Road closure update:
As most of your probably know, we recently met with two Congressmen over the hundreds of thousands of acres of roads in the Stanislaus NF which were closed under the guise of “public safety concerns” due to the rim fire by Supervisor Skalski. We had sent Skalski a detailed letter demanding answers on why she is violating federal law and locking and blocking thousands from their lands. She has completely ignored our letter and the numerous calls for her to respond.
Tomorrow, Congressmen McClintock’s office is meeting with her to facilitate a face to face with her and AMRA next week. At issue here is the denial of USFS to allow mining claim owners access to their validly held federal mining claims. This is in direct violation of federal law and they are openly thumbing their nose at this violation. Just to the right of this post, B.s. Miner posted an article on RS-2477 which clearly states they cannot block mining claim owners from accessing the roads to their claims. In U.S. -v- Hicks, this very issue was challenged in court, and again, it was clearly decided by the appeals court that mining claim owners own real property and cannot be blocked from their claims. Even in their own enforcement manual under 2813.14 it clearly states they cannot cause an undue burden on prospectors from prospecting or accessing their claims.
Like the frog being listed as endangered, like the moratorium on suction dredging, like the new regulations on suction dredging, like the EPA doing a defacto prohibition on dredging in Idaho, like the state of Tennessee banning mining in 90% of the water ways in their state, it is not about the science, dangers or anything other than their agenda.
The primary reason the environmentalist movement is so successful at forcing companies and agencies to comply with their whims is because they are organized. We must become better organized, more united and respond when called to action. AMRA intends to lead us on this challenge. We may be calling on you shortly to make a few phone calls and please, when we ask, make the call.
We are now in the 8th month in which the miners and public land users have been blocked from their lands. They are installing gates inside of gates and they have trucked in miles and miles of boulders to line the roads to block access……..all under the umbrella of “fire remediation” If you believe they are doing this for public safety, we have a super rich gold claim to sell you in Hawaii for a mere $50,000.