Post by vegasjames on Jun 29, 2023 20:24:50 GMT -5
This came up on another rock board, but is very important. BLM land is being converted at a rapid rate in to preserves and monuments making them off limits to mining and rock hounding. There are already two monuments and preserves covering a large chunk of Southern California's prime rock hounding grounds, and one the Mojave National Preserve already took a large chunk, and a few years ago got expanded by an additional 20,000 acres. These are not protecting some plant or animal. If you check the maps they go off every which direction encompassing every mine that was claimed or abandoned to make sure the mines could be not be operated. The Mojave Trails Monument will take up the prime mining and rick hounding locations between the already existing monument and preserve of we do not do something to stop it. Same has been happening here in Southern Nevada where the Tule Springs National Monument took over from downtown Las Vegas all the way up to Indian Springs 40 miles North, and the Spirit Mountain National Monument recently formed took over almost everything South of Las Vegas in Nevada. Between these monuments and preserves, and military takeovers, we are rapidly losing places to mine or rock hound.
Mojave Trails Monument Management Plan
Scoping period now open for Mojave Trails and the CDCA Plan.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is accepting public input NOW on the Mojave Trails Monument Management Plan AND the California Deserts Conservation Plan (CDCA). The CDCA Plan will be amended to serve as the primary authority for deciding what activities will be permitted in the monument. This Plan needs to be amended to be friendly to rockhounds. At the moment it isn't. A make or break moment for casual collecting.
Many of Southern California's oldest and most significant collecting areas for rocks and minerals are located within the 1.6-million acre footprint of Mojave Trails. BLM is asking for substantive input about the values and activities that should be incorporated into the management plan. Got a favorite collecting area? BLM wants detailed information on where you want to be able to go in the monument (lat/long, travelways, materials collected, etc.). No more secret places, no more off-the-beaten path travelways. Anything and any site not explicitly written into the plan will be off limits.
San Diego Mineral & Gem Society (SDMG) has prepared a letter and welcomes signatories -- both organizations and individuals in the U.S. If you want to support casual collecting in Mojave Trails and writing your own letter is just overwhelming, consider joining SDMG's letter.
Three steps:
1.) The SDMG letter is composed of two documents, the letter and the exhibits. Read both files at the URLs below.
bit.ly/mtmmp-draft-ltr
bit.ly/mtmmp-exh
2.) Email editor@sdmg.org if you or your organization would like to be a signatory to the letter.
3.) In the body of your message, ask to be added to the letter. Include first and last name, street address (optional), city state zip (required). Helps to include your interest or expertise (e.g., rockhound, member of ABC club, professor of geology at XYZ university, etc.). (See the end of the letter for examples.)
Deadline for the SDMG letter: Wed, June 28, 2023 8 PM PDT
Want to submit your own letter directly to BLM? Great!
BLM's deadline is July 5, 2023. For information on how to submit a letter directly to BLM, visit the BLM National NEPA Register web page at: bit.ly/blm-nepa2023.