The meeting was a short one with another to take place at 7pm this evening and we didn't stay for that one. As Jim has stated, the small miners and prospectors are lumped in with the large hard rock mines. There was one large mining company and 3 enviromental organizations in attendance and the rest were us small minersand a farmer, fishing guideand some little old lady from a mining area dating back 100 years . It is my belief that it makes no difference what the outcome is the Feds will do what they want and the hearings are just a show motion. Most all of negativity was based on what has happened years ago.Very little was mentioned about the US having the most stringent mining laws in the world or that less than 1% of the land has ever been touched by mining. I posed a question to the head of the hearings that with all the current regulations on the books, if they were enforced on the current mining public, would there be a need for the currant proposed regulation changes.He couldn't answere that. The current E I S states that the changes will not affect the casual miner, yet in other areas it talks about casual use changes. To put it in a nutshell, the casual miner/prospector is doomed. Weather you are a prospector, coin hunter, relic hunter, or any one who steps foot on public grounds, your days are numbered, Get involved and make your concerns heard, don't leave it to the other person, You are the other person. Allen in MT

• Re: 3809 // report Montana meeting Stan 23:16:13 4/14/99 (0)