Tuesday, August 30 2016
If you are getting tired of area closures, fight back by getting your traditional Mining District organized! Why is this important? Because Mining Districts will be the arbiters when it comes to deciding whether or not a road or trail should remain open or be reopened. They are federally recognized entities with the power and authority to create their own regulations and to seek coordination status with local, state, and federal regulatory agencies. This power was written into the 1872 Mining Law. The purpose of organizing the traditional Mining D There are thousands of Mining Districts (MD) across the USA, and all have the power to make their own regulations. If you want to take back control of what’s happening in your area, here are the basic steps to follow: • Locate the original bylaws for your MD. Since many of them were established in the 1850 or 1860s, the county boundaries and names may have changed over the years. Try your local county recorder, museum, or historical society. Websites that can help with your research include: http://www.icmj.com/resources_page.php?id=12&keywords=Bylaws_for_Traditional_Mining_Districts http://www.mineralsandminingadvisorycouncil.org/mmac-mining-districts-usa.html http://www.westernmininghistory.com • Attempt to contact other claim-holders in your traditional MD. You may find their contact info. through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office. • Set up and hold a meeting near the MD for claimholders (5 clahimholders make a quorum). Announce the date about two months in advance to give everyone a chance to hear about it and make arrangements to attend. Publish a public notice of the date, time and location. • Conduct the meeting, elect officers, and take detailed notes. • Securely post signage at all the major entry points to your district. • Encourage claim holders in neighboring MDs to get their district organized if not already done. In the meantime while your MD is getting organized, attend oversight meetings for the BLM, Forest Service, State Water Resources Control Board, etc. that oversee public lands in your area. Politely inform them that you represent a [name here] Mining District and asked to be placed on the board. A MD representative should be able to get a voting position on the board. Just imagine going to an oversight meeting where several MD reps have obtained voting positions on the board. This is huge! Mining Districts have power that has gone untapped for too long! The goal is to remove local, county, and state agencies from oversight of mining-related activities and put that authority back where it belongs— with the people!     |
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