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.

[Coalbunny]

Welllllll....... Actually guys, "recreational" is just a slang term for something that has literally been happening for centuries.

Very rarely will you find someone that makes their sole income, or even the majority of it, from prospecting. Yeah they are out there, but they are rare.

Even in the 1800's when Leadville wasn't even born yet, the Tabor's came to Oro and set up a store. Horace Tabor made his fortune off of mining, yet he himself rarely did anything more than grubstake or buy claims. Many people were in the same spot- there is a certain amount of entertainment in prospecting, but generally not enough to warrant doing it as a full time job. Thus they were cowboys, ranchers, farmers, doctors, lawyers, Ladies of the Evening, store owners, barkeeps, piano players, sheriffs and bank robbers. Almost everyone back then, and now, has a formal mode of occupation.

So when the government says they ban recreational prospecting, they are banning us in reenacting our heritage, our lineage, the work of our forefathers.

Me, I am engaged in studies that require me to pan. I find gold, yes, but it has been documented for decades through the USFS and BLM as well as WYGS and a few colleges that my studies pertain to sediments and the actions that create their depositional structure. So not finding gold doesn't break my heart. Finding gold, yeah I like it. Big wow. And I have warned rangers in the past do not interfere with my studies. That actually drags in a myriad of state and federal laws, and I have gone to the mat before on those, and won. I won then and I'll win again.

[Coalbunny]

Carl ask Jon to show these words of wit in writing otherwise he dont know sqwat and he needs to keep his unknowing mouth shut before he gets int otrouble!!

I have, but he just tells me to talk to Megan and even once to talk to the BLM.


To recap-

Welllllll.......

Me, I am engaged in studies that require me to pan. I find gold, yes, but it has been documented for decades through the USFS and BLM as well as WYGS and a few colleges that my studies pertain to sediments and the actions that create their depositional structure. So not finding gold doesn't break my heart. Finding gold, yeah I like it. Big wow. And I have warned rangers in the past do not interfere with my studies. That actually drags in a myriad of state and federal laws, and I have gone to the mat before on those, and won. I won then and I'll win again.

I have argued this with rangers and managers in Colorado, Utah, Oregon, California and Wyoming. I don't recall the USC that backs up what I do, and I'll have to find it very soon, but there is a federal law that prohibits the managing agency from interfering with legitimate research that has no deleterious effect on the area studied, and provides for civil damages and possibly criminal charges. At that point it falls under 5 USC, where there is a special hearing for the incident, in which they have their bosses, their bosses bosses, all the way up to Salazar if it gets bad enough.

Now Salazar is going to be a huge problem. I know him personally, we met twice, we don't like each other, and he is a bigot and a racist.
Salazar has told me himself that if it was up to him, people like me would not be allowed on public lands anywhere, making reference to his knowledge of my physical impairments, and this was before he became the Secretary of the Interior, in the days when he was a Senator and I was his constituent. Gee, what a nice way to talk to a constituent, eh?

Our last fight is still ongoing. Back when he was still US Senator I called to express my dissatisfaction with his support of an amnesty program for illegal aliens. Now keep in mind that I'm not picking at race on that issue, because people of all races, all nationalities and literally all professions can be and have been illegal aliens. UK, France, Russia, Iraq, Chile, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand- hell, I can bring up a list of countries and I guarantee you there are illegals from each one.
Well, the young man I talked with via telephone (Canon City office, IIRC)got a bit snotty about it and started bragging about how Sen Salazar will help return Colorado to it's original owners- Mexico. Really? Hmmm. The kid didn't like it when I asked him if he meant returning Colorado to the true original owners that the French & Spanish stole the lands from (which is the only proper thing to do, I feel, before giving anything to the Mexicans) such as Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Pueblo, Shoshone, Ute, Comanche, Kiowa & Navajo. Thinking this young man is just being a dick, I gave Sen. Salazar a chance to come clean, so I called Sen. Salazar's DC office, only to hear the very same thing (not word for word, but the same stuff pretty much). At that point I have openly referred to Salazar as a racist, a bigot, a traitor, and those that know me can imagine there's a few other choice words that aren't proper to discuss here. I was, and still am, infuriated that Salazar would align himself with people like that if he does not support that anti-American movement and mad as hell if he does support the same agenda.

My studies have taken a huge hit. The past few times I was arrested the cops have made it a point to perform unlawful searches & seizures, and the last time they took my computer. When I got it back I found they had effectively destroyed a huge part of the work I did for the USFS along with nearly all of my research notes. The maps I did, gone. That was a double negative as they also destroyed every map and notes for a project I was doing for a BLM office (go figure) who is now mad as hell at me (no surprise). Right now, they think they have me trumped for the moment. I'm not sure, but they might (I'll explain that to you later, Dan).