Me and my V3 in Calf. trip. NO GOLD IN CALF.

[Eagle 1]

Now that I have settled down a bit after my trip. After 9 days in 93 + temp with my V3 I did not find eny gold with it I did find lots of iron. I was using prospecting mode. Sorry to tell you all this but there is know GOLD in Calf. Yup no gold I got 15 tiny flakes and I mean tiny with my pan. I don

 

[BHNugget]

Without a dredge,youd probably have better luck trying to locate a gravel bar higher up than where the river is.It would be nice to find one of those $2000,000 nuggets,wouldnt it?

 

[Eagle 1]

I don't have a dredge and I did go up about 150 ft. from the river bed. I did find some old river bed it was all over the place. Here is a pic.

 

[CROCK of COINS]

9 Days in the heat = You the MAN.


Jerry

 

[BHNugget]

I have the feeling you'll see some of those claims being let go in the future,now that CA,in its blind ignorance ,has banned dredging.

 

[AmadorAl]

I thought the ban on dredging in California was suppose to "save" the salmon.

 

[RWJR13]

Thats a bummer...

 

[Eagle 1]

I was fun to try to find some but it is a lot of work to find gold. They can have it. I will stay home and find gold rings on the beach. That is a lot EZer to find.

Eagle 1

 

[CROCK of COINS]

I thought the ban on dredging in California was suppose to "save" the salmon.

Save? Yes, so that the tribes can kill them!


Jerry

 

[BHNugget]

I thought the ban on dredging in California was suppose to "save" the salmon.

The facts here are straight forward. The major impetus behind SB 670 is supposedly to protect water quality, and the spawning grounds of threatened or endangered Salmon & Steelhead runs in California.

Fact: The exterior boundaries of salmon / steelhead watersheds cover a total of only about 1/3 of the state of California. Precise maps of applicable waterways show them to be less than 8% of the state.

2/3rds of California contain no salmon / steelhead habitat. Obviously, no protection is necessary, where no salmon habitat exists. Yet illogically the SB 670 suction dredge ban is statewide.

Fact; There are 64,438 miles of rivers, and 124,615 miles of streams, totaling 211,513 miles of waterways in California.

If the 3,200 suction dredge permit holders were to operate simultaneously, there would only be one single suction dredge operating per 70 miles of existing California waterways. If half that number were operating simultaneously, there would only be one single suction dredge operating per 140 miles of waterways. Given that fact, suction dredging has so small an impact, it cannot be more than negligible.

Fact: Massive unrestricted hydraulic mining began in California circa 1853 and ended in 1884. Bucket line dredge mining began in California circa 1890, diminished during WW2 and ended about 1960.

The combined effects of those antiquated gold mining methods was to wash about two billion tons of silt, sediment, & tailings, as well as approximately 5 million lbs of mercury into California streams, and rivers that are salmon / steelhead habitat.

Certainly, those mammoth sized gold mining methods had a wide range of devastating effects on water quality & salmon habitat environment. Even so, California salmon, steelhead & trout populations remained relatively stable throughout that 80 year span of time.

Given that fact, plainly, the effects of modern day small scale suction dredging are so infinitesimally small, they are realistically of no practical consequence on water quality & fish habitat.

Fact: Proponents argue suction dredging stirs up & disperses mercury lost in California waterways from historic gold mining methods.

Reality: The argument is totally without merit, as modern day suction dredges catch, recover and remove 98% of mercury passing through them. Which is beneficial to the environment, rather that adverse to it.

Fact: SB 670 mandates a state wide study of suction dredging effects, costing tax payers $1.5 million dollars.

Reality: Dozens of peer reviewed authoritative scientific studies of small scale suction dredging performed by numerous federal, state agencies, and universities exist already. All those study reports clearly show suction dredging has only a fleeting negligible effect on water quality & fish habitat.

Given the massive amount of credible scientific information & reports that already exist on the subject. Any competent agency could simply compile those reports, then draw reasonable unbiased conclusions from them, rather that duplicate identical studies at great cost to the tax payer.

Fact: Pre SB 670 DF&G regulations prohibit suction dredging in rivers, or stream area's during times when critical life events of salmon occur.

Reality: Because suction dredging was already prohibited in areas & at times where critical salmon life events occur. Suction dredging cannot have any more than negligible impact on salmon spawning habitat, as no suction dredging takes place during those events.

Fact: Fiscal Effect: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, SB 670 has negligible state costs.

The truth: According to a recent study the fiscal effects of SB 670 will cause economic loss between $60 to $100 million dollars annually. Primarily forced on individuals, mining claim owners, small business entities, and suction dredge manufactures.

Fact: SB 670 is said to impose a temporary 2 year ban on suction dredging.

Reality: DF&G was previously court ordered to complete a suction dredge study, and failed to do so. Given that history, DF&G may take years, a decade, or possibly never complete the SB 670 study. As such, for all practical purposes the SB 670 suction dredge ban is indefinite.

Fact: SB 670 was passed as an

 

[nw1886]

That was one heck of a lot of leg work there BH. Thank You!!! It is horrible that things are getting this bad and it is just down right lazy minded socialism that is getting us all to this point.

 

[CROCK of COINS]

YOU SAID A MOUTH FULL ! ! ! Thank You

Jerry

 

[BHNugget]

The above was taken from a post by AKA- "Old Gold Miner"

This is a link to the lawsuit against the ban: http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/09/16/SuctionMining.pdf

 

[BHNugget]

Sorry Eagle 1 ,didnt mean to highjack this thread.

 

[Eagle 1]

No prob. BHnuggit

 

[Uncle Willy]

I'd show you some really big nuggets found on the banks of the Yuba River about three years ago but the pic shows aother brand of detector and they'd probably have a heart attack here if I showed it. There is gold there - you just have to scrounge it up.

Bill

 

[BHNugget]

Crop your picture Bill

 

[AmadorAl]

I'm with you BHNugget. I think the whole thing is politics and a bunch of enviro extremists trying to control what everyone does in the state. A massive bureaucracy has built up in the state over the years and these bureaucrats all have a vested interest (their jobs) in creating problems and selling themselves as the solution to that problem. Personally, I tend to ignore all their nonsense and do what I think is reasonable and go from there.