Dear Contrygal & Don,
Below is what I posted on the GPAA Forum recently......FYI.
Update: Since this post Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05) our Conservative, Republican Congressman very concerned about all the loss of public rights, access, use on Dept of Interior (USFS & BLM) managed lands has met with the Colorado Director of the BLM and her Deputy. I am told they both were both surprised and caught off guard that Lamborn was so interested in our prospecting rights, access, use of Cache Creek. He went gold panning with me there in person, understands how BLM is totally mismanaging the old gold mine.
He was apparently told that BLM would "review" the proposed new draft management plan and try to "address our concerns"... Ha. No idea IF the BLM will now delay implementing their new plan and all the rules, restrictions, fees, etc. I sure hope so. I also hope Congressman Lamborn and our new Senator Cory Gardner team up on legislation making Cache Creek a National Gold Prospecting Recreation Site......because, BLM can simply wait the Congressman out....and after he leaves office, close Cache Creek the very next day.
What would REALLY help is if EVERYONE helps me keep the pressure on..................let our voices be heard................call, write or e-mail BOTH Gardner's office and Lamborn's office and let them know gold prospectors nationwide absolutely NEED Cache Creek! BLM has and will continue to try and manage the property as a wildlife and nature preserve, giving plants & animals ALL the priority and us humans zero. It's written into their decision language and EA/Management Plan in black & white, despite the fact Cache Creek is the site of the biggest and longest running hydraulic gold mine in all Colorado history....from 1860 to 1912.
Randy Witham "C-17A"
http://www.goldadventures.bizP.S. FYI on the GPAA Arkansas Group block of claims on the river just North of Buena Vista on CR 371. Several months back the AHRA/CPW put up a "Parking Permit Required" sign and some big rocks at the dirt parking area across from the Railroad Bridge Campground managed by CPW. That effectively means that one would need to pay $7 a day to now park there OR buy the annual parks parking pass. There is no parking below the campground and only a few small pull outs above the campground. SO, no effectively AHRA/CPW is charging GPAA members...........who have no interest or need of the campground (parking, toilets, tables, camp sites).....to access their federal mining claims. WRONG! I have raised the issue with AHRA/CPW and BLM, crying foul. BLM agrees with me that AHRA/CWP can't charge us claim members to access our claims we have rights to under the Mining Law of 1872. So, weeks and weeks have gone by and AHRA/CPW and BLM is STILL discussing what to do... I recommended they simply take the sign down...........go back to the way it was.....so we GPAA members cam park there for free, not risk a parking ticket from CPW.
I'll ping them all again today...
--------------
Greetings everyone concerning Cache Creek, Colorado...
Cache Creek, Colorado, is NOT closed............yet................but, BLM is trying hard to close it.
I'll try to update as I can here, given what I know, what I have been working:
First, the BLM in Canyon City last Feb/Mar issued a new draft EA and new Management Plan for Cache Creek and asked for prospector inputs/comments. I sent BLM, at the request of my Congressman's Area Director, a multipage, 7 main point rebuttal to their "plan". Reason being was the new draft, among other things, proposed the following:
Open only 1/2 the year now, allows for gold prospecting/mining on only 25 of the 2,160 acres, implements OSHA excavation standards on digging, only a gold pan allowed in the creek proper, would implement a fee/permit system of $5 a day or $25 for the 1/2 year season, etc., etc., etc. The only 2 good things were they were going to again allow a wheel barrel/cart to lug your equipment/dirt around and they'd allow small dry washers and battery/solar powered recirculators off the creek.
When draft # 2 came out it had ballooned from 14 pages to a monstrous 61 pages! Every prospector complaint, input to draft # 1 was summarily dismissed, including all of mine. Nothing was accepted, as their "decision language" is written to give the animals & the plants ALL the priority if any conflicts were seen between us humans and them. Prospectors have zero priority. BLM makes all the decisions on what's "damage" and "too much this and that" as to holes, and what scares the deer/elk and fish.
So, realizing BLM intends t publish their plan no matter what, I have been working with Senator Cory Gardner's office and Congressman Doug Lamborn's office to 1). push back on BLM's plan big time or, 2). get legislation enacted somehow to make Cache Creek a National Gold Prospecting Recreation Area. It really needs to be a mandate to BLM, otherwise they'll just change their "policy" whenever they want.
BLM here has been on about a 2 year plan to end all gold prospecting & mining. In about 2009/2010 they enacted new wording, definitions & regulations to redefine prospecting into "Casual Use" and "Notice Level" ops. Casual Use is non-motorized/non-mechanized equipment to them. Basically a pan or sluice only. It does allow for a metal detector, however. That ruling basically drove everyone off the Arkansas River and up to Cache Creek to still do powered ops with high bankers & powered sluices off the creek, but only in their little 25 acre designated "placering area". Well, in 2012 they ended all powered ops there too. Now in 2014 they're moving to severely restrict us further. I suspect if they get their way, in about 2016 they will move to kill all gold prospecting at Cache Creek.
That's why I am going the Senator/Congressman route to "save" Cache Creek from BLM. I met with Congressman Doug Lamborn here and 3 of his staffers on Monday 30 Mar 2015, explained the issues, took them up to Cache Creek.....showed them the property, explained the fact Cache Creek is an old GOLD MINE...and that BLM needs to manage it as such, not yet another plant & animal wilderness preserve. Congressman Lamborn even panned for gold. We both got a few specks in our pan, first pan each.
FYI: Obama just stole 22,000 acres here locally, designating a Brown's Canyon National Monument by executive fiat, going around Congress again, down by Nathrop, CO, on the Arkansas River. That closed the whole 22,000 acre area to claiming, prospecting, mineral entry, rock hounding, mining, etc. A lot of us locals didn't want it, BUT the greedy local city & county governments wanted yet more tax revenues $$$$$ and the local rafting/kayaking/float fishing outfitters wanted a private Cash Cow to milk for personal enrichment $$$$.
Us prospectors/miners need a win, a place to go and play....and what better place than Cache Creek, the sight of the biggest & longest running hydraulic gold mine in Colorado State history. They ran from 1860 to 1912 when they got shut down for silting the river, NOT because they ran out of gold. Millions were mined, millions still exist. There are miles of ditches all across the property, 70 foot high cliffs, wood/stone flumes up on the hillsides, lots of old steel & wood mining debris, about 1/3 of the valley was washed away, endless piles of cobbles/rocks all over. The trees there aren't native/natural. Look at all the old black & white photos from the 1860s & 70s. Hardly a tree in the valley until you get up to the natural tree line at the base of Quail Mountain. The trees there now are volunteers, allowed to grow in the old hydraulic washed out areas because now they could get roots deep enough to get to the water line in the soil. Zillions of trees are killed up there each year by beavers, lightning strikes, especially the Pine & Spruce Beetles, etc. Yet given this, BLM wants to frustrate over folks digging under a few regrowth trees and give priority to non-native, invasive brown trout in the creek.
Nobody goes out to Cache Creek but us gold prospectors. It will never, ever be a pristine piece of land, like the millions of acres of San Isabel Nat Forest all around it. We need it for gold prospecting. Thousands come from all over the country each year.
Wish me luck in my fight to save Cache Creek from BLM.
Anyone that wants to join the fight, please write/call/e-mail both Senator Gardner's and Congressman Doug Lamborn's offices here in Colorado.....explain how Cache Creek is a national resource......public land.........a place with easy access, good gold, good camping, great views.....and how every other place in America is systematically being closed, restricted by the Dept of Interior, USFS, BLM and state/local governments. We absolutely all NEED a place like Cache Creek to prospect year-around! The more voices the better!
Cheers,
Randy Witham, Gold Adventures LLC, Buena Vista, Colorado 81211
Welcome to Leonards forum,I hope you get your information soon from these great folks-John
-John