Desert Gold Diggers

This page is devoted to legislative and other matters that have an impact on the use of our claims in regard to access, cost or other effects. This also affects other users of our public lands who should be aware of current legislation. Current bills will be featured with links to legislative contacts so that our voices can be heard. By gathering all the needed information and links on one page, hopefully more members will participate to help us keep our hobby from becoming extinct. Timely information will be included on this page with links to more in-depth coverage.

Some information below is out of date but still contains useful information.

What is happening to The Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum?

Arizona bill HB2251 will move The Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum into the proposed Centennial Museum under a strike-everything bill amended in the Arizona Legislature. The bill requires that a mining repository containing mineral specimins be maintained.

"5. Maintain a repository of mineral and mining information, including databases, books, periodicals, individual mine files, mine map repository files, mining district data and an archive of mine data. All databases and other archival materials shall be maintained in a secure and retrievable format and location prescribed by the director to protect and preserve information from damage or destruction."

"Sec. 6. Title 41, chapter 4.1, article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding sections 41-827 and 41-827.01, to read:
...
2. To maintain the mining and mineral museum as the state depository for collecting, cataloging and displaying mining artifacts and specimens of various ores, gemstones, lapidary material and other valuable mineral specimens. ..."

Nick Rahall, chairman of the House Resources Committee, reintroduced mining reform legislation in the House of Representatives on January 27, 2009. The Congressman has obviously been away from real work for far too long. H.R. 699, the Hard rock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2009, should be labeled H.R. 666 because it appears to have been written by the Devil himself. If it passes as written, it will completely destroy an entire industry. View highlights on our web site or view the full bill at H.R. 699 Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2009.

Please take a minute to contact your Representative and Senator to let them know your stance on H.R. 699. Better yet, why not start a recall effort if one of the bill's sponsors is in your area, or stop by their local office for a bigger impact? Contact information for each of the bill sponsors is found on the previous links. Contact for all elected officials can be found in the bottom section on the current page.

In Arizona - Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) is a bill sponsor. Phone him at 202 225-2435 or contact him via the internet at Congressman Raúl Grijalva or go by his office in Tucson at 810 E 22nd Street, Tucson, AZ 85713 (520)-622-6788

Statement of Intent

During discussions after a club presentation on establishing a claim, at least one of our local members stated that he was challenged by a government employee about having a statement or letter of intent and basically could not answer that challenge.

Club member Gordon Harnack has written a statement to answer the above challenge. It is provided below in a choice of formats. (added 3/30/08)

1. Discussion and statement in PDF format.
2. Discussion and statement in Word format.
3. Statement only for printing in PDF format.
4. Statement only for printing in Word format.

Suggested Challenge Procedures in confrontation with an agent of a government agency.

This information is from the organization, Public Lands for The people. While perusing your outdoor activity of work, play, recreation or sport and you are challenged by a representative of a governmental agency or public servant, regarding the legality of your activity in their area, you should do the following. (added 8/3/05)

1. It is wise to ask if your are breaking any laws. If you are informed that you are breaking the law, then ask for a explanation of the law and any municipal code that might pertain to the law.
2. You should do as you're asked by the Government representative, then ask for their name, badge number, position in the agency and district they represent. Record this information along with the date, time and location of the area you're in.
3. If you have a pleasant response from any of the agents, such as being informative, cooperative or helpful, we would like to hear about them.
4. Give this information to the local PLP office or representative and he/she will advise you of the appropriate procedure to follow.

New Forest Service Restrictions

The Nogales Ranger District is considering new rules to limit how and when prospectors search for gold. This a surface issue and different from the 1872 Mining Law. There is a "Request for comments" and we must act quickly and in force to let our views be known. If we aren't vigilant in protecting our right to prospect, we will lose our great hobby. I have reprinted the article (with permission) Small-time prospectors may face restrictions from the Sunday 3 October 2004 Arizona Daily Star. That page contains mail, e-mail and phone information for comments about this issue. We only have a very limited for comments. For more information see the Nogales Ranger District HomePage - Coronado National Forest, especially the document Placer Mining programmatic analysis.

Important Legislation

The Arizona State Legislature web site contains any information you may want to reference about Arizona legislation such as bills, committees, bill status, committee schedules, etc.

Please see the Pima County Coalition for Multiple Use (PCCMU) web site for the latest information on matters pertaining to access to our public lands. Note that this site seems to be gone as of 1 Aug 05.

Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (SDCP)

The BLM is likely to combine the Ironwood National Monument with the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (SDCP). The BLM is considering turning this land over to the SDCP. A final management plan for the Ironwood National Monument is expected to be in place by mid 2004. This needs to be monitored.

The Pima County Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan comments and info contains links and excerpts from the plan and related documents as well as links to the County Supervisors for members to comment. Since this is a land use plan for all of Pima County and has the potential to severely impact our hobby, it is important for us to closely monitor this plan.

Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness Plan

AZ, Rep. Ra�l Grijalva (D-AZ) along with members of the community, local elected officials and environmental groups, have developed a proposal for legislation to designate approximately 85,000 acres of Arizona's Tumacacori Highlands as wilderness. The Tumacacori Highlands are located 15 miles northwest of Nogales, Arizona, on the west side of the Santa Cruz River and lie within the Coronado National Forest. If this passes, gold prospecting, gem hunting and treasure hunting would be prohibited in this area. Please support our, and related hobbies, by speaking out against this proposal. See the ICMJ editorial Proposed Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness by Glynn Burkhardt for additional information.

BLM 3809 Surface Management Regulations

BLM 3809 Surface Management Regulations contains several matters that relate to our use of claims on BLM land. The final rule of 10/30/2001 only allowed hand or battery-powered dry washers as part of casual use. However, the BLM is phasing in changes brought about through input from members of the mining community. This shows that our input is valuable and in the current version, which can be found at 3809 Requirements, Guidelines and Forms, the definition of "casual use" has been amended to accommodate the use of drywashers powered by motors of less than 10 horsepower.

• We need to let the BLM know that we agree with the expanded definition of "casual use" but that it should include many types of small motorized equipment. The definition should have been made more general. Both the final and proposed rule sets the notice/plan of operations threshold, and a financial guarantee, as any activity greater than "casual use". This is very strict, especially as compared to the old 5 acre threshold, and we should let the BLM know that this is too onerous. This will drastically affect clubs that have common digs where a small area (much less than 5 acres) is dug using some kind of mechanized equipment and everyone participates in the gold recovery.

Legislative Contacts - Local, State and Federal

• The Arizona State Legislature has links for most everything you need regarding state government. The Member Roster contains contact information (phone numbers and emails) for both the Arizona Senators and Representatives as well as general contact info. These are very helpful and important pages.
• The Pima County web site has a list of the Board of Supervisors and a Pima County District Map to locate which Supervisor represents your district. Another way to locate your Supervisor is to contact the Board of Supervisors, 130 W. Congress, 11th Floor, phone # 740-8126 or Clerk of the Board, 130 W. Congress, 5th Floor, phone # 740-8449.
• Contact information for Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has mailing address, e-mail address, fax and phone numbers.
• USA.gov - Contact Elected Officials has links for the President, Vice President, U.S. Representatives (Find your U.S. Representative's contact information by typing in your zip code), U.S. Senators, State Governors, and State Legislatures.
• Arizona @ Your Service is Arizona's official web portal main page. Lots of state information as well as links to much of the above.

Please send any comments and suggestions on these pages to the DGD Webmaster

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This page was last updated on 2 May 2010.