I used to work out of Nelson and wondered about some of the natural features in the valley bottoms. Turns out these were tailing ponds and dump sites from silver/lead/zinc mines from the early 1900's. Nature has overgrown everything. The digging for placer gold in the late 1800's around Wells/Barkerville also resulted in some different land forms like glacial moraines. All covered by forest and willows now.

Wonder why it's all bad? Gravel roads will be the next thing on the "not good" list.

I believe the problem is the snow run-off. They 50-70 feet of snow and when it melts it has to be contained and filtered in the tailings pond. If they move the pond it solves the problem of water capture.

Good point Yama, i would like to take some of the environmental alarmists for a tour of the manson and germensen areas and tell them to point out where the old mines are. To add to it the old timers used to burn off vast hillsides to expose the quartz veins around wells and barkerville.(Nothing but forests there today) Nature does a pretty good job of looking after itslef. Plants have been around for millions of years and they will be around longer then us. Having said that i still dont think we should use that for an exuse go and blindly rape the land. We have the technology and knowlede now to extract resources and mitigate our footprint we leave behind.

yep, Only problem is we have no control on it. We let one company do it, than another company wants a mee too. Than before you know a hundred companies go into a valley and totally anialate it.

You see a hundred and fifty years ago, we had dynamite, shovel and a pick. Dynamite was expensive because you had to make the hole first. Thus it took a lot of human effort. What took 50 men a week to do. 3 men in one shift can do it now. Thus we can do so much damage so fast.

I'm not a bleeding hearted liberal. But
we humans for the past century thought we can go into the bush and steal what ever we can from the wild and claim it to be ours. Well, in the past decade, we have discovered that mother nature can not heal as fast as we can destroy.

If we are supposively so smart, we should not have rely so much on our oil. We should have alternative power source. I'm sure there has been some real good ideas, and likely squashed by the big oil companies. Another fault of humans, Greed.

Ever open your fridge, and look at the food we have in it. We literally have a choice of what ever you want to eat tonight stocked at home. 50 years ago that selection was at the store. Thus if we don't eat it, it ends up in the dump.
That is another thing wrong with our current society.

Ever notice how the kids toys are tied up to the cardboard and heavily secured so it is about three times the size of the actual toy. This is a byproduct of advertising. Look at all the cardboard and resources wasted in packaging. Look at the big bulky boxes that needs to be shipped half way around the world. what a waste of fuel.

Ever notice at Christmas time. The amount of toys and gifts that a three year old gets. They get so much it takes them two days to open it. I can remember as a kid, getting a gift from the parents, one or two from relatives, and one from Santa. Maybe 4 or five gifts. Now it is a contest from all the adults to give the kid three or four gifts. The kid can open up a toy store in a couple of years. How bad is it? Parents rotate the toys, because then the kid would have forgotten about the toys that were put away three months ago. Oppulance, wasting our resources for momentary pleasure to the giver, not the reciever.

My rant for the day.

He speaks.. Santa must own a coal mine because thats all i got. did he get the permits? Sorry i had to say it ;)

North, Ya got to admit, we are living way too high on the hog.

the mining companies are back operating in canada because they are getting kicked out of the smarter countries or are being sued in the courts for polluting the earth and water in their borders, so come back to canada where its easier to get what you want in terms of regulatory compliance. In teck-cominco's case they are being sued by the collville native band for a sum of 3 billion - more than they have in their war chest. they have been activly looking for a new site for a smelter that isn't on an international water shed like trail and galore creek - the U.S.seems to have more lawyers looking for deep pockets and the piggy bank won't take another threat like the pollution of the columbia river mess. oh what to do - ask gordy to set up special environmental laws to allow polluting while they loot and plunder for the new york banksters, anyone see the strings that are pulling our politicians?

I think it has more to with double talk and red tape from the province. If the prov was in fact keen as they are so good at reminding us how they are eagerly wanting mining in BC, they would hand over the funds for a feasibility study! - Not that I agree nor disagree with handouts -but they DID just gave 3.4 million to Spectra. (albeit that was the carbon schmarbon thingy)
They would also not be insisting on this private partner yip yap. Just my observational opinion.

:)

What is so smart about a country kicking out the resource industry? Sounds like a recipe for a dismal economy to me. Face it folks, cry all you want but if there is no commodity extraction in canada, there is no canadian economy. DO you folks really think we can fund the whole country on the backs of rich european tourists? Or maybe we dont need primary industry, we can all just work in the healthcare industry....or organic farming.
I wonder if the level of awareness in the general public is the same for the mining industry as I have been seeing for forestry. If so then there is a lot more rhetoric than facts going around. It is easy to wax on about 'poisoned environment' and 'greedy NEw york' and the end of the world and all that. How about some actual facts? Or maybe people think we would be living up here at all if there were no forestry, and mining, and hydroelectric.
By the way, yama, gravel roads are already on the 'bad things list'. Thats why forestry, which is very concerned with environmental image, has to do so much deactivation and such while the oil industry does not.
I do agree that we are living high on the hog. SO do something about it. live well and give the surplus to the needy. There are, after all people eating cookies made out of MUD in Haiti. However, just because one feels we lead over the top lifestyles it doesnt give you the right to try to put down other peoples livelihoods and the sources of wealth for future generations. Hell, why are you all looking so hard for international villains? Look out the window, or in the mirror. Ask yourself : would you rather get a drink from the fraser river above or below prince george? No explain how Gordon Campbell, or New York Bankers are responsible for that.