The Objective is to ultimately create “San
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The Sierra Club
started a campaign to create the National Park in the early 1990s with a
National Geographic article on the 10 Places That Need to Become National Parks
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The E.P.A.
details Federal employees to work for Trout Unlimited while on Federal payroll
– witness Carroll Russell working for Trout Unlimited for approximately 2 years
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The pattern of
creating wilderness areas around Silverton is consistent with the plan to
create a National Park.
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A source in the
Interior Department corrected an inquiry six years ago when asked about the
plan to create a National Park – “The plan is to create a National Monument
like the
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A National
Conservation Area is the prelude to creating a National Monument
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Trout Unlimited
is the “front” organization to advance the ultimate aim of a National Park – at
least be honest about the process! It is not about fishing or recreation. This
is not a “grassroots” or “sportsmen-led” effort.
You will no longer be able
to afford to live in Silverton
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The Federal
Government has an active campaign to acquire private mining claims in
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Additional Federal
ownership of land collapses
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The private
mining claims in
In fact, your activities
will even be curtailed outside the Park’s boundaries
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The National Park
Service will pretty much control a lot of the aspects of your life such as the granting
of building permits in Silverton, what architectural styles are acceptable,
etc. one example is the National Park Service tried to stop a veterinarian
building a clinic on his family farm one mile outside of Cuyahoga National Park
(outside of Cleveland)
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The National Park
Service will arrest people for every petty infraction such as removing rocks (
in a famous case in Utah, a fellow was rock hounding 300 feet outside the
boundaries of Capitol Reef National Park. He was charged with felonies, it was
claimed he had done $25,000 of damage using a pick and shovel, and he was
outside the boundaries of the park!). It is already against the law to pick up
antlers from BLM land, and to pick up a migratory bird feather from any land
whatsoever.
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Access will be
cut off. Some national parks only allow
access by NPS tour vehicle. For those of
you who like to snowboard, the BLM is already cutting off access – witness the
closure of the road into
Our
recreational, multi use access works wonderfully now! Many of the recreational
activities you enjoy today will be prohibited in a national park.
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One of the
beauties of Silverton is that you can camp in the backcountry without a permit,
the private land owners work with the county to allow
people to enjoy the part of the country we all treasure. There is the ability
for all visitors to enjoy the San Juans now. If it ain’t broke, don’t “fix” it.
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Trout Unlimited
says that ATV use won’t be affected.
Don’t believe them. This will be one of the first things to go in the
National Park process. Hunters will be somewhere in the line to be banned.
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The BLM is
already trying to get a $100,000 fine for anyone who inadvertently “damages”
BLM land (such as driving around a bog on the road or grading a road not
knowing the BLM owns 10 feet of it). If the
Trout Unlimited proposal goes through, heavy fines for all “infractions” in a
National Conservation Area will occur.
That road you have used for 25 years – it won’t be an official road (witness
The
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The
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The
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Do you like solar
power? If you do, you need to keep the
ability to mine in the San Juans. We
have some of the highest indium grades in the world and the San Juan Mountains
contains
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There are
significant undiscovered major mineral deposits in the
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New mines are
intensively environmentally regulated. They are the most intensively monitored
in the world.
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The 8,400 tons of
gold supposedly held by the Federal Government in
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Keeping the
ability to mine in the San Juans is essential to the national defense of the
Fairness to current
property owners is the last thing Trout Unlimited or the Department of the
Interior care about
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You cannot
operate a mine without access to the BLM lands.
You have to travel over BLM land via roads that need to be maintained,
the ore deposits stretch beyond the patented claim lines, and you cannot
situate a mine waste rock pile without going beyond the 300 foot width of a
patented mining claim. Trout Unlimited, the Sierra Club and the National Park
Service know this. The statement that property owners will still be able to
mine and “enjoy” their lands is fictitious.
Some families have owned their patented mining claims for a hundred
years, and the value will be taken away from them.
The best potential for
high paying, local jobs will be destroyed.
The best potential for significant local tax revenues will be destroyed.
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Mining jobs pay
$50,000 to $70,000 per year. A mine will
normally employ 30 to 200 persons.
Contrast this with the 100 day a year tourist economy. Someone working
for $8.50 an hour in the one fly fishing shop to open will not compensate the
loss of these potential jobs. Plus, each mining job creates two to three other
year round jobs in the community.
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Gold prices are
expected to crest at $2500 plus per ounce. We will have good mining jobs here
in the future, jobs which allow people to raise families in Silverton, to send
children to college and to have nice things.
Trout Unlimited’s proposal keeps us in the poverty loop. We do have a
significant proportion of our school children in need or some form of need.
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Two mines alone
have 670,000 ounces of gold delineated in them.
At $1100 per ounce, that is $740 million. Think of what this will do for
the economy in Silverton when they are operated. The tax revenues generated will
provide the services and help for our school district that
Durango may benefit, but
Silverton will not
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Working to
ultimately create a national park at Silverton will benefit the economy of
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What is the lives of 500 people in Silverton and the landowners
in
If you have nothing to
lose and the potential to gain, it’s easy to back an idea that means taking the
homes, property and recreational rights of others
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How much land
does Ty Churchwell or any of the other Trout Unlimited people own in the