PLP's Recent Activities

[russau]

if we dont support/fight for this, then who will do it for us??? send in a donation now.please.

[cmfd70]

Most all of the opposition letters were form letters, we don,t want it to sound like we were out manuevered, we were not. Almost all of the miners letters were individual and diferent
Jerry Hobbs - PLP
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Interested Parties - from Mark Stopher at California Fish & Game -
I am receiving quite a few requests for information, so I offer the
following update.

The public comment period closed on May 10 and DFG commenced the review
of all comments. Over 9,000 email form letters were received opposing
any and all suction dredge mining. Several hundred form letters were
received through regular mail supporting suction dredging. Many
additional letters with substantive and detailed comments were also
received. There is a lot of information to sift through, organize and
consider in preparing the Final EIR and Final regulations. We have been
and continue to work on those tasks. We said before we expected to
complete the regulatory process in November of this year. We are capable
of meeting that goal, unless we are directed otherwise by the
legislature and the Governor.

Many of you know that the legislature has been considering language
which would extend the current moratorium another five years, with
certain provisions for ending the moratorium earlier and also restrict
the use of State funds to continue the regulatory process.

Budget Trailer Bill AB 120, (amended June 8, 2011), and approved by the
Assembly (on June 15) and Senate (on June 10) includes the following
language on page 6:

"(12) Existing law designates the issuance by the Department of Fish
and Game of permits to operate vacuum or suction dredge equipment to be
a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and
suspends the issuance of permits, and mining pursuant to a permit, until
the department has completed an environmental impact report for the
project as ordered by the court in a specified court action. Existing
law prohibits the use of any vacuum or suction dredge equipment in any
river, stream, or lake, for instream mining purposes, until the Director
of Fish and Game certifies to the Secretary of State that (a) the
department has completed the environmental review of its existing vacuum
or suction dredge equipment regulations as ordered by the court, (b) the
department has transmitted for filing with the Secretary of State a
certified copy of new regulations, as necessary, and (c) the new
regulations are operative. This bill would modify that moratorium to
prohibit the use of vacuum or suction dredge equipment until June 30,
2016, or until the director’s certification to the secretary as
described above, whichever is earlier. The bill would additionally
require the director to certify that the new regulations fully mitigate
all identified significant environmental impacts and that a fee
structure is in place that will fully cover all costs to the department
related to the administration of the program."

I am not aware of any action taken yet by Governor Brown on this bill.

The Senate (SB 98) and Assembly (AB 98) budget bills, which passed both
houses on June 15, included the following language:

"The funds appropriated in this item shall not be used by the
Department of Fish and Game for suction 3. dredge mining regulation,
permitting, or other activities, except litigation and enforcement
costs."

Governor Brown vetoed this bill.

It remains unclear when the State budget will be signed by the Governor
and take effect. If the above budget language and trailer bill language
is ultimately included in the approved budget, DFG's current
interpretation is that we must terminate further work on developing a
Final EIR and regulations. In the meanwhile we are continuing work on
both the Final EIR and regulations.

I have been asked by several members of the public if we can expedite
our work so the regulations take effect sooner rather than later, so
that we could be finished before being directed to stop work. In my
opinion, that approach is neither feasible or productive. There is
simply too much substantive public comment to consider, respond to, and
integrate into the Final EIR and regulations. This work takes time and
it provides no enduring value if it is not done well.



Mark Stopher
Environmental Program Manager
California Department of Fish and Game
601 Locust Street
Redding, CA 96001

voice 530.225.2275
fax 530.225.2391
cell 530.945.1344
mstopher@dfg.ca.gov

[cmfd70]

PLP has taken another 2 steps to repeal the dredging ban in California. Check this link to read them.
[url]plp2.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?45[/url]

[Gramps43]

Jerry & Barry I just doubled my monthly contribution.

Give'um hell,
Gramps

[Reno badboy]

And just what has all this produced so far??? Nada, thats what!!!! People like throwing good money after bad deals it seems! Like closing the barn door After the horse is stolen!!!!! A little common sence would be a big help with this whole mess,but.........

[russau]

who else is in there atleast trying todo something to save our rights? what would you have right now if PLP hadent done what they did to fight for your.my rights??? if you dont fight for it, you dont desearve it!

[CalGoldDredger]

RB, please don't get Russ started again. It was nice and quiet. peaceful like.

Russ, we should have never had to fight in the first place. I am bitter, I will admit that. And Mad as heck.

Just hope all ya clubies had your fun-fun at the rest of us and our expense.

[russau]

Johm im also bitter about the results that have come about. i think everyone is pzzed also, atleast the ones that really care about mining/prospecting. what ive seen, as a generalization , most clubs (big or small) have lots of members that dont bother learning the rules/laws of mining. and they go out and start doing their thing without thinking of the consiquences of their actions.i have seen a certain big club from Texas go into a patented claim in N.Mexico and without permission start their actions and not filling any holes. plus they brought in a backhoe and started in on it. this action REALLY PZZED the owner off big time and he blocked anyone from coming back. i had written permission to be there drywashing and on a friday night it looked like a interstate highway going through.and it goes on and on in different states. in Colorado this year with Leonard on his claim(Ed,Corky,Dave ,Leonard=owners,we saw (a big club memebers)drive back and forth and finnaly pull over on Leonards claim ,that is clearly posted with the yellow federal mining claim sign,and procedded to pullout his equipment and start walking it down to the river. when questioned about it, the guy says,"aint this the (big clubs) claim?? Leonard saw this several times in the two weeks we were there and signs that others have been there working his claim.we are our own worst enemy,because we, as a whole dont support mining or those that do support our rights,and we dont condem those that violate our own rules. this is just a example of how we/they ruined it for everyone else.

[Reno badboy]

I didn't post this to start anything up again . I'm just pissed that absolutly nothing was done in protest to this law. And that I haven't seen much done since eigther. I respect that they say their doing something, but I/we don't see or hear anything new. That post was over a year old. Why haven't we had like 500 dredges in front of the capitol bldg. or in the Yuba working with all the TV and newspapers there????? Kinda like when they tried to pass a helmet law back home, we had 1,500 bikes out front of the capitol and we got noticed!!!! True, this would be a big undertaking, but... The NAACP DOES THEIR PEACEFUL PROTESTS AND GET WHAT THEY WANT,WHY CAN'T WE???(oh yea, now I remember! ) I myself have done all I can, even donated to PLP grudgingly!! I made all the phone calls,wrote letters 'til I couldn't hold a pen . And all I heard was"Wait and see what happens" So now we're here.Where to next??? I understand that these maggots have govt. funded backing, why can't we do the same thing??? There has to be someone out there that knows how to go about getting govt.grants like the wacos do!!! I'm just really frustrated!!!! Sorry for the rant guys,but.......Dammit!!!!

[Reno badboy]

P.S. sorry Russ, didn't mean to get ya' riled up.I just work really hard for our club to teach them the things you talked about and got my"panties" in a twist again,sorry. There are some real a-holes out there because of the gold prices.I know cause I had to run some idjuts off our claims, one of them even had the nerve to show me his little .25, so I told him to come back when him and his gun grew up and introduced him to my.45. It's gonna get real fun here soon!