New Prospecting Rules Adopted by Fish and Wildlife Commission

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced in a news release dated today that the Fish and Wildlife Commission approved the proposed mineral prospecting rules at the meeting in Olympia on November 8. The press release states in part:

Adopted changes include establishing new work times designed to protect fish life, offering additional opportunities for prospectors and expanding the use of certain types of mineral prospecting equipment. The rules, which were developed with input from a 17-member workgroup and the public, become effective April 3, 2009 and are available on WDFW’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/hab/goldfish/mineral_prospect.htm. A new Gold and Fish pamphlet reflecting the changes will be available by that date.

The full text of the announcement can be found at the link here.

Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission Meets Saturday to Consider Adoption of New Rules

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will meet in Olympia on Friday and Saturday (November 7 & 8) to consider adopting permanent amendments to the Gold and Fish Pamphlet. This meeting follows the public hearing held on October 3 at the last Commission meeting, also in Olympia.

Action on the mineral prospecting rules is currently (as of today's agenda revision) scheduled as the third item of business for the Saturday session which begins at 8:30 A.M. It does not appear that public comments will be accepted at this meeting, although WDFW staff members Greg Hueckel and Perry Harvester are listed under the heading, "Staff Report".

Additionally, the agenda contains a link to a "Greensheet and proposed rules" document which contains, among other things, changes to the proposed rules submitted by WDFW as a result of comments received from the public. The proposed changes are too numerous to discuss here, but it is worrisome to this writer that for some of the streams in Kittitas, Pend Oreille, Skagit, and Yakima counties, the originally proposed work window dates have been reduced to "Submit Application" status.

The meeting will be held in Room 172 of the Natural Resource Building, 1111 Washington Street SE, in Olympia.

As changes to the agenda are still possible, interested parties are encouraged to check the latest version at the link here.

WDFW Discontinues Current "Gold and Fish" Pamphlet

According to the WDFW web page devoted to mineral prospecting, the current issue of the Gold and Fish pamphlet will no longer be available once the current supply runs out. To quote from the site:

NOTE: Because a new edition of the Gold and Fish pamphlet will be printed in 2009, WDFW will no longer distribute the 1999 edition when the current supply is exhausted. If you wish to prospect before the new pamphlet is issued you will need to print the online version of the 1999 Gold and Fish pamphlet.

It seems they're pretty confident the new proposed rules will be adopted.

Miners Take Note: New Rules Hearing Scheduled

Word has just arrived that the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission hearing on the proposed mineral prospecting and placer mining regulations will be held in the afternoon of Friday, October 3, in the Natural Resources Building, Room 172, 1111 Washington Street S.E. in Olympia. (Note that this location has been changed from Ellensburg.) Attendees should arrive no later than 2:00 P.M. to sign in. Discussion of the proposed rules is #9 on the hearing agenda.

Following is agenda item #9 as it currently appears on the Commission website:



A good showing of miners and their supporters at this event will demonstrate to the commissioners and WDFW staff the importance with which the mining community regards this matter.

To stay abreast of any changes to the agenda, check the Commission web page here.

WDFW Commission's October Meeting Moved from Ellensburg to Olympia

Please note that the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting scheduled for October 3-4 reported in my post of August 18 has been moved from Ellensburg to Olympia. This change is reported on the WDFW website here and on the Commission's website here.

This is an important meeting for us miners as the Commission will be accepting public comments from those present on the new proposed mineral prospecting and placer mining rules. Written comments may still be sent to WDFW by mail or email until September 26 at:

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Attn: Lisa Wood
RE: Mineral Prospecting Rules
600 Capitol Way N.
Olympia, WA 98501-1091

and

sepadesk@dfw.wa.gov

Thanks to Mark Erickson for alerting me to this change via his comment here.

WDFW Announces New Proposed Prospecting Rules

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has announced new proposed rules for mineral prospecting in Washington State. The Department will accept comments on the proposed rules until September 26.

For details, visit the Department's web page here:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/hab/goldfish/mineral_prospect.htm

A .pdf file containing the text of the proposed rules may be accessed here:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/hab/goldfish/2008_proposed_prospecting_rules.pdf

New Proposed Prospecting Rules for Washington Released

Here is the latest news from WDFW regarding the new proposed mineral prospecting rules:

From: Pat Chapman

Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 8:28 AM

Subject: Proposed mineral prospecting rules filed with Office of the CodeReviser

Mineral Prospecting Rule Development Workgroup:

Please distribute this message to anyone you think might be interested in commenting on proposed rules for mineral prospecting.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has filed proposed rules for mineral prospecting with the Office of the Code Reviser. The proposed rules will be published on September 3, 2008 in the Washington State Register. The official public comment period begins with publication in the register on September 3, and WDFW will accept comments through September 26, 2008. Comments WDFW receives before the official public comment period will be accepted provided they are sent to the following:

Lisa Wood

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

600 Capitol Way N.

Olympia, WA 98501-1091

email: sepadesk@dfw.wa.gov

FAX: (360) 902-2946

We will be posting the proposed rules on WDFW's Habitat internet page soon. On October 3 or 4, 2008 WDFW will present the proposed rules, any adjustments to them warranted by comments, and a synopsis of the comments we have received from the public to the Fish and Wildlife Commission at their meeting in Ellensburg. The Commission will accept further public comments at that meeting. Likely at the Commission’s November meeting they will vote on adopting the rules.

You may view the Washington State Register at: http://www.leg.wa.gov/CodeReviser/Washington+State+Register/

WDFW's Habitat internet pages for mineral prospecting can be viewed at:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/hab/goldfish/goldfish.htm

Pat Chapman
Regulatory Services Coordinator
Habitat Program
Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way N.
Olympia WA 98501-1091
(360) 902-2571
(360) 902-2946 FAX
chapmpfc@dfw.wa.gov

In addition to the above message, a reliable source has also provided the following pertinent documents:

Proposed Rule Making notice filed with the Office of the Code Reviser
Final Draft of Proposed Mineral Prospecting Rules, Part I
Final Draft of Proposed Mineral Prospecting Rules, Part II

The above links will allow you to view or download these documents as .pdf files.

As the message from Pat Chapman at the beginning of this post states, the deadline for comments on these proposed rules is September 26. This is our chance to get a set of rules we can live with so let's let the good folks at WDFW in Olympia hear from us.

Free Topo Maps of the US and Canada

If you have any use for topographic maps from the USGS, USFS, and Natural Resource Canada, check out Free Printable Topo Maps (http://www.digital-topo-maps.com/).

Getting the maps is easy. You just zoom in to your area of interest in "Map" view (which shows a road map), switch to "My Topo" view, and select the topo zoom level you want. Then click on either "Landscape" or "Portrait" next to "Print from your computer:" located below the map image. A new window will open containing your map. The map of Horseshoe Bend on the Sultan River shown below was captured by right-clicking on the map in this new window and selecting "Save image as..." from the drop-down menu. (Note: The real image measures 1800x1200 pixels and is much more detailed than Blogger's scaled-down view shown here.)



The "Hybrid" view button next to the "My Topo" button shows a satellite image with a road map overlay. Both "Map" and "Hybrid" appear to work for anywhere in the world but "My Topo" only displays results for the US and Canada.

For ease of reference, I have added the link to Free Printable Topo Maps to the "Resources for Prospectors" section of the right-hand sidebar.

Prospecting Information at "Chris' Prospecting Encyclopedia"

In the course of wandering around the World Wide Web I came across a site called Chris' Prospecting Encyclopedia that contains a rather large amount of information covering various aspects of gold prospecting. Although a lot of the material here is geared for California and the Southwest, there is still a great deal of knowledge that would be useful anywhere.

Many of you may already know of this site (which is hosted at nevada-outback-gems.com) but, for those who don't, I've added the link to the "Resources for Prospectors" section in the right-hand sidebar.

Enjoy.

Letters Needed to Protect Dredging in California

As you probably already know, the Karuk Tribe of California has persuaded certain of that state's legislators having a political greenish tinge to attach a rider to the 2008 California budget bill that would place a moratorium on the issuance of suction dredge permits. Were this tactic aimed at banning dredging for gold to succeed in California, it might give certain parties in our fair state (and elsewhere) ideas that could prove detrimental to the activities of us small-scale miners.

Therefore, it may well behoove us to help nip this particular threat in the bud while there is still time to do so. The best way to do that appears to be sending a message to Governor Schwartzenegger urging him to veto the rider. There are detailed instructions on how to do this as well as a sample text which you can copy/paste/modify or use as is at this link:

http://www.goldgold.com/legal/rider_actionalert08.htm

As of this writing, the California legislature has not agreed on a final budget bill but will probably do so sooner rather than later. Therefore, as is usual in matters such as this one, time is of the essence.

Yea Summer!

It's that time of year again and I finally got out to play with my sluice box.

That's me feeding classified aggregate into the flare:














After running about a tenth of a cubic yard of material (it was really hard digging!), here is the result:














Oh, well! That big nugget is still out there somewhere.

Hope everyone is having a good summer.

Odds and Ends

Things seem rather quiet. Our State Legislature has adjourned without taking any further action on HB2871 decriminalizing violations of the Gold and Fish Pamphlet; WDFW has a new PDF document on their website titled Freshwater Mussels of the Similkameen River; other than that, I could not find anything about the new proposed prospecting regulations or the status of applying for an HPA for beach mining.

Turning to other matters, I have added a link to the Northwest Mining Association website under Clubs and Organizations on the right-hand sidebar. Also, the link for the Washington Prospectors Mining Association is still producing gibberish.

Looking ahead, general work times begin June 1 in Benton, Kittitas, San Juan (Is there anyplace to prospect there?), and Yakima Counties as well as on the Columbia and Snake Rivers for Special Class I. Check your Gold and Fish Pamphlet for details. Hooray for summer!