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Posted by: h20prospector May 1 2013, 04:05 PM

Attention All you prospectors:

Golden is doing a survey about Clear Creek use/mgmt and they don't even mention prospecting. Please take the survey and write in Gold Prospecting as your activity. Please play nice and be respectful as any of your comments could get published as part of the Summary Report they publish.

The reason they are doing this is a huge increase the last couple summers in numbers of people riding inner tubes down the creek and causing conflicts with other creek users. Also a lot of people parking all over the neighborhoods in the area and getting rowdy in the park alongside the river banks.

The good news is we are not on their list of problems! That said, being omitted can lead to being banned so we have to insist on some visibility.

http://conta.cc/XIAPNo

Posted by: swizz May 1 2013, 05:32 PM

Thanks Pat,
I filled it out. They didn't include Gold Prospecting in their lists of activities but I clicked "Other" and typed it in.
I voted for No further regulations and advised them that greater enforcement of the existing regulations would be a more logical solution. I added.... "how can you add more regulations if you are stating that you can't even enforce the existing regulations? Beef up your enforcement, the existing regs are fine."
That's how I feel about it anyway.

Posted by: russau May 2 2013, 04:40 AM

Swizz that is kinda what i put in my "other" comment that Pat had posted on another site/forum.. to much and over regulated is wrong for public lands! dont create a problem where there isnt one in the first place!

Posted by: swizz May 2 2013, 06:32 AM

well..... it's not public lands.
It's actually private property (Open Space owned by City of Golden and/or Jefferson County I believe) that is designated as a public recreational use area and regulated as such.
They can regulate or disallow any form of recreation that they want. Kinda nice that they're considering public opinion before making any changes.
Not any "rights" to uses there... more of a "privilege" situation where they can dictate uses and regs since they own the property.

Posted by: Modern Day Miner Jul 21 2013, 03:34 PM

Has anyone been to clear creek lately just at the Hwy 93 and Hwy 6 intersection? They (the city of Golden) have completely fenced off most of the access to the creek along the walking path that goes from RV park up to the Open space sign. I like to do a little digging in that open space area just past the sign so it hasn't affected me yet. I was out yesterday and the "Park Rangers"(mall cops) are everywhere just itching to write someone a ticket. I was just walking back through the park on my way from the open space to my car and got harassed for just walking a sluice box through the area. When I told them I had come from open space up past the end of the fence They were disappointed that they were not going to be able to write me a ticket. Is this part of the area you guys have been talking about as far as the public input on this part of the creek? Most of the public who responded to use of this area must have said please shut it down, we are having to much fun tubing,fishing,swimming, and a little prospecting. Please stop us before we hurt ourselves.

Anyway just wanted to vent to the group about another area that was a beautiful and well used but not abused spot being closed off.

Thanks
Chad

Posted by: Dypheron Jul 22 2013, 09:41 AM

Chad, as far as I know that section has been off limits to prospecting of any kind for a while now. Golden can't do anything past tunnel one because they don't own it, but they are getting quite pushy about everything below it. IIRC the survey was for all of clear creek through Golden proper.