[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 36, Volume 2]
[Revised as of July 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 36CFR228.15]

[Page 144-145]
 
              TITLE 36--PARKS, FORESTS, AND PUBLIC PROPERTY
 
          CHAPTER II--FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 
PART 228_MINERALS--Table of Contents
 
                      Subpart A_Locatable Minerals
 
Sec.  228.15  Operations within National Forest Wilderness.

    (a) The United States mining laws shall extend to each National 
Forest Wilderness for the period specified in the Wilderness Act and 
subsequent establishing legislation to the same extent they were 
applicable prior to the date the Wilderness was designated by Congress 
as a part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Subject to 
valid existing rights, no person shall have any right or interest in or 
to any mineral deposits which may be discovered through prospecting or 
other information-gathering activity after the legal date on which the 
United States mining laws cease to apply to the specific Wilderness.
    (b) Holders of unpatented mining claims validly established on any 
National Forest Wilderness prior to inclusion of such unit in the 
National Wilderness Preservation System shall be accorded the rights 
provided by the United States mining laws as then applicable to the 
National Forest land involved. Persons locating mining claims in any 
National Forest Wilderness on or after the date on which said Wilderness 
was included in the National Wilderness Preservation System shall be 
accorded the rights provided by the United States mining laws as 
applicable to the National Forest land involved and subject to 
provisions specified in the establishing legislation.

[[Page 145]]

Persons conducting operations as defined in Sec.  228.3 in National 
Forest Wilderness shall comply with the regulations in this part. 
Operations shall be conducted so as to protect National Forest surface 
resources in accordance with the general purposes of maintaining the 
National Wilderness Preservation System unimpaired for future use and 
enjoyment as wilderness and to preserve its wilderness character, 
consistent with the use of the land for mineral location, exploration, 
development, drilling, and production and for transmission lines, water 
lines, telephone lines, and processing operations, including, where 
essential, the use of mechanized transport, aircraft or motorized 
equipment.
    (c) Persons with valid mining claims wholly within National Forest 
Wilderness shall be permitted access to such surrounded claims by means 
consistent with the preservation of National Forest Wilderness which 
have been or are being customarily used with respect to other such 
claims surrounded by National Forest Wilderness. No operator shall 
construct roads across National Forest Wilderness unless authorized in 
writing by the Forest Supervisor in accordance with Sec.  228.12.
    (d) On all mining claims validly established on lands within the 
National Wilderness Preservation System, the operator shall take all 
reasonable measures to remove any structures, equipment and other 
facilities no longer needed for mining purposes in accordance with the 
provisions in Sec.  228.10 and restore the surface in accordance with 
the requirements in Sec.  228.8(g).
    (e) The title to timber on patented claims validly established after 
the land was included within the National Wilderness Preservation System 
remains in the United States, subject to a right to cut and use timber 
for mining purposes. So much of the mature timber may be cut and used as 
is needed in the extraction, removal, and beneficiation of the mineral 
deposits, if needed timber is not otherwise reasonably available. The 
cutting shall comply with the requirements for sound principles of 
forest management as defined by the National Forest rules and 
regulations and set forth in stipulations to be included in the plan of 
operations, which as a minimum incorporate the following basic 
principles of forest management:
    (1) Harvesting operations shall be so conducted as to minimize soil 
movement and damage from water runoff; and
    (2) Slash shall be disposed of and other precautions shall be taken 
to minimize damage from forest insects, disease, and fire.
    (f) The Chief, Forest Service, shall allow any activity, including 
prospecting, for the purpose of gathering information about minerals in 
National Forest Wilderness except that any such activity for gathering 
information shall be carried on in a manner compatible with the 
preservation of the wilderness environment as specified in the plan of 
operations.