A father and son who carved an illegal dirt road along Keystone Creek near Loganville to haul in mining equipment have entered no contest pleas to felony vandalism and misdemeanor water pollution and stream alteration charges. Gregory Arnoldi Jr., of Nevada City, and his father Gregory Arnoldi Sr., of Browns Valley in Yuba County, were also sentenced to 30 days each in county jail, $8,135 each in fines, and three years of felony probation that bars them from any mining work.
The pleas were announced by the Sierra County District Attorney's Office, as reported by CBS Sacramento. Prosecutors say the two men used heavy equipment to modify a historic carriage route so they could bring in a truck and mining gear, in the process causing rock and soil to spill into Keystone Creek, which feeds the North Fork of the Yuba River near Loganville. The unpermitted road work occurred on U.S. Forest Service-managed land and adjoining private property, according to The Mountain Messenger.
Sierra County District Attorney Sandra Groven said the case was submitted to her office by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and that the Arnoldis' scheme vandalized private and public property while significantly damaging property, natural resources, and mining artifacts, according to CBS Sacramento's reporting. “This is not 1849,” Groven said, a pointed reference to the Gold Rush era when, per Wikipedia, more than 16,000 miners once worked the Yuba River's forks in what is now California's second least-populated county, home to roughly 3,200 residents today.
Charges Tied to State Stream Protection Laws
Beyond felony vandalism and conspiracy, the Arnoldis were charged with misdemeanor water pollution, altering a stream without notifying state authorities, mining without a permit or reclamation plan, and grading without a permit, per CBS Sacramento. Those charges trace to specific state statutes: California Fish and Game Code Section 1602 requires notifying the Department of Fish and Wildlife before substantially altering a riverbed, while Section 5650 bars depositing materials harmful to fish into state waters, the same department's regulations state.
Separately, state law under Fish and Game Code Section 5653.1 maintains a statewide moratorium on motorized suction dredge gold mining and bars wildlife officials from issuing permits for it. CalCIMA describes the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975's thresholds—disturbing an acre or more, or producing 1,000 cubic yards of overburden and/or product or more—and its reclamation-plan provisions, according to CalCIMA.
Restoration Deadline Carries Steep Penalties
As part of the plea agreement, the Arnoldis were ordered to implement and pay for a restoration plan for the damaged public and private properties. If restoration of those properties is not finished by August 1, 2027, each man faces an additional eight months in jail and more than $30,000 in further fines, CBS Sacramento reported. The Mountain Messenger added that missing the deadline would also expose the men to civil liability for restitution to affected property owners.
Both men were ordered to serve their 30-day jail terms at the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility in Nevada City, the paper reported. Sierra County does not operate a full-service inmate facility; it converted its local jail into a temporary housing facility in 2015, and inmates are housed primarily in Nevada County, according to Sierra County.
Public mining claim records reviewed by The Diggings show Gregory Arnoldi Jr. listed as a co-owner of High Sierra, a 67.09-acre draft placer mining claim in Sierra County overseen by the Bureau of Land Management's Eagle Lake Field Office.
