Larimer County considers limiting prospecting!, county commissioner with screwed up priorities Options

[Scratch60]

This story appeared on 9 news.
http://www.9news.com/news/article/300505/1...-on-county-land
Can you say "slippery slope"?

[jjs1978]

I emailed back asking if they were taking public comments, he replied

"Yes they will take comment here is a link to the agenda

http://larimer.org/bcc/121218/adminmatters.htm "

But according to the agenda it is tomorrow morning; and I will not be able to attend to make any comments :-(

Here is the relevant info from the agenda link:

"Type of Meeting: Administrative Matters
Name of requestor: Gary Buffington, Director
Department: Natural Resources
Preferred appearance date: 12/18/2012 Time required: 15
Date decision needed: 12/18/2012

Objective: 2013 Regulation Approval for Public Lands managed by Natural Resources

Situation: There are regulations that pertain to the operation and management of public access areas within Larimer County that the Department of Natural Resources manages in their Parks and Open Lands Programs. Each year the regulations are reviewed by staff and changes are sometimes recommended to meet the needs of the over 1.5 million visitors to these areas annually. Regulations can be both deleted or added each year. The Board of County Commissioners approved the exisiting set of regulations for the 2012 operating season approximatley a year ago.

Proposal: There are three additional regulations that the staff has recommended for inclusion into the 2013 Regulations. These additional regulations were presented to the Parks Advisory Board and they have recommended approval to the Board of County Commissioners. The three regulations pertain to the removal of minerals from parks and open lands managed by the department, equestrian camping at Hermit Park Open Space and food storage in campgrounds.

Advantages: The recommended regulation for equestrian camping at Hermit Park is directly associated with the establishment of a new equestrian campground that will meet the needs of campers that want to utilize their horses on designated equestrian trails in and adjacent to public lands near Hermit Park. The recommended regulation pertaining to food storage in campgrounds, relates to all of our campgrounds and was established to protect our campers from attracting animals to their campsite. The major danger would be the attraction of bears to the campsite. The third recommended regulation is adding the word "mineral" to an existing regulation that would prohibit the taking of minerals from our parks and open lands unless someone had an approved mining claim. We do not think that the County owns the mineral rights on most of the properties that we manage, therefore we think that it would not be appropriate to allow the public to take those minerals. We have received concerned comments from people that like to "gold pan" in the Big Thompson and Poudre rivers regarding the prohibition of taking gold from the rivers. The regulation would pertain to all of our properties but specifically to Lions Open Space, Eagles Nest Open Space and River Bluffs Open Space on the Poudre River and four parks on the Big Thompson River where our rangers have noticed an increase in operations associated with gold extraction sometimes to a commercial level.

Disadvantages: Visitors that want to gold pan on parks and open spaces near rivers that are managed by Larimer County.

Requested action: To approve the recommended 2013 regulations for public lands managed by the Department of Natural Resources.

Potentially Affected Interest: Visitors to Larimer County Parks and Open Spaces, and staff.

Level of Public Interest and Participations: High

Audio/Visual/Computer Needs: n/a"