We wanted to highlight a conversation we had with a rock hounding group out of Utah yesterday as it is precisely why so many roads are being closed and why people are bowing to over-regulation due to not knowing their rights.
Many of the staff here at AMRA belong to many groups on FB. Our primary goal is to educate the folks on these outdoor use pages and to unite them with what their rights are on public lands. An educated public land user is a powerful public land user.
Yesterday we read on their page where someone asked this question: Is it illegal to run battery powered tools on BLM land.
There we about 50 comments on the post and 90+% of them were:
No..... or a version of: you need permits from BLM, you need to put up a bond, it's illegal to do anything on BLM land without getting a permit.
We did not comment on the post, but instead reached out to the moderator in a personal message (PM) who was also posting on the page with the intent of opening a dialogue to explain exactly what they could and couldn't do.
Here is the short text of the PM conversation, which was abruptly terminated and blocked by the moderator after this brief exchange:
Hello Mr. XXXXX, my name is Mr. Shannon Poe, President of American Mining Rights Association. We are a non-profit which teaches people what they can and cannot do on public lands (it's not BLM land), they "manage" our lands for us. Seeing all of the completely incorrect comments in the post really stresses the need for people to be educated and that is something we are trying to do. At no cost. I am working with someone out of Utah to hold seminars on precisely this. Would you know groups which are interested? Sincerely, Shannon Poe
Response from XXXXX
If you want to offer the seminar on the Rockhounding Utah page that would be fine. You aren't selling anything and it doesn't sound political, just educational. You are only quoting the law?
Response from AMRA
Yes, we don't sell anything. We don't ask for anything. AMRA is the nations largest small-scale mining advocacy group and we know public land use law like the back of our hand. We push back against over-regulation.
Response from XXXXX
Your page is pretty political when I googled the group
Response from AMRA
Pretty political?
Response from XXXXX
I can't fully authorize something like this, that would be XXXX XXXXX who could do that.
Response from AMRA
What is political about our page?
Response from XXXXX
Its an impression based on this
(This is where he included the photo of the barn and flag to point to that post)
Those are "alarmist" words that usually are used in political context and we try very hard to keep our page non-political
Response from AMRA
Alarmist? The flag is political? OK. Perhaps you don't need our help.
Response from XXXXX
It isn't the flag.
I don't care if people are left, right, moderate, or in between.
At that last message he sent, he blocked me from responding to him in personal messenger and blocked me from their page.
This is the "alarmist" language he was referring to as it was included in the post with the picture of the barn and flag:
Our original post.........
Wouldn't it be nice if all the groups could unite against this fundamental transformation of and destruction of America?
Farmers, ranchers, apple growers, suction dredgers, hikers, hunters, campers, restaurant owners, loggers and off-roaders to name a few.
What is it going to take?
End post.
Rather than demean the man and the group, we need to take a look at what causes this type of thought process to happen in the first place.
In our opinion, it is social conditioning and because the government actually wants you to ask their permission for everything, and that they do a piss-poor job of explaining when you DON'T need a permit, a bond or permission. That is by design. They'd rather you ask them so they can tell you no. There are many in these agencies who despise rock hounding, mining or in some cases even camping on public lands. Not all in these agencies have this ideology and many are good honest folks, but we know of many also who are not good.....Montana instantly comes to mind.
We can't tell you how many times we've heard from pubic land users who have been told by USFS or BLM that they need a permit, a Plan of Operations or even have to put up a costly bond to do things like: camp on their mining claim, access a road (just drive on it), rock hound, dig a hole with a shovel and so on.
We also can't tell you how many times we've found that the agencies tasked with "managing" our lands for us, like BLM or USFS don't have any idea what their rules are, what the Mining Grants are or even their own manuals which explain things like 2813.14 of the USFS manual. 2813.14 is where the USFS is required to provide reasonable access to one's mining claim.
There is a huge difference between a right and a privilege. Rights are granted, privileges are asking permission from the government.
Yesterday was a sad example of how divided our country is becoming and has become. When a public land use group is literally being restricted by themselves and calling someone who only wants to help them "alarmist", it is a very tough road to change that ideology.
We here at AMRA are not alarmists, we are realists, constitutionalists and we will not apologize for pointing out the truth and that is......... there IS in fact a fundamental transformation happening in America and most can see that easily. It is not a transformation of more freedom, it is a transformation to take away your freedom.
We will continue to speak out, reach out and try and educate those who are succumbing to the mis-information being perpetrated against them but they must also be willing to listen, to learn and to speak out.
We wish this group the best of luck...... ... See more
