Osborn

This is a civil action under Fish and Game Code section 5653 et seq. and former Fish and Game Code section 1603 involving suction dredging into the bank of a stream. Section 5653 et seq. is the principal statutory scheme that governs suction dredging. One of the regulations adopted pursuant to this statutory scheme prohibits “suction dredg[ing] into the bank of any stream, river, or lake.” (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 228, subd. (f)(2); § 5653.9.) Former section 1603 provided, in part, that “[i]t is unlawful for any person to . . . substantially change the . . . bank of any . . . [designated] stream” without first notifying the Department of Fish and Game (the Department). (Former § 1603, subd. (a).) Here the Department, pursuant to Regulation 228, subdivision (f)(2), cited the defendant, Phillip Osborn, for suction dredging into the bank of the Klamath River. Based on that citation, the People then sued Osbom under former section 1603 for substantially changing the bank without notice.

In this appeal, we interpret the term “bank”—as applied to the activity of suction dredging in a stream as governed by these statutes and Regulation 228, subdivision (f)(2)—in its…