Letter to the Editor from Trout Unlimited

[Joe Schwab]

As was stated at the Cannon Beach meeting earlier, much money is spent defending lawsuits brought about by the likes of Trout Unlimited against hatcheries so called "polluting". Unfortunately when DEQ was given authotity to regulate water quality they took it to the extreme. Causing turbidity in a stream by dumping hatchery ponds is not in the same category as someone getting their D16 Cat and rerouting the river bed. But to DEQ it is all the same and they respond to radical environmental groups who seem to enjoy pitting one state agency against the other and wasting all taxpayers money, just so they can further their disruptive agenda.
The only ones getting any benefit from these type tactics are the lawyers.
These people have their heads in a very uncomfortable position.

[PittsburghD]

As a TU member, I will be suspending my renewal at this point. This statement is assurance that my money is going to lobbyists and not fisherman. The jargon, politics and adverbs reek in this one. I know I am stepping on toes here, but saving fish habitat/programs is similar to saving other wildlife habitat/programs. Yes, that includes the logging, damming etc... arena. Somewhere we have to fight for change. It's sad that the representatives we have on the fish side, such as this woman, are writing such crap. I would have guessed total revolution boiling on the side of TU in this case.

:shocked:

[crabbait]

Dear Ms Lovell-

I am mailing you these sand shimp to let you know what I think of your opinion as stated in the Oregonian, April 12, 2002.

I think your opinion smells just like they do.

And yo momma, too!

crabbait [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img]

[CATCH AND EAT]

I flush trout unlimited first thing each and every morning. How can they even show themselves at the sportsman show?

[Wild Chrome]

As a TU member, I'm not going to defend their position on the hatchery closures because I think they're creating PR problems for themselves. That said, they do more to improve fish habitat and aid wild fish recovery in the U.S. and the N.W. than any other group I know of. TU promotes the health and diversity of wild trout and salmonids and their habitat. Hatchery fish are seen more and more by the scientific community as a threat to the success of wild fish. I personally would rather catch (and possibly someday eat) aggressive, hard-fighting wild fish that reproduce on their own for no cost to the fishing and nonfishing public than to catch and eat inferior hatchery fish that do cost the fishing and nonfishing public money for me to catch. Whether it's a realistic possibility that we can recover wild fish to that extent is where I'm not sure. I think it's worth attempting for the sake of future generations.

To you guys bashing TU, I ask what have you done to aid your local river recently? My local river is the Clackamas. In the last few years, my TU chapter has done tree plantings, cleared streamside blackberries, done spawning surveys, fish PIT tagging, fish radiotagging, salmon carcass distribution, trout population surveys, posting new fishing regulation signs, participating in reliscensing and other river basin planning meetings, hosted kids fishing events...etc, etc...all in the Clackamas basin and some in other river basins as well. Those are just the ones I remember as a semi-active member. All that work was done by TU volunteers working with ODFW, NFS, PGE, BLM, and other agencies. If you're bashing TU and you don't lift a finger to help your local river and its fish, then I say you don't deserve to catch them (esp. on the Clackamas). If you do volunteer work for fish/fish habitat and disagree with TU then fine. We can't all agree on how to spend money and manage our resources.

[Uncle Bob]

Not a bad idea, everyone send her a box of dead sand shrimp, as a little "thank you" for airing her stinky .02 worth. :grin:

UB

[blast and cast]

This is a letter to the editor in todays Oregonian.

Closing hatcheries beneficial
While we recognize that there are those who will inevitably face change with the recently announced closures of three Oregon hatcheries, we would like to point out that making such hard, short-term choices will have tangible, long-term benefits.
Without the well-documented negative impacts of hatchery fish and with continued habitat protection, wild fish will steadily make a comeback, ultimately reducing the need to fund recovery efforts for the wild salmon.
The coastal and fishing communities will eventually benefit from dependable and sustainably harvestable wild salmon and steelhead runs.
All taxpayers will benefit from saving money spent on operating the hatcheries and on litigation defending the water quality and Endangered Species Act violations associated with these hatcheries.

KAITLIN LOVELL
Salmon policy coordinator Trout Unlimited
Western Conservation Office
Southwest Portland

[ 04-12-2002, 12:52 PM: Message edited by: blast and cast ]

[Lured In]

Originally posted by blast and cast:

While we recognize that there are those who will inevitably face change with the recently announced closures of three Oregon hatcheries

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Inevitability is the same thing as saying "never and always". If you didn't know better you would think that the hatcheries are already closed.

"the fish will steadily come back..." Care to bet on that Lovell? Why not just say the coastal communities will steadily dry up and blow away while we wait for that "steady" yet undefined "come back"? :shocked:

"All taxpayers will save money..."? Last time I checked my taxes were based on my income not on how many hatcheries there are.

Now I am too mad to think!!!!!!!!!! Why do they print this CRAP!!!!!

[Trick]

For my reading enjoyment????? I found no enjoyment in what I just read.

I have a word to describe this person, but I can't say it here. I'll give you a hint. It starts with a "B".

"Water quality violations associated with hatcheries", I'm sure they are the reasons that we are so fortunate to have a federal Superfund site located in our state. Lets continue to jump over dollars to pick up pennies. Does anyone have a clue that they would be willing to sell to this lady?

[Pilar]

I refuse to indulge in wishful thinking. Also I invite this Kaitlin to get up off her behind in her SW portland office and go out to the coast and look at what she is talking about.

Streams and watersheds do not recover due to wishful thinking.