The Growing Federal Footprint

winners58 · Sep 30, 2016

The Growing Federal Footprint
a complete picture of how much land the federal government owns and how much of your state and your community is affected. And it may surprise you.
Often federal ownership means that federal land use policies are in direct contravention to the wishes of the local communities entangled with it...
Federal Footprint Map - House Committee on Natural Resources
(click upper left "details" for Legend)

russau · Oct 1, 2016

Where is it written that the federal gubermint will own NO LAND

And they still keep on taking! When will we end up out of land because of things like the Prez taking millions of acres of land for their "legacy" and other reasons that they "think" they need to remember them by! Almost all of them Ill NEVER forget! Current one very much included!!!

diggummup · Oct 1, 2016

Don't worry, when a certain someone is elected, it will get even worse!

gold nuggets · Oct 1, 2016

The gubberment is just doing "what is best for the country".......(invoke gag reflex here)
The gubberment will continue doing just that as long as We the People allow them to do it.
If things don't straighten out and WE rein-in the gubberment in 2017, we are all in for a rough
road with more problems to deal with than we have now. And that is a fact Jack!

M.E.G. · Oct 1, 2016

Taking Liberty - How Private Property is Being Abolished in America

enamel7 · Oct 1, 2016

Martial law.

russau · Oct 2, 2016

enamel7 said:
Martial law.

YEP that one to!!! :dontknow:

wildminer · Oct 2, 2016

Shrillno!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JasonG · Oct 2, 2016

Ever tried prospecting on State lands? Good luck. Most prospectors I've met prospect on federal lands, yet so many seem to complain about those very lands, I don't get it.

In 16 years of prospecting I've had exactly zero people grant me permission to prospect on their private land if I tell them gold is involved. If federal lands were privatized or sent to the states then you can bet that prospecting will all but dissapear.

I'm proud to say one of the things that makes the USA a great country is our extensive federal lands system. It's our responsibility to make sure they are managed correctly.

63bkpkr · Oct 2, 2016

JasonG said:
Ever tried prospecting on State lands? Good luck. Most prospectors I've met prospect on federal lands, yet so many seem to complain about those very lands, I don't get it.

In 16 years of prospecting I've had exactly zero people grant me permission to prospect on their private land if I tell them gold is involved. If federal lands were privatized or sent to the states then you can bet that prospecting will all but dissapear.

I'm proud to say one of the things that makes the USA a great country is our extensive federal lands system. It's our responsibility to make sure they are managed correctly.

Therein sits the issue as much of The American Public has abdicated its right to vote, we've become complacent and lazy about voting leaving it "up to others to protect our rights". Our mining rights, our civil rights are under attack and we are about to go into an election where IMHO what we have to vote for are two significant evils, each equally capable of destroying the country that was established in 1776.

We as miners are in need of joining forces with one another to legally enforce the existing 1800's Federal Mining Rights Law, it is still Law and on the books and has been illegally assailed by Government officials who have failed to enforce both existing laws as well as the Constitution of the United States of America. Any elected official that chooses to stray outside of the Constitution of this country needs to go to jail.

Get involved or your rights will be completely lost!

TNET Monitors, if I have strayed out of the permissible limits of TNET my apologies. I only want to see something positive done for mining, I do not want Strip Mining to be allowed as it would decimate our forests and wild lands but I want us to continue our pursuits that we currently have a legal right to do but we've been Illegally stopped from doing so. Without us banding together I suspect even TNET will fail to exist. Respectfully............63bkpkr

winners58 · Oct 2, 2016

The areas that we can go mining are shrinking, in the early 90's it was wilderness study areas 512 of them still after 25 years no mining allowed
then there's roadless areas with major restrictions with more being created amounts to another 58 million acres
and now what they are using to stop mining is just put in a bill to withdrawal lands and have the FS or BLM administratively lock them up,
even though the bill may never be voted on. the latest one is in Washington's Okanogan County
USFS plans immediate action to protect Methow Headwaters | Methow Valley News
the footprint of mining is small, these people want it all...

russau · Oct 3, 2016

JasonG said:
Ever tried prospecting on State lands? Good luck. Most prospectors I've met prospect on federal lands, yet so many seem to complain about those very lands, I don't get it.

In 16 years of prospecting I've had exactly zero people grant me permission to prospect on their private land if I tell them gold is involved. If federal lands were privatized or sent to the states then you can bet that prospecting will all but dissapear.

I'm proud to say one of the things that makes the USA a great country is our extensive federal lands system. It's our responsibility to make sure they are managed correctly.

Why do you keep saying state lands and federal lands

? these are public lands and these gubermint agency's want to dominate these public lands for themselves and to their laws or interpretations! when misstating the facts long enough , people think its the true facts! and we don't want that!

JasonG · Oct 3, 2016

Because we live in a country with over 300 million people containing interstates, utility infrastructure, easements, multiple uses from agriculture to ranching to mining, solar farms, wind farms, reservoirs, irrigation canals, cities and metropolises which didn't exist 100 years ago, and it's not possible to run a modern country where a large segment of the land which these things rest upon or require is completely unmanaged by any agency. You can't just have a huge portion of the country be "public" yet unmanaged.

So who exactly are you suggesting manage this land if not federal or state?

Don't forget that as soon as federal minerals leave federal management (even if they are later acquired again) they are forever exempt from the General Mining Act of 1872. It doesn't cover state or privately held minerals. I don't understand why any miner would ever even suggest something resulting in the destruction of 1872, our one single act of legislation we have protecting us.

rodoconnor · Oct 3, 2016

It's a matter of degree. The large portions of Public Lands are indeed dominated by heavy handed Federal employees. They decree rules and regulations without the benefit of Congress, in direct opposition to the many Mining Laws enacted by Congress. EPA,FS, BLM, USFW have demonstrated time after time that they need to be brought under control and their bloated budgets severely curtailed.

JasonG · Oct 3, 2016

I agree there is massive overreach and inefficiency in bureaucratic agencies like those you list, I just want to make sure people understand that these are two completely seperate issues.

Hating federal lands because there are government employees that manage them poorly or abuse their power is like hating guns just because there are criminals who use them illegally.

russau · Oct 5, 2016

These lands aren't Federal or State lands! they are MANAGED by Federal and State people for us. I didn't say or mean that they should be under anyone elses control BUT these lands are OURS and OURS alone , NOT the FEDS or the STATE. that's all Im saying.