Went to the miner's meeting in Downieville last night

[Bluebeard]

It was put together by a Sierra County Supervisor, Lee Adams- and boy what a stand up guy he is- he was genuinely concerned about the limitations put upon the miners by the DFG, and was very concerned about the economic devastation it has caused to his county. The chambers had an overflow crowd of maybe 50 people and miners from all over showed up.

Lee's agenda was to craft a county level response to the DFG based upon economic devastation and the process being unfair to the small businessman within the community. Many of the crowd of local miners (and one biologist) stood up and aired their complaints. Lee patiently listened and directed the meeting towards reviewing Pat Keene's list of issues for rebuttal.

It was a lively discussion and quite a few pertinent points were discussed. Lee wanted to be kept in the loop via email of any responses to the DFG from anyone in the room.

I cannot relay to you how impressed I was with Lee- he really wanted to help defend the miner's rights. Sierra County ought to be proud to have such a dedicated representative on their board.

[Geo-George]

Do you know if any minutes were taken?

[Bluebeard]

I assume there were. Lee had a woman (who worked for the assessors office) by his side- I assume that she was taking notes. 90% of the meeting was the local dredgers venting about the injustice. He originally called the meeting to try to figure out what the county's response to the DSEIR was going to be- but very little time of the meeting actually focused on that (at least in my estimation). Just about everyone in the room knew each other and it was a polite audience and like I mentioned - it was mainly folks venting about the inconsistencies of the proposed rules.

Mojave Joe has his CSP archive that he is building and at this point in time, I think it would be very constructive if all the miners took the opportunity to look over all the info listed there, so they can compile a clear and concise letter to the DFG - taking on the proposed restrictions- point by point and describing why each one is ridiculous. At this point in time, I think having a lot of intelligent letters may be our only hope.

I talked to a friend who went to the Senator Gaines meeting on Wednesday too. He told me the whole topic was decided before the meeting began. Lois Wolk and most of her fellow board members weren't interested in the facts. He said that one of the women on the board commented that "since it was voted through so fast, it must have been correct, so she is behind the dredging ban"- and then she fiddled with her cell phone while Senator Gaines carefully described the aspects of why the dredgers should be back in the water. My friend was pretty frustrated afterwards - in his opinion- by the total lack of concern shown by the majority of the board members.

It definitely is a frustrating uphill battle.

[russau]

thanks for the info BlueBeard!!!

[El Dorado]

Lois Wolk is only interested in one thing period... political money for her from California Indians! As I have always said... this has absolutely nothing to do with fish! It's about her rimming (licking butt) the tribes for money to keep her in power

[Hoser John]

AMEN STEVE you were one of those involved FEW folks who trekked to the insipid senate hearings and that byatch was/is/and always was plumb bloody loco. Thought she was removed and institutionalized for insanity awhile back?? Didn't ya just luv that tribe rep in his $10,000++ doe skin suit--another vette on his back and a limo outside--'yep jus' another po'tribesmen John