Well, once they fill up with birds, it is no longer an issue, is it!
-JD-
That is interesting it is in the Chattanoogan in that as far as I can tell, it is a western problem. Never heard of such a marker here, though there are plenty of stubbed up PVC pipes at construction sites.
The Chattanoogan is kind of a counter culture scandal sheet as opposed to the main Chattanooga paper. They do have some good articles.
Seems cheap caps would solve the problem. Properly built, they might even be nesting platforms.
It's been nearly 20 years since PVC was used in Nevada, and it's very rare to see one “standing” anymore. I see a few in Utah and Wyoming from time to time, but I suspect that they are “old” abandoned claims for the most part, and MOST of the posts are flat on the ground.
I have looked in THOUSANDS of these back in the day, and don't recall ever seeing a dead bird in one, but I don't dispute the fact that it does happen.
Most “new” claims (post 1993 in Nevada) are 2x2x48 wood driven in the ground. Neither these or the old PVC posts stay standing very long in cattle country (most of Nevada is “open range”), and once on the ground they are just “unsightly” but hardly an environmental disaster.
Loyal
edit:
BTW, if Rango had crawled into a PVC claim post on the ground, instead of a coke bottle, he would have had less trouble with the hawk!
In the past 25 years, I've seen about half a dozen birds, a couple of frogs and one snake (Gater) under PVC pipes. A Milan bird deaths a year sounds a bit high to me.
I assume someone "pulled" all (3,388,400 x 4) markers to calculate that million bird number.
Did they have to reset the markers?
Which one of you got that contract?
JA, PLS SoCal
Right on, let’s do our own scientific study on this board. We used 2" PVC pipe over a tee bar for witnesses to the corner. I never recall finding bird feathers or skeletons in side of them. Sounds like an exaggeration to me. My 2 cents, Jp
Must be an attempt to recruit newbies into action against the big bad mining companies and associated activities. Being a mineral surveyor and seeing thousands of mining claim corners, I have never seen a pvc mining claim corner. Also, wood has been the only allowed corner material for mining claims in Wyoming since statehood.
Pablo
Yeah Pablo, I'd have to call question the numbers on this story also. I know it can happen because I found a live owl in the bottom of an 8" steel pipe used for a fence corner once, but how big are the PVC pipes that were once used for mining claim markers anyway? We cut a branch and stuck it down the pipe and the owl crawled out later.
We came upon a new gate in the Forest; it had an 8" diameter steel post on the hinge side (heavy pipe gate). Those are usually filled with concrete. This one was open.
My subordinate employee does wild animal rescue as a volunteer. He grabbed the shovel out of the back and filled the post up with dirt so little animals wouldn't get trapped in there.
