Mike Thornton

As Mr. Thornton explained in more detail the effects of mining in our area, I became more and more aware of how much damage I see daily. It is truly amazing the lasting impression mining has left throughout the California landscape. In the area where I live, the massive amounts of rock that were washed cleaned during mining and then left in piles are everywhere. The idea that they may allow mining to resume is outrageous in my opinion. It was surprising to me though that there is still an extreme amount of gold left in our hills. When Mike brought up the fact about the tens of thousands of mines that are abandoned it reminded me of a personal situation. My family bought some acreage in Georgetown years back and while exploring it we learned that in fact we had also bought an old mine. It was shocking that after all these years the mine stood intact decently well and now captures my attention again. Maybe I need to go scout around again in that old mine and find myself some shiny ole nuggets. Not! Hopefully we can all see the damage mining has caused to our environment and avoid doing this again for a pretty rock.

Gary Noy

The story behind the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range proved to be extremely interesting to me. I had no idea that the mountains I love had such a great history. Being an avid snowboarder, I really was surprised that skiing had first been originated in the Sierra. This seems like a fact that someone should have told me in my countless trips to the snow. Also, the fact that such extensive deforestation had taken place in my beloved mountains took me back. After the lecture tuesday I looked forward to my trip snowboarding wednesday to look for some of the facts we learned. The trees proved to be one of the most noticable thing Gary shared with us. The entire forest (up highway 50) is basically a uniform size. It had never occured to me that this wasn't natural, but with this new information its was so clear that the forest had been restarted at the same time. It is half way disappointing to think that there was a different landscape with much larger trees in the Sierra before our arrival to the area. One of the things that has brought me great peace over the years is escaping into the mountains "away" from the touch of man kind. I can only hope now that with many more people becoming educated we can preserve our national forests and continue to enjoy them the way I have for all these years.