Yuba Goldfields - Land Controversy

Land Controversy

The goldfields are the subject of an ongoing dispute as to land title and access. Much of the land is owned by Western Aggregate, a mining company extracting gravel from the goldfields. The remainder of the land is split between small private owners, the Bureau of Land Management, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

The BLM land is free for the public to use for recreational purposes, but much of it is actually unreachable. Some of it can be accessed via boats on the river, but other access roads have been closed off by Western Aggregate. The parcel of land owned by the Army Corps is technically public land, but it is also inaccessible and it is closed for recreation. Western Aggregate owns mining rights over much (but not all) of that property. The Goldfields is largest aggregate mine in the State of California, as well as one of only two dredge gold-mining operations in North America (as of 1989).

The titles themselves are also under much dispute because mining has so shifted the landscape of gravel as well as the river itself that it has become unclear as to what the property boundaries are.

In response to the blocking of Hammonton Road, a county road, into the Yuba Goldfields, the Yuba Goldfields Access Coalition was formed in 1996 by local historian Chuck Smith. Smith, along with Goldfields residents and 80 members of the community, spent the next 10 years fighting for public access by educating the public that the road had been public since 1850, when it was used by gold miners. Dozens of members of the coalition were arrested for trespassing on the public road, although none was convicted. In 2000, Yuba County Superior Court Judge Dave Wasilenko ruled that Hammonton Road was a public road, a decision ultimately upheld by the California Supreme Court. Two mining company owners were arrested for blocking a public road, and one mining company owner was arrested for threatening protestors with a handgun during the years-long dispute.

Hunting and fishing rights on public lands, owned by the United States since the Treaty of Hidalgo and managed by the Bureau of Land Management, are owned by the public. A private group called Wildtoo LLC owns some property in the Goldfields, and for several years hired arm guards to scare the public off public lands. Two hunters who were cited for trespassing fought the case in court and were found not guilty because they were on public lands. Section 27 is a BLM parcel that gets most of the use. Private and public lands are still hard for members of the public to distinguish. In August 2006, the Bureau of Land Management issued a record of decision to enter into a 20-year lease to allow a heavy equipment operator training center in the Yuba Goldfields. Western Aggregates, the subsidiary of a Texas mining company, appealed the decision. The school has not been constructed.