Okay, so I've been seeing a few more articles around about dredging bans and outlawing, etc., I know that in California it has something to do with harming fish, is this from the fact that the dredges use gas powered motors? I know that the Sand N Gold hand pump/sniper is legal there, so I'm a little confused as to why the ban, unless it's the gas and oil in the motors...anyone shed some light on this for me?
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I posted this on a different dredge ban, so wanted to add it to this one too, looks like the dredge banning has infected the state of Tennessee.
Well, it's looking like the wife has changed her mind AGAIN so it's not going to matter, she's looking at Maine now and from what I've read, the state just made 4" or smaller dredging recreational and don't require a permit.... god I hate the cold....but they've told her that the cold is better for her fibromyalgia so I'll make the move, if she doesn't change her mind before we go look at houses....I told her if I got too cold I'd got winter in Arizona or someplace else that's warmer...
Tom I agree with what your saying. I thought the same myself. Just saw them recently and thought I'd throw that out as a possible option to consider. As for run time for cleanouts they recomend every hour or two. What I wonder about is how much suction power they would have. Anyway just throwin my 2 cents in:)
Matt, I've seen these before, a bit pricy for what they are, not sure how long you can run them before you have to clean them out. I've also found old pictures of some similar to those also. This is what got me to thinking about making a dredge using and electric motor (quieter, eh Mike?) and no chance of pollutants being introduced into the river. Alluviapacific one's are just a glorified sucker with a small sluice box installed. I could make something similar that would work with the bucket that comes with the Gold N Sand, or make a box type setup that would classify the stuff sucked up.
Mike I understand perfectly about the noise and being considerate of those around us. We had a GPAA outing last year, I took my tent and set it up that Friday evening, visited with some of the other members that had shown up early and then finally settled down to get some sleep. About 15 minutes after I laid down, this couple pulls in with their RV, making all sorts of noise, strings up a bunch of lights to give them some sort of ambiance and fired up a generator that started back firing every 90 seconds or so. Needless to say, if it had of been just the three of us, I'd shown them a couple of new uses for my shovel. lol I had such a miserable night, that I packed up and left before we even had our meeting.
If people were to stop and consider how they'd feel if they were in others shoes, then the dredge ban in California probably would've gone away already.
Well Tom it depends on the district and the individual rangers. Some are great to work with and some are jack booted nazis on their own little empire build and power trip. I think the first thing miners have to get in their heads is National Forest and regular BLM lands are two completely different things. One is a national treasure to be protected for all citizens of the nation and the other is basicly a place where we store cow pies in case we need them later. Right up by me a guy staked a claim across the river from a popular campground used by greenies as a hiking hub. He panned and sluiced for the first year. Lots of smiles and no problems. Second year he rolls out the banker and gets sloppy with cloudy water leaking from his too small settling pond. The greenies notice, but no problems. Its still quiet 12v. Then dredge season starts and his 4.5 horse motor runs from sun up to sun down. The second day the rangers tell him to shut down. He tries to argue and fight it but doesn't have a leg to stand on. The same ranger who shut him down is who I deal with. We discussed it and he said its the money. those hundred permit holders didnt pay to come and be drowned out by motors all day. He has no choice but to do his job and manage the ground to the advantage of the largest group of users. He said it would be no different if 4 wheelers were making the noise. He told the guy that a mile up the road, no one would say a word. (The messed up part is there is gold the entire length of the river.) He also told me he put his own sluice in the water every once in a while. But people need to be aware that on a national level that they are looking at options to keep the disturbances down. One of them is gas motors above a certain decible level. The other is requiring dredge work to be done underwater and out of sight, with low noise motors as in the bazooka style dredge. Well then we talked about how the gold didnt follow the gold line in places on the river and a couple of spots where he got the flakes on one of his rings but that wont be repeated lol. Far as im concerned that part of the conversation never happened. ;-) Im heading to one of those spots where the gold isnt supposed to be on Saturday. His biggest personal fears as a panner and sluicer is the expansion of wilderness areas, solely as a means of reducing conflicts and issues from people who are basically knuckleheads and dont use good common sense about what they are doing. Bottom line, just because its open land, and legal for equipment doesnt mean you wont get managed out if there are conflicts and issues. Second bottom line is your personal working relationship with the managers/rangers can mean the difference between getting shut down and getting the lowdown on some hot spots and other good heads up info and help. Regular BLM land....is a completely different story.
I dont know the case from Oregon but if he was stirring up silt and it wasnt laying back down in a fish bearing river, they only need to stick an empty water bottle in the river and take a sample of the turbid water to issue fines. Doesnt have to be a real danger to the fish. Just a perceived danger others are likely to agree to. We have the largest portion of prospectors who do the right thing, but it only takes a couple with no common sense or blinded by greed to ruin it for everyone.
Check out a company called alluviapacific.com. They sell up to 4" electric dredges that can be used completely under water. Power sources include an instream generator mounted to the unit, a portable solar panel or a rechargeable battery. If it is a ban on gas powered equipment then this may be an option.
It's already spreading, I saw on another site, where a dredger in Oregon was in an area that was open for dredging, the forest dept. tried to get him to leave, when he wouldn't, they called the state police and had him cited for polluting the river.....I couldn't believe it....he's trying to get the citations thrown out, but I wouldn't be worried about that, I'd be worried that if somethings not done to these idiots that think they're real police, we'll all be sitting around saying....remember when we could actually pan for gold.....
I have heard stories of a silent battery operated dredge HUM
Gold N Sand is a fancy sucker tube . Please, don't confuse it with a dredge . I can call a turkey baster a dredge,
but it's not . Manual equiptment has not yet been banned . Give it time .
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