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dredging with 100 miles an hour?
I respect your position and I used to be a little closer to you on the "individual liberty trumps all" spectrum. I was a big proponent of libertarian thought, Ayn Rand Objectivsm, the Austrian School of economics, etc. Eventually I came to regard this position as impractically utopic and self-contradictory.
You can insist that you are free to do as you wish, but the trouble with this is that others are free to do as they wish, as well. In some cases, others may choose to exercise THEIR freedom in a way that restricts yours. For instance, you might insist that you are free to drive your vehicle at 100 miles an hour. However, other folks are also free to set speed limits and impose penalties on those who don't comply. In most modern civilizations, the "winner" in this struggle between our hodgepodge of individual liberties is decided by some form of "majority rules." In other words if everyone has the same freedom, those freedoms are often going to collide...and we've had to come ith some way to settle the disputes and have some measure of stability, order and civility in our daily lives.
In my opinion it's a waste of time to petulantly insist that you should be free to do anything under the sun...because at the end of the day, if there are more opposed to your so-called "freedom" than there are in favor, your claims as to the sanctity of individual liberty are nothing more than idle words. In your mind you might be free, but in reality you are most certainly subject to the will of the majority (or whatever entity has the power to regulate your activity.) When you acknowledge these practical restraints on your liberty, you realize that any advance or retreat of your personal agenda is achieved in the realm of debate, politics, etc. As inconvenient as you may find it, you're better off approaching your "opponents" with a measure of humility, cooperation and open-mindedness. In my experience, the more you dig in your heels on these matters, the more difficult it becomes for the two sides to find common ground and pursue a compromise that everyone can live with.
Well, I sincerely wish you luck in your fight against unnecessarily draconian regulation and the proverbial "camel's nose under the tent." I've dealt with people who, when given an inch, want the whole mile...and it's no picnic. Sometimes you have to stand your ground when further compromise starts to become oppression - I can respect that. I hope that with your hard-earned freedom you will choose to be good stewards of the environment and respectful of reasonable folks like me who harbor no inherent ill-will toward mining and no agenda except to promote a balanced approach which honors the rights of human beings to utilize the earth and its resources, while also ensuring the well-being of the entire ecosystem and enjoyment for many generations to come. All the best!