BRIGGS MINE RECLAMATION IS NOT RESTORATION
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View of un-restored exploration road-cuts on southern edge of current Briggs Mine. "Reclamation" will not restore the damage done by these cuts.
We are promised full reclamation from the damages caused by exploration by the EA, but only if the Briggs Corporation chooses not to go ahead and apply for permission to mine the land, and only after 18 months during which they will decide whether to mine or not.
Full reclamation does not mean what the average person might think. It does not mean fully restoring the mountainside to its original condition. Reclamation does not mean restoration. It only means exactly what the particular language in the agreement states they will do.
In this case for the 22 miles of roads carved into the steep mountainside they will: bulldoze some of the remaining debris cast aside by the road-cutters back onto the road bed, after plowing the roadbed to reduce the soil compaction caused by the heavy equipment’s usage of the roads. They will make a one-time effort to re-contour the mountain-slope. They will broadcast a seed mix. They will leave and go home.
They will not stain the disturbed rockface cuts and disturbed soil banks to blend in with the surrounding natural surroundings. They will not bring added soil to replace that fallen down into the canyon from the steep original cuts. They will not return after the first rains wash away the piles of loose debris. They will not transplant local vegetation to encourage faster restoration. They will not use the techniques being pioneered by the BLM’s Desert Primitive Skills wilderness restoration team to disguise the damage to the landscape. In short, it is business as usual, a mechanized rip and tear, and a quick mechanized once-over leaving long-lasting scars. They admit it will be fifty plus years before recovery will really start to take effect.
For a sense of what we are talking about I have clipped a section of a picture I took this Spring of the mountainside just south of the current Briggs Mine. You can see the southern edge of the rock waste pile of the left. What you see in the center and left along the base of the mountainside are clearly exploration drilling road-cuts. These were made a few years ago when Briggs proposed an expansion of their existing pit. The current Briggs Mine Reclamation Plan calls for some contouring of the waste piles, some re-vegetation of the waste piles and staining of the high rock face cuts north of this picture. It does not state that anything will be done to reclaim the damage caused by their exploratory road-cuts.
These types of sharp horizontal scars will be there, high on the Panamint mountainside, for a very long time. So even if there is no mine or any gold ever taken out of these claims, we will all be reminded for our lifetimes of this event.
Above is the classic 1960s road scar we all live with: the road cut above Owens Lake into the High Sierra just south of Lone Pine. No scars on the Panamints Please!
Just Say NO to Briggs!
Panamint Valley Threatened Briggs Exploratory Roads Panamint Valley Views