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Post by nowyo on Dec 20, 2013 5:01:52 GMT -5
I've always wondered why rockhounds and lapidaries haven't banded together, nationwide, and chipped in to fund some sort of lobbying of Congress and state legislatures to preserve what used to be a very popular and healthy national pastime. And also why, when they see someone trashing an area, they don't give the trasher a bunch of grief about it. Rick This. And it's not just the rockhounds and lapidaries, it's also the hunters, the fishermen, the ATVers, the birdwatchers, and everyone else who enjoys the outdoors. Look at the maps posted by Don on page 1 of this thread and look at the organizations involved. The Sierra Club. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Natural Resources Defense Council. None of these outfits have any credibility in my book. They all started out with good intentions, but have been seriously co-opted by the extreme element. Anybody remember David Brower? Anybody remember the Alox scare? The thing is, these groups have done a marvelous job of marketing themselves, and with every newsletter they send out can generate millions of dollars in donations. Locking up all of our open and wild lands sounds wonderful to someone in NYC, or Chicago, or San Francisco, et al, who has never experienced them outside of some TV shows or magazine articles or the once in a lifetime trip to the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone-where if they did get off the pavement they never left the marked trail. They feel they have a common cause, and coalesce around it. On the other hand, the bowhunters hate the rifle hunters, the bait fishermen hate the fly fishermen, the hikers hate the ATVers, all of them think rockhounders are weird, and bird watchers really are weird (ok, pheasants, grouse, doves, ducks, geese are birds. The rest are just these things out there . Get all of these groups together and you can get something done. Never happen, though. For the record, I rockhound, have started playing with lapidary stuff, hunt, fly fish, and we own 3 ATVs. Yeah, I get seriously pissed off when I see where some idiot has been doing doughnuts with his 4 wheeler on a gravel bar in the middle of a river, or torn up the side of the mountain with his jeep, atv or whatever just to prove he can do it. Unfortunately I've never actually caught anyone in the act. I've known ethical and unethical people in all of these groups. People are human, and a certain percentage are really a waste of oxygen. Until at least some of these diverse groups can come together and overlook some of their mostly minor differences in opinion we are all just screwed. Our opponents are well organized and well funded. The other kicker is when an appointed official like the Secretary of the Interior can sign off on some new regulation without input from Congress (not that it matters, Mark Twain said we have the best Congress money can buy and I think it's more true today than ever) or the people. When these regulations are proposed the groups listed above send out mailings, emails and phone calls encouraging their members to call and write to express their opinion. Most of us never hear about it until it's too late. I'm certain that everyone on this forum votes in every election-right? I know that I've missed two elections since 1976, both times because I had just moved and hadn't gotten the paperwork done. In actuality the paperwork takes what, maybe an hour out of your day to run down to the county office? So speak up. Band together. I've stood in the back of a pickup truck giving a speech about land use issues and made the news on three TV stations. We can make a difference. Lay aside the petty crap and get it done. Sorry about the longish rant. Have a wonderful day. Russ
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halitedigger
starting to spend too much on rocks
Lost in the Mojave, Sierras or Itoigawa
Member since September 2013
Posts: 104
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Post by halitedigger on Jan 20, 2014 11:06:10 GMT -5
Well said Russ. As someone who hails from the Left of the spectrum I agree with you. Divide & conquer as someone else pointed out. The wealthy & powerful have always pitted us against one another while robbing us blind. I'm pretty sure we are at a tipping point though. When you look at all the people being screwed left, center and right it's at the boiling point. I just got into this great hobby which gets me and my kids out of the city and into nature and I'll be dammed if I am going to let someone stop me from enjoying my Public Lands.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2014 15:07:07 GMT -5
The other shoe to the story is that you also have to add that BLM, FS and probably Congress see wilderness as a cheaper way to manage the lands they oversee. More people every year = more trashing of public lands, and with less budget for employees to patrol and clean up after them, this gets worse and spreads to wider areas every year. It used to be that rockhounds were among the more conscientious about cleaning up after themselves - picking up their trash, digging safe, being careful with fire, sticking to permitted areas and backfilling their pits - but the new generation is spoiling things for everyone. I am amazed at the condition of some sites these days. Even some pay digs are shutting or increasing monitoring (and prices) for similar reasons.
Aside from banding together to oppose restrictions, people need to realize that the public land is there for many uses by many types of people and demand respect for the land so that all can enjoy it. Cattlemen don't want their livestock dying from eating "disposable diapers" or plastic from someone's garbage (yeah, it happens), horseback riders don't want their mounts to stumble in someone's unfilled holes, hikers don't want to get dusted by Atv'ers, campers don't want to hear amplified "entertainment" echoing across hill and dale, turtle-lovers don't want their favorite species to get squashed into extinction, and nobody over the age of 15 thinks it is cool to chew up the land leaving damage that can take many decades or even centuries to heal on its own. Most private ranches around here began closing to rockhounds and other visitors for the same reasons starting in the 1980s, and almost all of them are now off-limits. The same issues were raised as reasons for a recent wilderness designation a few miles from here. Wilderness and restrictions don't get put in place just because somebody likes the sound of it, and there are reasons behind these decisions that need to be addressed. If we users of public lands aren't willing to self-police and teach our kids to be responsible users and/or we aren't willing to have BLM and FS spend on enforcement then closures are what we're going to continue to get.
I hate that areas get closed to rockhounding, especially since rockhounds have been among the better behaved users of public lands. Some really great spots around here are now off limits. I do understand the reasons why the option to lock people out gets the nod, though. It would be better if the blame game could be put on the shelf and environmentalists, ranchers, rockhounds and other users could get together to push for policies that would both preserve the public land trust and allow for responsible multiple uses. It does sometimes happen that these groups get together and agree on solutions, at least around here, and needs to happen more.
The population of this country has more than doubled in my lifetime. In the same time, the BLM and FS have been reduced to a mere shadow of their former capability. While the number of people and groups using the lands has dramatically increased (along with the number inclined to abuse this resource that belongs to all of us and our grandchildren), budgets have been slashed and responsibilities that were once handled directly have been farmed out to (expensive) private contractors in the name of short-term savings. If tenants at an apartment complex regularly trash the laundry room, then either the landlord locks it or raises the rent to hire someone to make repairs and monitor it to make sure that the problem doesn't happen again. Just thought that the other sides of the story needs to be taken into account, because the problems that make it look cost-effective to just lock the gates aren't going to go away, unless and until some other solution is put forward that works for everyone.
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