Mining....

And he is poised to take away the remaining control that the DNR and NRB have in his newest budget bill.
 
Well the weekend started out pretty good until one of the adjacent property owners (from out of state) stopped over to tell us they signed a one year option to sell their property (130 acres) for sand mining. It's not a sure thing - I would say probably less than 50-50, but it kinda puts my plans for this property on hold. Time will tell...

You need to have the DNR find an endangered lizard or frog on or near their land ... that will stop everything ... ;)
 
You need to have the DNR find an endangered lizard or frog on or near their land ... that will stop everything ... ;)
That doesn't always work. They put a bypass hi way thru my back yard. We have Blanding's turtles all around us. They put a a $75,000 box culvert in that the turtles are supposed to use to go under the road. They also put up special "turtle fence" that flares inward so the turtles get turned around. The funny thing is they wouldn't put a fence along the 6 acre pond on our land right along the new highway where all the turtles are.
 
The company I work for builds equipment for all of the above mentioned mining companies, both for frac sand and for other types of mining. Kennecott is HUGE, money is no object to them. We sent 12.5 million pounds of building steel to their open pit copper mine in Magna, Utah last year and they said it would be paid for within 18 months just by reprocessing the spoils from the copper mine and extracting molybdenum. They get about $250,000 per day in incidental gold from that mine also, and that isn't even what they are trying to extract. We have another project going on right now for the Fort Knox Gold Mine in Alaska. Ire trying to extract. We have another project going on right now for the Fort Knox Gold Mine in Alaska. It is just nuts right now throughout the mining industry.

Unless you are a coal miner. The Feds are very anti coal.
 
That doesn't always work. They put a bypass hi way thru my back yard. We have Blanding's turtles all around us. They put a a $75,000 box culvert in that the turtles are supposed to use to go under the road. They also put up special "turtle fence" that flares inward so the turtles get turned around. The funny thing is they wouldn't put a fence along the 6 acre pond on our land right along the new highway where all the turtles are.

You clearly do not understand the whole process ...

If an endangered species is observed, maybe only sighted by a concerned unidentified citizen, there are 4-5 layers of Feds that will pile on to this. The party asking for the permit to mine, must fund the research to conduct habitat studies, ecological reviews, etc, etc, etc.

If the end result is a $150-200 k turtle tunnel, there will be $80-100k of studies before ... this means costs and delays to the procuring party (mining permit applicant).

If you really want to stir the port, get an environmental group involved ... sounds like you are giving up, good luck!
 
For those who voted for Walker in Wisc. - what did you think he was gonna do - KEEP environmental regs? Let citizens have a voice - or big companies?? Like anywhere.......you get what's PAID FOR.
 
For those who voted for Walker in Wisc. - what did you think he was gonna do - KEEP environmental regs? Let citizens have a voice - or big companies?? Like anywhere.......you get what's PAID FOR.

Really? This has nothing to do with Walker ... this is all Federal Gov't driven ... EPA, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, carbon Emissions laws, etc, etc, etc.

This has nothing to do with Walker or the State od Wisconsin ...

Try doing some research ...

http://www.nma.org/index.php/federal-environmental-laws-that-govern-u-s-mining
 
Unless you are a coal miner. The Feds are very anti coal.
I guess I should have been more specific, but coal isn't going anywhere for a while yet. We provide steel for 3-4 air filtration baghouse units and at least as many stack scrubber retrofits each year for the last 3 or 4 years and we do a very small percentage of that type of work, we are small potatoes in that market. The cleaner coal burning units will keep people quiet for 5 or so more years until they can push through even stricter laws for which compliance will become next to impossible. I was talking to my little brother who works in the mining industry in WY and he told me that US coal from the deposits in WY and MT(it burns way cleaner than Appalachian coal) demands a premium on the international market and the producers would ship it all overseas if they could.
 
Last edited:
You clearly do not understand the whole process ...

If an endangered species is observed, maybe only sighted by a concerned unidentified citizen, there are 4-5 layers of Feds that will pile on to this. The party asking for the permit to mine, must fund the research to conduct habitat studies, ecological reviews, etc, etc, etc.

If the end result is a $150-200 k turtle tunnel, there will be $80-100k of studies before ... this means costs and delays to the procuring party (mining permit applicant).

If you really want to stir the port, get an environmental group involved ... sounds like you are giving up, good luck!
You're right probably a big difference between a state hi way and a private mining company. We had a environmental group come to our house and interview us about the turtles. They had radio chips attached to the shells to monitor their movements. The state can just pass these cost onto the tax payers, a private company will have to fund it themselves. The hi way has been in for 6 years now and I haven't seen a Blandings since then. Typical government job spending 100K on a project to protect them, but can't spend 3k( that we asked for) to continue a fence past a 6 acre pond where all the wildlife is funneled down to be roadkill. The geese that walk on the road here all the time is a huge safety issue too.
 
You're right probably a big difference between a state hi way and a private mining company. We had a environmental group come to our house and interview us about the turtles. They had radio chips attached to the shells to monitor their movements. The state can just pass these cost onto the tax payers, a private company will have to fund it themselves. The hi way has been in for 6 years now and I haven't seen a Blandings since then. Typical government job spending 100K on a project to protect them, but can't spend 3k( that we asked for) to continue a fence past a 6 acre pond where all the wildlife is funneled down to be roadkill. The geese that walk on the road here all the time is a huge safety issue too.

LOL! I have a friend who was involved in a small project on his land to repair a failed culvert over a drainage ditch. When the DNR got involved, there were all sorts of permits and other agencies. The project was put on hold for 6 months because an "endangered species" was observed near the site.

The DNR then had to conduct a "Endangered & Threatened Species" audit. This required a specialist from Madison traveling to his site and neighboring properties. At the end of the day, a 3" salamander was sited 2 miles from his property.

Meanwhile, the erosion and washout that occurred around the failed culvert cost 3 times the $$ to repair, he also has to re-dredge the drainage dike because of the sediment ... Govt inefficiency at it's finest.
 
Tree Spud - I was reading post #20 on this thread when I posted at post #26. The poster at #20 wrote that Walker signed some new law that weakened the existing mining / environmental laws. I'm well aware that the Fed. has mining / environmental laws, but the previous posts were talking about WISCONSIN'S governor and DNR and what THEY had done.
 
Well the weekend started out pretty good until one of the adjacent property owners (from out of state) stopped over to tell us they signed a one year option to sell their property (130 acres) for sand mining. It's not a sure thing - I would say probably less than 50-50, but it kinda puts my plans for this property on hold. Time will tell...

That sucks, but on the other hand if you could sell your land for $10k+/acre, you could likely buy an even better hunting property and have some extra cash in the bank. It would be a lot tougher to take the buyout though if your property is a family farm that's been in the family for 100+ years and moving isn't an option.
 
That sucks, but on the other hand if you could sell your land for $10k+/acre, you could likely buy an even better hunting property and have some extra cash in the bank. It would be a lot tougher to take the buyout though if your property is a family farm that's been in the family for 100+ years and moving isn't an option.

Hey Ben, Thanks for the comments! I had a follow-up conversation with the property owner in late November, she felt it was highly unlikely that the option would be exercised due to numerous contingencies that were incorporated into the offer [the entity that made the offer is owned by a realtor/speculator and not a mining company]. Once the option expires they are probably going to list the property. She's going to let me know prior to listing. If possible, I would like to purchase a portion of the property.
 
Tree Spud - I was reading post #20 on this thread when I posted at post #26. The poster at #20 wrote that Walker signed some new law that weakened the existing mining / environmental laws. I'm well aware that the Fed. has mining / environmental laws, but the previous posts were talking about WISCONSIN'S governor and DNR and what THEY had done.

B&B ... thanks for representing what is wrong about the internet ... if Poster #20 stated an opinion, it must be true... repeating a dumb statement makes it more true ...

A Governor can approve a legally permit requested project, they can't change Federal law or regulations ... Walker was elected by an overwhelming majority of the Wis residents 3 times in 4 years and one of the issues was approving the mine project ... he did that legally .. it is up to the Mining company to comply with all regulatory compliance.

Please keep in mind that many on this site from Wis, Minn, Pen, and so forth are just non stop complainers. No matter what happens they are the ... "we need to convict criminals crowd, but refuse to approve a prison in their community" ...

I guess that is why these forum are perfect for hunters ... constant complaints, no plan or organizational strategy to succeed ... just beating the same drum over & over ...
 
Your comments in post #34 are rude and disrespectful (not that you are as a person) so let's get that out of the way saying comments like THAT IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE INTERNET.

*I edited my response out of respect for those seeing this as getting too political (it's a touchy subject), time to move on to more agreeable items.
 
Last edited:
Guys lets move away from political discussions and back to habitat. I think dipper made this comment awhile back but I want to re-iterate that we all have a lot more in common than what divides us. Politics are divisive...... habitat discussions are inclusive. If we do not nip this in the bud now it will only get worse as we get closer to the 2016 elections.
 
Guys lets move away from political discussions and back to habitat. I think dipper made this comment awhile back but I want to re-iterate that we all have a lot more in common than what divides us. Politics are divisive...... habitat discussions are inclusive. If we do not nip this in the bud now it will only get worse as we get closer to the 2016 elections.

I can agree with that point about it being divisive, unfortunately politics keeps becoming more of the sportsman's world and it's becoming hard to avoid it and how it affects us and the land we hunt and the lakes we fish.
 
No organization or plan to succeed??? I've already accomplished that success in my own hunting territory by personally stopping at the surrounding nearby camps to formulate a plan to re-build the deer herd in our area of about 4 sq. miles. We worked AROUND the game commission and took matters into our own hands. Done by us - for us. It didn't take money or threats or political clout - just talking between the camps. Not done for glory - but for the deer and hunting. School me on plans and success.

States and the Feds have different environmental regulations??? Really??? Thanks for breaking the news.

Shawnv - Yep, politics can be divisive, that's for sure. But I remember a time both sides talked with each other like grown men, and didn't immediately go into hostile attack mode. ( I'm not talking about you ). Sadly, that's what it's become and why things don't get solved - unless it's ram-rodded down everyone's throats. And we're supposed to be the SMARTEST animals on the planet !!
 
Top