Opportunity to Reduce Gold Butte Monument in Nevada

March 28, 2018

From Associate Editor Chris Ralph:

Those who are interested, there is an opportunity to comment on the reduction of the size of the Gold Butte monument in southern Nevada. This is a remote area with small mines that has some little known areas for nugget prospecting. In his last weeks of office, then President Obama declared by a fiat stroke of his pen that 300,000 acres of land in southern Nevada would be off limits to mining and ranching. President Trump and his Department of Interior head Ryan Zinke are considering reducing the size of the monument to its essentials. I wrote a comment letter today and would urge you to do the same. Here is the letter I wrote:

Regarding reducing the size of the Gold Butte Monument:
I am a Nevada resident and I have traveled and camped all over this state, including a number of visits to the Gold Butte area. I am sending you this email to urge Mr. Zinke to reduce the monument area to the smallest size that is compatible with protecting historic objects. I also urge Mr. Zinke to remove all springs and other locations with water rights from the monument area. President Trump has put out formal government reports on how important it is for our country to be more self sufficient with regard to critical minerals and he is right. Within the Gold Butte monument there are prospective mineral deposits of copper, cobalt, fluorite and other critically important commodities. We need access to these areas to be open to all normal multiple use, including mineral access, to provide for the national security and jobs for our citizens.

All parts of the monument where mining has taken place in the past need to be open to access with a full buffer area open around them to allow for full and safe access to minerals in these areas. Mr. Obama created this bloated monument only to appease his political followers with no regard to the mineral or ranching needs of our country. It is important to greatly reduce the size of this monument to the minimum possible size as soon as is practical. A few thousand acres would be more than sufficient for the entire thing.

Please send your email comments to: sndo_rmp_revision@blm.gov