Suction Dredge Waste Removal Survey

Claudia Wise and Joseph Greene are collaborating on a project and they need your help. I received the following survey from Claudia Wise, you can email the photos to me and I will forward them to Claudia. Thank you very much.
Please send photos and information to: prospectorjack919@gmail.com

March 14, 2014

Dear Miners,

Joe Greene and I are working on a small scale gold suction dredge, stream waste products removal survey report. We need to ask all miners for any good pictures they have, of waste they have removed from our waterways.

This waste can include but is not limited to such items as:

Fishing weights, Lures, line

Oars

Beer and Water bottles and cans

Sunglasses, Sun visors and Hats

Golf Balls

Iron Waste:

Nails, screws, bolts, spikes

Horseshoes

Car parts

Construction material

Tools Etc.

We ask that you also include:

Type of waste (If you know)

Weight of each type

Waterway it was removed from

State you worked in

Waterway waste removed from (need NOT to be specific to location, just name general waterway)

Include your contact information so Joe and I can get ahold of you if we have questions. Your contact info will not be published or shared otherwise.

If you could expedite this information to us it would be greatly appreciated. Please forward this request on to other miners.

Thanks you for your help with this project,

Claudia Wise

Physical Scientist

USEPA (ret)

In the Defense of Prospecting

It has really become evident in the past several years that extreme environmentalism has become a major problem for gold prospecting/ mining, for the recreationalist and the professional alike. It seems to me that the environmentalists are always crying fire, fire, fire when there is no fire. Extreme environmentalist would like to shut down prospecting or at least reduce it to panning only. Extreme environmentalists are organized and they have money, lots of money and they are very good at lobbying. They are heard loud and clear even though their argument is based on opinion and conjecture. Often times they present their arguments out of context, for instance when presenting something against suction dredging they present their case using data from commercial dredging and get state biologist’s professional input based on that data when that biologist is not aware of a difference between the two dredges. The biologists are giving a text-book answer to the question asked out of context. When environmentalists lobby for legislation their concern is believable to the legislatures because they don’t know the difference. The legislature often times don’t know the first thing about prospecting. This is not just a local problem it is a national problem, just look around the country to see. States that have either proposed legislation to ban dredging and or other forms of prospecting or bans that are in effect: California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado just to name a few, this type of activity is not limited to the Western United States but Eastern States as well such as Vermont, Maine and Tennessee. Extreme environmentalist groups will use other local clubs against us, they convince local clubs that there is a cause, clubs such as a fly fishing club or a rafting club who would just assume to have the river to themselves. They make us out to be environmental terrorist, they try to portray us  like a bunch of uneducated backwoods idiots. Many of us are from the backwoods but we are not idiots. We are concerned about the environment because that is where we live.

Here is part of a conversation from a fly fishing group forum in Maine between several fly fishermen concerning LD 1671 many of which were at the public hearing:

GQ: Let me get this straight.  You want to eliminate dredging for gold to protect the stream and the fish?  So in turn you can go trudging through the stream, disrupting the streambed, so you can stick a metal hook in the mouths of the salmonids you are trying to protect?  Or maybe you just want the streams all to yourself?  I don’t prospect for gold, but I do flyfish.  Why should my activities be legal while others are not allowed access to play?

Very disturbing,
GQ

TGIF: GQ’s argument is real, and it is a hard one to object to. I think the key point is that mechanical destruction takes individual destruction to a new level. Key term, destruction, if the issue were just sharing, I think the focus of the rebuttal needs to be on the destruction of habitat, that seemed pretty clear to my untrained eye.
It doesn’t take a biologist to know that pools are good for fishing, gravel is good for spawning.
I also found it curious that gas engines are allowed, but I suppose that is no different then an outboard.

It’s a slippery slope we are on.  Most gold prospectors would argue that we are only concerned about the habitat because we want to have higher populations of fish to impale with our stainless steel, barbed hooks.  And we want more waters to tread around in with microbes of didymo attached to our gear…and we want to do it all by ourselves.

GQ: Picking and choosing who has a right to a body of water/activity and who doesn’t is a dangerous game.  The same could be said for motorboats.  How much polution do they emit?  How many invasives have fishermen introduced?  I don’t think the gold prospectors are running around with invasive fish in their trucks.

Unless you are willing to end all activities in a given body of water, don’t go after another man/woman’s activities.  It may come back to haunt you.

Would you support an end to all flyfishing in these waters in an effort to protect the mouths of the fish in the water?  I wouldn’t.

Just my thoughts,
GQ

TS: GQ I’d counter with the question as to why biologists & IF&W have chosen to regulate fishing these waters (closed seasons, etc), have regulated development & logging around them, have made it illegal to cross them with ATV’s, etc

we are talking about a bill that would extend critical habitat protection in select wild brook trout waters & atlantic salmon waters….it wouldn’t ban the activity, just ensure that the protection these waters are already afforded is consistent across all uses…..

your argument, honestly, is bordering on hyperbole

GQ: TS That’s great!  I’m all for protecting critical areas. But why take half measures?  Let’s close them to everyone. No fishing, no mining, no logging, etc. Anything short of that and the appearance becomes that we are protecting fish so fisherman can catch them.

GQ

MH: GQ I’m hoping that you’re playing Devil’s Advocate a bit.

I don’t really see how anyone can equated wading in a stream (which is closed to my wading in spawning season to protect eggs) to the total and complete destruction of the streambed as it exists.

When Dredgers start the dredge in a spot they use a new phrase to me they say – Go for Bedrock. Then they make 10-square foot holes to whatever depth the hose and scuba give them time to do.  (10-square feet if they are legal – watch the video and tell me the first hole is only 10-square feet)

We aren’t asking to ban gold panning, pail and shovel work with a 5-gallon pail.  We are asking to prevent wholesale destruction.  I ask you to watch the video – it’s like a magic show – now you see rocks breaking water shore to shore – poof- now you see a hole.

And – just so you know – the holes you will see if you watch the video – those holes are supposed to be filled in.  Yes, in the permit they sign is a requirement to bring the streambed back to the surrounding level.

Do you think any of those holes were re-filled.  Do you think they put the tons (many tons) of rock back. Not a chance.

JR: Maine law certainly doesn’t say “anything goes” when it comes to our streams.  Not for fishing, and not for activities that disturb the stream bottom.
I suppose the key question is whether we should treat this activity like fishing, or like other activities that disturb the stream bottom.  Every other activity that disturbs a stream bottom needs a permit under the Natural Resource Protection Act. Motorized recreational gold dredging is unique in being exempted from that act.

TS: GQ you’re equating someone picking an occasional flower from a meadow to someone coming in and bulldozing it under

as i said, hyperbole……

GQ: TS You wouldn’t know hyperbole if it fell out of the sky, landed on your face, and wiggled.

MH,

I watched the video. I understand your position. But I just disagree. We are becoming too adept at protecting our own turf at the expense of another. We are going to regulate ourselves right out of the very pursuits we enjoy the most. I say work with the minors without destroying them.

GQ

To view the whole conversation go to: http://forum.flyfishinginmaine.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20350&sid=37c8cf5cf282faea1bcc832119ed985b

I added this part of the conversation to show you what we are up against. I would like to point out in MH’s comment about 10′ square holes he references the law 10 square feet if they are legal. This is what the law states: d. Sluice Size. The area of a sluice must not exceed 10 square feet. Taken from Chapter 10, Sub Chapter III 10.27G of Maine’s land use standards. This was part of this mans testimony to the Environment and Natural Resources Committee. This is one of the items that I mean out of context. Not only is it out of context but completely wrong. He suggests that the hole was not filled in, if you go to that location today you can’t tell that anyone was there dredging, I know because it was my video that he clipped for the propaganda video that he made. He references a permit, there is no permit required in that area. My friends dad had said many times that if you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones. There are environmental groups out there that would like to shut down fishing, I would stand with the fishermen to help defend their sport.

 

We as prospectors need to ban together and get organized. If we are going to keep our tradition alive, we need to stand up for our passion, for our activity. For some it is a form of recreation for others it is their bread and butter. What must we do?

• Organization: As an individual prospector it is tough to fight legislation, as a group we tend to get better results, as a large group we can have a major impact. It comes down to politics, the most active, largest, loudest group is the one that gets heard. It is important to be a part of that large group, a large group like the Gold Prospectors Association of America who is one of the oldest and largest prospecting organizations in the country. The GPAA is a strong organization especially out in the Western part of the United States and it is up to us to make it a strong organization in the East as well. Their strength is in local chapters and local chapters are strong out West, we have few local chapters in the East. If  you are not a member of the GPAA think about joining, if you are a member of the GPAA consider joining a local chapter, if there is no local GPAA Chapter near you think about starting one. The GPAA does not have a magic delegation that if an issue arises they dispatch them to fight our battle it is we the prospectors who are going to fight that battle with national organization. There are many local organizations out there, get involved with them.
• Communication: We need to communicate with each other. We can do that through forums, blogs, web pages, facebook, Twitter, e-mails and so on. A great platform for communication is GoldProspectorsSpace . We need to communicate local issues that arise to get others involved, we need to communicate with other prospecting organizations, it is possible that they have gone through similar situations and can be very helpful. Other clubs and organizations may be able to direct you to supporting documentation. Don’t think that you have to fight against legislation on your own, we need each other. Don’t be afraid to sound the alarm.
• Educate: We need to educate the masses. We need to let the public know what prospecting is truly about, we also have to educate those that are governing our country. Like I mentioned earlier  many of the legislators don’t know the first thing about prospecting. We need to do this with factual documentation. There have been numerous studies that have been performed some of which were generated by government agencies and many reports based on the findings of these studies. Case in point: Extreme environmentalist sounded the alarm on global warming, Al Gore ran with it educating the masses that the house is on fire and burning down fast, spurning propaganda that the masses believed, as time went by we found out that it was just propaganda through scientific data and recently global warming has been reduced to climate change. Climate change is a natural occurence, it has been happening since the beginning of time. We do need to be good stewards of the earth.
• Financial Support: There are organizations out there fighting for our rights that need our financial support such as Public Lands For The People who is engaged in fighting the court battle over the California moratorium on gold dredging. Why is this important? If prospectors lose this battle in California then they have a blue print to shut down suction dredging across America. You can join Public Lands For The People or you can make a donation, every dollar counts.
• Be good stewards: We need to make sure we know the laws of the land we are prospecting in and make sure we follow those laws to a T. In fact we need to leave the land in better condition than when we started. Make sure you fill in your holes, do not dredge or dig in the bank. If you pack it in, then make sure you pack it out. If you find other peoples garbage take that with you as well. What ever lead and mercury you recover take it with you, save it up record the amount, take a picture of it at the end of the season, you will need this picture at a latter date for some show and tell.
• Be prepared: Be prepared for a fight before it happens. Gather data or at least know where you can find it for the day when you submit a testimony at a public hearing, or when you are contacting your Congressperson, Senator or Governor to ask them to oppose legislation against prospecting. Always remember these people work for you.
• Take action: Every prospector can take some kind of action even if it is as little as passing the message on to friends or prospecting groups and clubs. We may have to write letters or e-mails to politicians, make phone calls. Write an editorial to a local newspaper. Make your voice heard.

Prospecting 101 (How To Read A River)

You have located a prospect. So now what. This is what I look for. I look for what I call the gold line, and that is the path that gold will most often travel. There are exceptions to this rule, but gold will more often than not follow a line from the inside bend in the river to the next inside bend in the river. I look at the inside bends and in my mind  I draw an imaginary line.

The gold may be found several feet to the right or to the left of this imaginary line. I also try to visualize the river at flood stage. I look for the high water mark. I then look for obstacles in the river such as boulders, tree stumps, the bend itself and try to imagine how the water was flowing over these or around these obstacles at flood stage.  When the river is at flood stage the gold line may shift from side to side.

The red arrows represent where the river can get at flood stage. Flood stage is when the gold will travel the most. Gold can and will deposit in the areas I marked with the gold arrows. Notice the arrow pointing in front of the large rock, as the river flows over this gold will usually deposit on the down river side. This is a good spot to test. Next you will notice two arrows labeled obstacles, in this instance the obstacles are rocks with water currently flowing over them, you may find larger gold in areas such as this. The water is moving a bit faster causing the lighter gold to move farther down stream to a calmer location. The larger gold has enough weight to sit down in a white cap and stay there. The arrows on the bend show the upper and lower sides of the bend. I will check both and every thing in between, gravel bars tend to build up here and these can yield some nice gold.  Gold will drop out any where the river slows or where it passes over an obstacle and a vortex (low pressure zone) is created.

This is an example of a low pressure zone, while the river reaches flood stage and the water passes over these boulders a vortex is created and gold will drop out. Also as the river recedes and as the river passes around the boulders gold will settle in this area that is calm. This location produced some nice gold for us: here is what we found:

Another good location to look for in a river is where the river widens and the water slows down. As the water slows down the gold will drop out and will sit down. Following is a location that is like this:

This location is right on the end of a gorge where the river is channeled through. As you can see boulders, rocks and gravel have been deposited here, there is a step down in the bedrock which makes for a great gold catch. This is what this location yielded:

Once you find a location that has given you positive test results then that is the spot to work. The goal will be to get down to bedrock or the clay layer which will act as a false bedrock. You may find gold all the way down to the bedrock and as you get deeper you will find other heavies such as lead sinkers and so forth. This is a good sign, if lead is in your hole then it is a good chance that there will be gold to. The deeper you get the gold can be bigger. This is not an exhaustive study on how to read a river, but it is enough to get you out there and get you started on your own gold prospecting adventure. Now get out there and find some gold!!!!

Gold Prospecting 101 (Location, Location, Location)

I have said it time and again the first step in finding gold is to find a location to prospect. A sure fire way to find gold is to look where gold has been found before. I find the internet to be a very useful tool in gold prospecting. Mindat.org is what I use very often, it’s very easy to use. From the home page you will find a box that says search mindat. In the box for mineral name type in Gold and then in the locality name type in the location that you have in mind and that could be a State, County, Town or Mine name. If one doesn’t work try another and hit search. I usually start with a state and hit start. Then it will bring me to a page with a list of mines, then I will choose one of those mines. When you click on the mine it will show you the specific minerals that were found present in that mine. I then locate the mine on a map and make a note of it.

English: Klondike Gold Rush miners in Alaska around 1900. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Next I will search for a geological report of that mine with the USGS. I would give you a link to this site but it is currently down at the time of this writing due to the Federal Government shut down. I find the report and find out how much gold was assayed. Even though I find that the mine didn’t contain enough gold to be profitable, there may be enough gold for the hobbyist.

The next thing I will do is to go to the map, I will then locate it on a topographical map. I often use the USGS store and go to the map locator. I look for rivers and streams that are near the mine. Near the mine I mean up to a couple of miles. If the mine is on a mountain I will look for rivers running off of that mountain. Once I locate a river or stream I will then look for points of accessibility (public access like a bridge easement.) Be careful some states do not allow prospecting activities on state lands, state game lands and so on. Look for state rules and regulations for the location you have in mind because each state is different. If it is on private property get permission first. When I look at the river on the map I am looking for the vertical drop of the river, I am looking for bends in the river and so on.

The next thing I will do is physically go to the location, I will look for that access point. If I have to knock on some doors to get permission then that is what I will do. Once I make contact with the river and then start testing, depending on the results I may stay right there or I may move up or down stream.

When I am in an area the curious may come to see what I am doing, I let them know that I am prospecting for gold and sometimes that will open a conversation to a good lead. I have had that happen on many occasions. I like to hear about legends of gold finds, I make a note of it and when I get home I will track that lead down.

There are other methods of locating a prospect, this is just one I use often and it works well for me so I will continue. If you have a different method please feel free to share it. Now get out there and find some gold and good luck.