Environmentalists just don't want you to play outside

I know somewhere that I think there's still land for several hundred dollars an acre.

Because it's fucking desert, there's NO water, there's nothing but a very fragile layer of cactus and grass on it. Not a single real tree per acre, not enough to support a single goat, not a road to get in on, not a single thing to eat, etc.

That's about the same as paying 2 cents, back in the day, for a bunch of icy nothing. There MIGHT even be a bit of silver and mercury under this land, but good luck getting it.





You've convinced me that slucing is probably totally harmless if done by a few people over a large area -- but I'd still be worried about any heavy activity in a prolonged sort of way....

I still (rather, even moreso now) think this thread is just about you liking sluces.... so fucking fine, sluce all you have a mind to, just don't set my desert on fire and we're good

 

In the East, one acre of meadow can support one cow.
In the short-grass prairies of the high desert, 100 acres of range land are required for that same cow. So the semi-desert rangeland should be worth 1/100 the price of tall grass prairie or an eastern meadow if you have no irrigation.
Some areas of Texas and the desert southwest are so brushy that only goats will survive. If you own such chaparral acreage, it's better to make a little money off some goats than nothing at all, but that land is not worth near as much as land back east. Maybe you could have some wind turbines or solar panels to make additional money from the power company or to generate your own power.

How about a landscape business raising desert plants?

I can't get too excited about alkalai flats, but if your land has some hills and ridges, they might have some cacti that should be left alone entirely. Keeping a portion of your land untouched won't necessarily pay the bills, but setting aside a little bit of nature is food for the soul.

As for mining, gold or anything else, I prefer renewable resources. There is a lot of destruction that accompanies fracking & mining in an irreversible way. I am very suspicious of "reclaimed" strip mine lands. It is not the same as untouched land.

 

Dude, your sluice doesn't have enough water running through it. The material is building up in front of the riffles and you're losing gold.

That is what I and others don't understand about the California moratorium on dredging. People can fish, and that kills the fish. But dredges simply don't kill fish. Improper dredging practices can destroy the "red beds" (salmon spawning sites), but it's easy to avoid.

depending on where that was at, you should have told the ranger to show you the law.

Yewah, out here in BLM country we call those "AUMs". Animal Unit Months. I think it's how many animals per acre per month can be sustained. I think it's one horse or one cow or 5 sheep per acre per month. I forget.

I dunno. It's amazing what you can do with alkali ground.

Yep.