There’s no better place to catch gold fever than at the GPAA Gold Panning Zone at the GPAA Gold & Treasure Show in Nashville, Tenn., this weekend where you, your family and friends can pan for real gold!

A prospector’s biggest wish is to find a shiny, gold nugget staring up at him from the earth. In mid-July, nine-year-old Evan Valentino’s wish was granted in multiple ways. With the help of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Valentino, who has been battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma since October 2014, got to hold a nugget in his hand—a nugget that he found with the help of “Frying Pan” Frank Powell and Gold Prospecting Adventures, LLC.

The U.S. Forest Service proposed  nearly 18,000 acres of land in the Black Hills National Forest to be “withdrawn from mineral entry,” which means no new mining claims would be allowed. The proposal was recorded in the Federal Register on Sept. 24, 2015, but Sam Griner, a member of the Northern Hills Prospectors — a local chapter of the Gold Prospectors Association of America — said he wouldn’t have even known about the proposed withdrawal had he not scanned the Forest Service’s Schedule of Planned Action (SOPA) website.

Once upon a time, the U.S. Forest Service was a respected federal agency that served the interests of the American people, and not just the interests of radical environmentalist lobby groups. Those days seem like such a long, long time ago in a land far, far away. It is simply astounding how much things have changed in one generation when it comes to the federal policy on public lands. 

On top of the fundraiser being sponsored by Western Culture Conservancy, Oregon miners got another gift recently, this time in the form of two amicus curiae briefs: one filed by Mountain States Legal Foundation and one by the Pacific Legal Foundation.