Miners Rally

Resources Coalition

City of Oroville

Mayor Chuck Spieth

City Council & Chamber of Commerce

PO Box 2200

Oroville, WA 98844

Nov. 20, 2008

To All

Resources Coalition sponsors of Northwest Miners Rally has found itself in the difficult position of letting our good friends know that we are closing down the rally for 2009. This was a difficult decision because many of our volunteers have had a real attachment to the beauty and friendliness of your community. The principal reasons are listed below:

WDFW has just passed its new rules set with extraordinarily new restrictions on the high-value summer months for working dredges in state waterways. Many streams were open between July 1 and the end of September, under the new rules many streams open up in August and because of this many volunteers prefer to be working in August versus attending and helping with the rally. There is always a cost that bureaucracy often does not take into account as far as the economic health of community and state.

Additionally our purpose was to have in water demonstrations and this proved to be difficult after losing our original site at River Oaks RV Park. Many of our members felt that the city park was a great location yet fails in the one area that we wanted to specifically teach people about in water small-scale dredge.

Last point economic conditions have tightened thus putting strains on both staff and potential visitors that would travel to Oroville for such an event, we noticed a downturn in the number of miners coming from out of state to attend the rally in 2008.

You have been a great host and very gracious to the organizers and staff over the last six years. Resources Coalition will look at this issue in the future and Oroville will always be a place at the top of our list to hold any type of educational outreach. Thank you for

your great hospitality this was a difficult letter to write so from myself and the 2500 members Of Resources Coalition we hope to be back.

Best of success with Heritage Days

Mark Erickson

President Resources Coalition