JUL17Written by: Article Admin Miners and prospectors have been handed a bum rap from environmental extremists for the past 40 years. Radical environmentalists tend to conjure up images of hydraulicing — an outdated and outlawed mining technique of eroding away entire mountainsides with high-powered water cannons — and strip mining, as examples of what miners have done to the environment. Why? Because it serves their purpose. But, what often well-meaning but misguided followers of these groups fail to realize is that suction dredging, which has surfaced as a center of controversy in the media lately, actually helps clean toxins, such as mercury and lead fishing weights left by anglers, from our streams and riverbeds. And, prospectors often pick up the trash dumped in water, on the trails and strewn over the riverbanks. While some radical environmentalists, such as the Center for Biological Diversity, argue smallscale suction dredging harms fish and fish habitat, there has yet to be a single credible study to substantiate such alarmist findings. To the contrary, some studies even report that suction dredging creates fish habitat. Basically, the belief that suction dredging is bad for the environment is based more on a preconceived emotional response to mining in general — a response based more on faulty assumptions than on facts and on the image of antiquated commercial mining methods. Suction dredging does not harm fish habitat! Furthermore, suction dredging is prohibited during spawning season as a precaution so that fish populations are not harmed. When it comes to turbidity issues, dredgers stir up the water far less than rainstorms, surface runoff from snowmelt and floods. In fact, those natural occurrences do much more to erode riverbanks and destroy fish habitat — by far — than small-scale prospectors. To compare mining techniques of the past — some going as far back as 150 years ago — to modern small-scale prospecting and mining is nothing less than pure propaganda that should not be taken seriously and certainly not at face value — especially by the mass media. So, now that two generations of environmental fanatics have been indoctrinating the planet with the help of the media and brainwashed soccer moms and dads feeding their children with the notion that all mining is bad, we are faced with the challenge of putting common sense back on the table. It will be an uphill battle, but it is a fight that needs to be fought For decades, the small-scale mining community has organized and funded reclamation and reforestation projects across the country and we take pride in knowing that we fill in our holes and more often clean up the mess left by others outdoors. What little is taken from the land, we put back in reclamation and reforestation projects. We do not undercut the roots of trees. We pick up trash and we pack out what we pack in. See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the industry leader and only science based, man made and artificial fish habitat, proven to provide all fish with cover they prefer to prosper. Gold Prospectors Association of America encourages our members to be responsible stewards of the land. — BRAD JONES GPAA Editor / Content Director |
Man made fish cover, what do they like?
6/29/2011 11:18:00 AM Plan to improve fish habitat churns residents Mirror photo by Carrie Draeger A stack of logs 15 feet high waits in a
August 7, 2022 No Comments