illinois River that is also salmon habitat.
