The Buzzard is Back!

The Gold Prospectors Association of America has recently unveiled the third of six commercials featuring GPAA founder George “Buzzard” Massie which is now airing on Outdoor Channel. In them, the Buzzard shows his infinite wisdom as far back as the early 1980s about the erosion of your right to access, prospect and mine on public lands.

In the third commercial, Massie says politicians are not the enemy, but panned them for failing to uphold the rights of the public and wasting your tax dollars.

"You know, we fought long and hard to make sure... two-thirds of the 11 western states would be public lands to start with. Yet, that public land is being used and abused and your rights of access to it are being denied... " he says. "Ladies and Gentlemen, you're talking about a massive waste of public money."

Last ditch effort to fight dredging ban in California

We're on the last lap, please help us stay in the budget dialogue in Sacramento. A new press release is just now hitting the wires. It will remain in the 'distribution' phase for several hours. At some point, if enough people are interested in the press releases, news agencies will start running the story. We need everyone to click- click- click on the press releases until our story has moved back up into the budget conversation .Can you guys keep up the good fight for just a little longer? Together we just might have a chance of being heard in Sacramento. Here's what you can do to help:
 

California budget committee attempts to prohibit gold mining science

The following article was published in the Sacramento Bee. We encourage our members to begin posting comments on this one now. Remember, two sentences are fine! If you have more to say, please break up your comments so you get more posts out of your ideas, instead of posting one long letter.

CONCORD, Calif., June 6, 2011 — Gold Pan California, a gold mining supply shop in the Bay Area, has been building inventory of gold mining equipment in anticipation of the season re-opening in November. That anticipation is quickly fading and scorn for the California Legislature is taking its place, for owner Mike Dunn. Pointing to a hefty 1,500-page scientific report, Dunn declares, "The Legislature is trying to prohibit the science from being published. This is an arrant betrayal of the public trust!"

Blacksmith holds a flame for Industrial Revolution

One blacksmith is doing his best to restore the original stamp mill at Calico Ghost Town and he is asking for your help.Klaus Duebbert, who hails from a long line of German blacksmiths, restores antique equipment at his shop in Banning, Calif. and doubles as the Calico Ghost Town blacksmith.Duebbert has a passion for restoring artifacts and wants to bring the stamp mill back to life. So far, he has raised $3,000 for the  project, but needs an additional $4,000 to complete it.

“That’s going to pay for the whole thing,” he said. “I want to have it running as a living history, so people can actually see and hear a stamp mill. It’s an old-fashioned apparatus to grind or to pulverize ore for processing,” Duebbert said.

Wilderness Act threatens Colorado Miners

Wayne Peterson, or “NuggetBrain” as he is more commonly known in prospecting circles, is a familiar face among longtime LDMA and GPAA members. “That’s Wayne — Capital “N” in Nugget and capital “B” in Brain — with no spaces, Peterson,” he is always quick to point out. Peterson chose NuggetBrain as an online name for the GPAA and other gold prospecting web forums and the name stuck. Peterson is the Colorado State Director and is actively involved in the Durango Diggers local chapter. He first got bitten by the gold bug in 1983 after visiting the Lost Dutchman’s Mining Association camp at Stanton, Ariz. with his uncle, John Kohls, who has since passed away.

Catch-22 in California budget could mean permanent dredging ban

A legislative Catch-22 may put a permanent stop to controversial suction dredge mining, which has been halted by a moratorium since 2009. Budget language approved in May by committees in both houses of the California Legislature would extend the moratorium for five years, or until there are sufficient regulations to mitigate all impacts of the dredging and a fee structure to cover program costs. At the same time, the language would prohibit the state Department of Fish and Game — which administers suction dredging — from spending any money to develop regulations to end the moratorium.

Gaines fights suction dredging restrictions

SACRAMENTO – Senator Ted Gaines (R-Roseville) has issued a statement on the legislature’s attempt to effectively kill the suction dredging industry in California.

“Legislative tricks are putting an entire industry at risk,” Gaines said in a media release yesterday. “This is unfair to the thousands of miners, their families and the businesses that depend on suction dredge mining for their livelihoods.”

The real endangered species?

Which endangered species is the most endangered? Is it the mountain yellow-legged frog or red-legged frog? The desert tortoise? How about the lily-livered politician or the yellow-bellied legislator? While there seems to be plenty of those species, the most endangered species is the true blue common-sense leader with the integrity and guts to do what is right — stand up and speak out against the proliferation of environmental extremist groups animal ‘rights’ terrorists such as Greenpeace, Earth First! PETA, ALF, ELF, RCALB, ARM, VHEMT and countless others.

Daylight is burning for Alaska Gold Expedition

As I sit here on another late night in the office working out last minute details on this year’s Alaska Gold Expedition, I’m thinking about all of the gold that participants showed me last year and how excited I am to get out from behind the mountain of paperwork, formerly known as my desk, and head up to Nome to get ready for this exciting season. Now, I could sit here and tell you about all of the details about life at camp, the beach gold and the common operation, but most of you have heard all those details time and time again. What I am going to share with you in this article are some real life success stories and what any of you can really expect to find if and when you join us at Cripple River Camp.

Salazar backpedals on wilderness designation

Understanding how wilderness is designated and how wilderness-quality lands are managed in the U.S. just got murkier. On Wednesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued a memo that promised to abide by a congressional mandate that essentially made it impossible to identify wild public lands that merit protection. Salazar's memo noted there was broad interest in managing public lands in a "sensible manner" and promised to work collaboratively with members of Congress. He directed Interior officials to draft a report on how best to manage wilderness-quality lands. But the days of holding land in a kind of hands-off limbo while officials decide whether it needs more protection effectively are coming to a halt, again.