Closed area on Ark.? Options

[traddoerr]

I was just talking to a gentleman about the Ark. river North of Beuna vista and they said that is has been closed by the BLM for any prospecting from the GPAA claims down to jump rock, has any one else heard this as well, I haven't had the chance to call the local office yet to confirm. I have fished spots along that stretch but was going to try a little prospecting there this year as well.

[noob]

From Leadville down is considered the Arkansas Headwaters Recreational Area (ARHA). It is jointly managed by the State of Colorado and the federal departments. The departments that have a stake in what goes on there are: Colorado State Parks, BLM, US Forest Service, CDOW & Bureau of Reclamation. The point of all of that is keep in mind that when you are talking to the BLM, or USFS, the do not exclusively decide what goes on there on that particular parcel that falls under their direct jurisdiction.

They chat amongst themselves to set policy. Behind closed doors. And their #1 focus is for that river is Commercial Rafting. 200,000+ people a year go down that river, from Granite to below Salida, in 3 short months which brings ALOT of money into town and county coffers via sales tax revenue. In addition to the pull of private rafting companies and other town merchants that benefit from the tourist dollars, you have city councils and county treasurers that are concerned baout what the BLM or USFS allows or disallows.

Businesses, towns and Chaffee County all make lots of money off of the rafting industry. To them fisherman are a sidenote and a prospector nothing more than a nuisance. Follow the money if you want to know their priorities and your future rights on that river and why your current rights are disappearing.

I'll give you an example. Every spring you can go to the Chaffee County Fairgrounds and find an invite only meeting occurring. The attendees are Colorado State Parks, BLM, USFS and all of the outfitters that have permits to commercially run the Ark. The last one I was at 3 years ago while still in the industry had a discussion about how to eliminate that pesky public from driving to a particular camp site below Salida and 'taking spots away' from the commercial companies. The discussion was intiated by the owner of WAR (Wilderness Aware Rafting in Johnson Village). He was complaining about some of his overnight trips having problems finding a camping spot at a particular location because there was road access to this public camping area and that pesky public had the audacity to actually think they had every much of a right to camp there when he felt it should be limited to only swell fellows like himself who are making money using that camp site.

What should have been said by the CSP, BLM, etc., was 'tough cookies dude, that is a public area and mom and pop and a couple kids have just as much right to accesss and use that Public Land as you, a guy making money off of using that public land, do.'

But, alas, nothing of the sort was said. I was appalled. Here I am in a closed door meeting between businesses and government, complete with a couple rangers packing heat, standing by the doors in the back of a room deciding the use of public lands and what select members of the public should be allowed to use it and how to enforce that. When did that Iron Curtain jump across the Atlantic? Just one example and I pointed out that specific company owner because he is a greedy scoundrel in my book, fellow rafter or not. So if you go commercial rafting, don't give WAR any of your hard earned money as he thinks that river is there for him to make money off of, not for anyone else to use for any other reason.

Point of all of that is to know that when you are dealing with any specific agency regarding prospecting on the Ark, there first and foremost concern as far as what is allowed and not allowed is the commercial rafting industry and I gaurantee you that the BLM and the USFS consult with eachother and CSP when deciding policy for anything that happens in the AHRA.

You can bet your bottom dollar there is more behind the reasoning of their decisions than they will every admit to you, and, of course, money is at the heart of it. The other point is that the Ark was one of three rivers I worked. Clear Creek was another. When I started, 10,000-15,000 people a year commercially rafted it. I beleive the number last year was over 50,000. Not very many commercial trips float too far below 119 due to Black Rock and Rigor Mortis rapids, but that will eventually change and when you all start seeing rafts going down below tunnels 1 & 2, get ready to lose prospecting access. I don't have much faith in Jeffco Open Space anyway. Merely a matter of time before prospecting is, as Wheatridge states, no longer congruent with Jeffco's use plan.

[leonard]

I just got back from 2 weeks of dredging on the Arkansas. As far as I know, only 2 people other than the ones on our claim, were dredging on the whole river and one of them was illegal as he was on the GPAA claims.

We had no problem getting permits. It simply took a letter from a private claim owner. They did follow up and call 2 of the out of state permit holders to verify a couple of things though and they did stop and check permits. They were nice about it though as I got there on a saturday and they let me dredge sunday and go get my permit on monday.

I heard a comment a few months ago "all of the arkansas is claimed up!" That may be so but a friend of mine just bought a 140 acre claim near Buena Vista for $5,000 and it looked like a great deal to me.

Leonard