The Sierra Fund has been working on the vexing issue of cleaning up abandoned gold country mines for the past twenty years. And they’ve taken the last ten years to put together a report urging new tools. The CEO of the local chapter in Nevada City, Izzy Martin says it starts with improved assessments on those lands and areas downstream. She says current practices fail to incorporate the history of what happened on the land, as part of the process for development. She says old mining maps can usually be found…

click to listen to Izzy Martin

The report says this will build public and private market confidence to invest in these landscapes. And that will also increase public support for, and private investment in, remediation. She says while cleanup expenses can be challenging, they can often be less than if someone gets sued…

click to listen to Izzy Martin

The report says projects planned for public lands with abandoned mines, including trail building, wetlands restoration, and forest health, should include remediation in their design and permitting. Martin says the information is directed to decision makers with jurisdiction over acquisition or management of abandoned mine lands.