Ron Adams, a local landowner, sought to mine gravel from a gravel bar on the lower Pistol River near the bridge. He proposed using the "scraping" method of gravel extraction. But his application was vague, rambling and completely uninformative. Adams provided no studies of the Pistol's flow,  history of changes to the watershed,   gravel deposit patterns, or  salmon habitats. Several organizations, including ORCA, wrote extensive comments pointing out the almost complete lack of necessary information by which to evaluate the proposal. To say it legally, the applicant had not met his burden of proof.

Curry County planning commission agreed! At their August meeting, the planning commission, on recommendation from staff and legal counsel, unanimously denied the Adams application. ORCA thanks the planning commissioners for making a responsible decision concerning the future of the Pistol, already a highly degraded river in its lower stretches that needs extensive collaborative restoration work. Perhaps that work can now begin, with all the concerned neighbors and landowners working together for the health of the river on which they all depend.