New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Hi All
went for scratch around at one of my more consistant streams near thames. Seems they have logged the area since i was last there. I walked up about 1hr and most of the stream is now loaded with silt. Huge amounts of vegetation, river bank and pine trees have fallen in causing large log dams and blockages. Such a shame, it was such a pretty little stream with lots of bedrock, but now its loaded with rubbish. Just shows you how little regulation is placed on logging opperations and how little care the logging companies have for our flora and fauna.




Shame on Environment Waikato who I know read this forum, for allowing this sort of rubbish to carry on unfettered. It seems crazy they can pursue a fellow fossicker operating a small 3hp dredge for disturbing the river bed and then allow this sort of stuff to continue!

Booo to Environment Waikato
Starflash

Pretty cr@p alright. I think a few formal letters here and there to the right ministers showing these pics should be in order.

i agree its not a good look and they (like you say ) go on about dredging the rivers

just behind maroi gully stillwater there is or was a great creek that had very nice colour every time i went there you would think those photos were taken at the same spot a good rain and down it all came what a mess

one can shout as loud as one likes but it seems to fall on deaf ears

Thanks Starflash, I know exactly where you are & I am very sure that it isnt really near Thames. But I know for sure that if the prick who dobbed me in to EW could see this carry on he would have EW on to this forestry company (Earnslaw One) in a flash. It is due to EW grazing this forum that I dont have much to say on here any more, especialy when it comes to the Coromandal.

Happy hunting

JW :)

Thanks for letting us know starflash,i had steam coming out of my ears and couldnt remeber to add this to the end of the last post.
Mem.

With the stream side vegetation removed, once a heavy rain hits....... But you will notice that these sort of operations are always done outside the public view. Any forestry work done near streams that the public commonly see from roads etc have a vegetation strip left along each bank. The companies know that what people don't see can't hurt them and they can point out the areas in public view and say how environmentally aware they are.

You hit the nail on the head... it seems as if they are all for the big companies but when it comes to those of us who respect the land and who do some hobby fossicking they have little patience. Maybe if we all got together and put a nice bribe together they would turn the blind eye to us?

as per jw's response, i also laugh. if only it was a numbers game. more like a money game. as in monopoly but this is real. the big bully is the one with the money. they can do what they please.

in addition i heard a rumour someone down this way got a dredge and their gold seized, on the 12 mile creek? anyone able to add to this rumour? i've seen a guy doing this under the bridge last year. didn't see the harm as he was under the bridge (in an already hugely modified environment i'd say) and just did a small hole which quickly vanished (filled up).

the ironic thing is DOC (actually their contractor Wilson Contracting) have just blown up a hillside to widen the nice track to highway width, sending rock and tree into the gorge effectively blocking its flow. NICE ONE!!!

in the weekend i met another guy out sluicing elsewhere. he was going to come back with a 4 inch. i laughed with him and said good luck as it seemed a bit public. reckoned he would have a go until someone said to stop.

i politely explained the case from nelson so he had an idea of the heavy handed approach that might follow as i feel for these guys who think new zealand is some sort of land of the free. yeah, it is if you can get away with it.

personally i stick to a little sluicebox and do it the hard way. still feel i have to look over my shoulder all the time. over the years i have had people from all walks of life come across me in all sorts of public and less public places and all i get is huge interest in what i'm doing, the history of gold, etc. no one has given me grief about damage as it's obvious the river is in charge and what i'm doing is a pittance compared to water's destructive forces which obliterate any sign of my work in each flood.