Miner fined $5,000 for diverting salmon stream

Here's a press release from the Alaska Department of Law, Office of Special Prosecutions:

March 16, 2012

Placer miner convicted, sentenced for diverting salmon stream

On March 15, a Palmer jury found 59-year-old Samuel C. Turner, of Trapper Creek, guilty of two fish and game violations. The jury returned its verdict after less than three hours of deliberation. Palmer District Court Judge William Estelle presided over the three-day trial.

Alaska Wildlife Trooper Scott Lanier investigated Turner after habitat biologists from the Palmer office of the Department of Fish and Game's Division of Habitat informed him that Turner diverted a substantial section of Cache Creek.

Cache Creek has been specified by the Department of Fish and Game as important for the spawning, rearing or migration of Chinook, coho and pink salmon.

Turner's diversion of Cache Creek was originally discovered during a mining aerial survey conducted by the Department of Natural Resources in early October 2011.

Trooper Lanier, along with habitat biologists from the Department of Fish and Game, flew to Cache Creek in late October 2011 to inspect the diversion work that Turner had done. They estimated he diverted more than 550 feet of Cache Creek downstream of his main mining operation. Turner did not obtain a habitat permit from the Department of Fish and Game before he undertook this project.

As a result of his convictions, Turner is required to pay a $5,000 fine and will be on probation for one year.

Turner has already begun the process of developing a plan to return Cache Creek to its natural flow.