Roirdon Doremus of Idaho spent four years operating an illegal ore mining operation in the Nez Perce National Forest before the U.S. government took action to stop him.

 

With the help of “an International 125 bulldozer/backhoe, a trammel, a pickup camper shell, 17 pieces of scrap metal weighing in excess of 30 tons including a ball mill in disrepair, and a 55 gallon barrel of an unknown liquid.” Doremus excavated trenches, roads, a pit and part of a hill slope, as well as uprooted trees (with up to 30,000 more he wanted gone). He’s also accused of polluting wetlands and a tributary of an “important fishery containing steelhead, spring Chinook salmon and bull trout species listed under the Endangered Species Act.”

 

The U.S. Forest Service has gone to federal court to force Doremus’ eviction. Forest officials say they inspected the illegal mine four times in 2010.

 

But they allowed him to proceed with his illegal work into this year, for reasons not stated.

 

The government estimates Doremus has done about $60,000 in damage to the forest.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

U.S. Forest Service Really on the Ball (by Philip Janquart, Courthouse News Service)

United States v. Roirdon Doremus (U.S. District Court, Idaho) (pdf)