Thursday, May 12, 2011

CAD files and aerial photos


Hi everyone, I hope you're all well.

Does anyone have access to CAD files covering the mine site and surrounding area? I am thinking specifically of .DWG or .DXF files. These might be used in AutoCAD or other vector design software.

These might prove very useful during the residency... and I would like to have a look at them, and to start playing around with them, before arrival if possible.

Some educational institutions give free access to these kind of files to staff/students - I can get them, but only for the UK. Otherwise it is sometimes possible to buy them, which I will also look into. If you are in education and you don't have access, do you know anyone in the architecture/ landscape architecture department who might?

The mining company may already have some, or possibly even local authorities.... it would be great to have as much of the surrounding area as possible.

Also historical aerial photos - I know the armed forces have been taking aerial photos since at least the '40s, and sometimes those are available as resources too...

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Schedule

Schedule as of 5/11/2011
I'll make changes to these as they occur

July 15 Resident Team Arrives
July 18 Rob Blair -Geologist, editor of Western San Juan Mountains: their geology, ecology and human history, and is the co-founder and president of the Mountain Studies Institute in Silverton, Colorado.
July 20 Allan Comp -
 Historian, Founder and Coordinator of the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team (ACCWT) and the Western Hardrock Watershed Team (WHWT)
July 20-25 
Joe Ryan- Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Colorado and co-author of the Center for the American West’s Cleaning Up Abandoned Hardrock Mines in the West.
July 21-22 Lake Valley Land and Water Conference
July 23 Jonathan Lovekin (unconfirmed)-geologist with CTL Thompson, a Denver-based integrated geo-technical, materials, geo-structural, and environmental engineering company
July 25 
Ron Cohen- Mine reclamation engineer from School of Mines
July 26 Hardrock Revision talk at 3rd Street Park 8:30pm
July 29  Chris Ray- Ecology and Evolutionary Biologist at the University of Colorado and an expert on pikas, an alpine indicator species, and one of the coolest critters on the planet.
August 1 Todd Bryan- Senior Associate with The Keystone Center, is the Project Facilitator. He has 15 years experience as an environmental mediator working with government agencies, tribal governments, non-governmental organizations, industry, and communities, where he develops collaborative approaches to environmental and natural resource decision-making.

August 9 Field Talk in Silverton
August 13 Artposium. Open to the public.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Lake City Visit-April 26-29

Monarch Pass
Avalanche below the Ute Ulay
Outside the Matterhorn
Hinsdale County Commissioners
By Grant Pound
In late April I drove to Lake City to make community connections for the Hardrock Revision project. I drove through a series of snowstorms, hail, rain and general navigational challenges. Monarch pass was a near white out and the store that’s up there was still mostly covered, but it looks like they have started to dig it out. The snow continued in Lake City until we had about eight inches of wet stuff. I sort of regret having taken off my snow tires.

The next day there was a terrific avalanche just below the Ute Ulay mine, the site of the Hardrock Revision project. Snow and ice pushed through a narrow chute and ended up about 80 feet deep and across Henson Creek.

In the afternoon I met with the Hinsdale County commissioners–Stan Whinnery, Cindy Dozier and Allen Brown. I told them about what we are doing with the Hardrock Revision project and how we wanted to connect the team with the community. The commissioners were very receptive and agreed to help find those people who would participate in the July-August program. There are four levels of participation:
I.              Team Member. These two folks will be directly part of the team and join in all the same interviews, tours, brainstorming sessions as the rest. They will help with the visioning and presentation of the vision at the Artposium on August 13, 2011.

II.            Interviewee. These individuals will meet with the team and provide their perspective on life in Hinsdale County, attitudes about mining and the mine, and other community issues.

III.          Test Group. Once ideas have been roughed out, we will use these people to test those ideas for common sense, practicality, and desirability.

IV.           Kvetchers. These individuals will have no direct  connection with the project but will complain about the results when we are finished.


I am writing up a description and requirements for particiapation that I will send to the commissioners, Kristie Borchers (director of Lake City DIRT), and newspaper publisher Grant Houston.

I met with the editor/publisher of the Silver World Newspaper, Grant Houston and outlined the project for him. He was also in attendance at the commissioners meeting.

I also met with included P. David Smith, historian and publisher. David and his wife run Western Reflections Publishing Company  and David has written a great many books on the history of the San Juan Mountains.

David Smith was found at the Mocha Moose complaining about Ph.D.s with fellow Ph.D. and coffee shop owner,  Kris Pedersen.  It seems like a coffee shop is a good place for people to find out about the Hardrock Revision project.


Elk outside Lake City