A southern Oregon miner took the USFS to task and offered the following:
In August of 2010, a Mr. Everist was convicted by U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman for “unlawful occupancy” under a statute that Everist says he was exempt from, but that had also been repealed. At the time, he faced the possibility of serving six months in prison and $5000 in fines. Ultimately, Mosmon sentenced Everist to probation and ordered him to stay off his mining claim for one year. Everist states that during his trial, Mosmon refused to acknowledge The General Mining Act of 1872 or current federal statutes that derive from the same act of Congress. He may be currently awaiting the results on his appeal on Mosmon's decision.
Mr. Everist says that he performed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to find out how much of the public's tax money had been spent to prosecute him for exercising his right to live on his mining claim because according to him they would not tell him. “Instead, they give me these long files and tell me to do all these calculations for it. So I did. On the seven miners that were charged and tried, they spent $11 million dollars.” Everist notes that this figure does not include the fees of his court appointed attorney, Steven Sherlag of Portland, nor the financial damages that he believes will eventually be awarded to him for the violation of his rights.
----------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- ---------------------- -------------------------
Having personally been involved with the USFS: ( I use to do presentations on their behalf at their hearings on timber harvest).......The head regional USFS agent told me that the USFS would have to stop harvesting timber on public lands because the "environmental anti crowd" kept taking them to court, and the USFS could not afford the time and court costs. It was costing them to much money and their budget did not allow for such legal/court expenditures.
Taking Gov to court costs them money and they have to live by their budgets. The "greenies"have been doing it for a long time. Maybe we ought to employ the same positive tactics.
While there are challenges occurring by PLP and others I thought miners ought to be aware of others as well. Both "Western Slope No Fee Coalition" and "Mountain States Legal Foundation" have long histories of fighting the good fight.
Don't forget to click on the above link!
Bejay
