It’s usually kindof a bad joke when spring officially arrives in the Black Hills. As the month of March passes mid-point and heads toward the first day of spring, we have to think that this is a rare year indeed!
The first week of March is usually host to one of a series of spring blizzards. We’ve passed that milestone unscathed and forecasts look to another week of balmy weather.
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| Minimal ice, minimal run-off |
Our best bet is to hope for rain… crops, fire danger and prospecting all being weather dependent!
First draft of our U.S. Forest Service plan of operataions is on our desk and we want to talk about some of the “common sense” elements that have to be on paper to avoid destruction to public property.
We always chuckle at these items… everybody should know, right! Liken it to the 10 pages of warnings packaged with the simplest item these days! The bottom line is, however, if someone hadn’t been injured or a home hadn’t caught on fire, you wouldn’t need to tell people that using an electic appliance in the shower might electrocute them or bring their home down in ashes!
“Solid waste generated at the site such as broken equipment, scrap metal, trash, garbage, tires, etc., will be promptly disposed of at an off-site approved facility.” This has been a golden rule in both families since childhood in the forest and on the prairie… take out what you bring in! Bob and I grew up in rural areas before the “clean up a stretch of highway” projects became popular. In those days, mom and dad got the family together in the fall and spring and we ALL spent the day cleaning the road ditches that ran along our property lines. My first paying job, at the ripe age of 10 years old, was for my sister and I to ride our bikes ¼ mile to town (uphill all the way J) and pick up garbage during the summer months in the city parks.
Now if you’ve ever had to pick up other people’s garbage, you don’t spread it around yourself! Even our kids will get an indignant look on their faces and immediately correct their friends, “don’t throw that on the ground!” Saves me a lot of talking!
Next on the agenda… “Refrain from removing material at the toe of a slope greater than 30% to prevent mass movement.” There is a good-sized hill behind our property which shows a pretty distinctive slough area. Two years ago we woke to the sound of a dozer on the abandoned railroad grade on the back of our property. Although they have no right to work that grade, a neighbor had hired them for dirt work. A quick trip to the railroad grade showed that a good-sized boulder, probably six feet across, had been removed from the toe of the slough area! An unhappy dozer operator when confronted said he was trying to help! That would be the difference between a driver and an operator… anyone who has operated heavy equipment knows what I mean!
And last but certainly not least… “Store fuel and keep the camp site, fueling sites, and other concentrated-use sites outside the Water Influence Zone.” May I say…. Duhhhh! But then I stop to think about how many times we’ve had to caution prospectors about the simple possibility of a flash flood! It’s so easy to pick that perfect campsite by the creek, falling asleep to the lull of the babbling brook…
So this also brought to mind something I hadn’t thought about in respect to dredging. South Dakota water officials frown on dredging. I’ve always been a little puzzled by that… here in ag country stock dams are often dredged to improve habitat, water storage, etc. A motor of any kind, however, will drip fuel, oil and grease into a creek. Maybe that’s the reason! So maybe we want to address that when we talk about the possible benefits of dredging. Anyone got a solution?
Anyway, this will remind you of a few simple rules that any prospector should follow. Use common sense and the rules are second nature!
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