|
Steelhead
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Washington
Posts: 380
|
Please read this post. We need a specific group.
I have been reading all of these post about gill netting for quite a while now. I was fishing the other day, and ran in to a guy named “John”, who for many years worked against destroying the Sandy River Dam. Now I know everybody has ran into that guy who has a plan for saving every dam, hatchery, and fishery that there is. This man was very well educated, hard working, and a fisherman who grew up on the river. He really had his head on straight, and took his time explaining things to me. He was a very smart man, who also had a biology degree, and was an avid fisherman. I talked to him for quite a while, and he gave me great advice on how to fight for fishing rights.
We must start a group of hard working educated people, who can sacrifice the time to show up at these meetings, gather information, and discuss it.
He would attend all meetings discussing the Sandy River, he was very polite, and had a very good understanding of what these fish & game, and government officials had to say. The fish & game and government could not believe how he could show up to all of these meetings, and know the information that he did. It was because he was like a lawyer, attending court, he knew what was B.S., and what was not, and he called it on them when it was B.S.
He said the problem with these people attending these meetings is that they want to help, but they don’t know how to. They know what is right, but they don’t know how to state what is right.
Things that they don’t want to hear, and don’t care about are:
I have been fishing here since I was 10 years old and have the best memories with my father on this river.
The river is beautiful, and I catch my salmon out of it.
The river provides my family with fun on the weekends.
What you are doing is wrong, and illegal.
His plan for stopping the Sandy River Dam (Marmot Dam) from being destroyed was to explain how important the Dam is to the town of Sandy.
There is a wide array of business that depends on fisherman for a good part of their revenue.
McDonalds
Gas Stations
Restaurants
Bait Shops
Local Grocery Stores
The business would suffer, along with the rest of the community of Sandy if the fisherman did not come to fish. Think about the amount of money that is spent during the different seasons of fisheries. Sandy River is one of the closest rivers to Portland, a big city, and lots of fisherman.
The point is that this is the kind of explanations that the board of government or fish and game officials will have to listen too. This is something that will actually stand up against their plans. “John” also suggested being nice to them, he said there is always some guy named bubba at the meetings yelling and go on and on about the old days. They do not want some ignorant guy yelling at them who looks like he just got off of his garbage route.
Dress well, do your homework, be ready, listen to what they have to say, make your point, without yelling, and you will go a long way.
A suggestion might be to start a separate “Thread Board”, that talks, and discuss plans for up coming meetings. The individual threads may be about meeting dates, and suggestion of what points to bring up in the meetings.
He said that if there were a group of 8 people, who were really dedicated in changing policies with gill netting, hatcheries, and so on. We would really have a chance.
We have some great people on this board, who always bring up the gill netting meetings, and show up, and then post the information that they heard.
We also need to work with the fish and game. All of these guys who work for these hatcheries are not the ones causing problems. They just get paid to do their job, I know 3 of them, and they love fishing to death. They hate the policies as much as we do. We need to question and use them for information to help us. They will help, and have more insight and information then we could imagine. They hear the inside scoop, and know where it comes from.
We must understand the reason behind these decisions that are being made today, and know who is making them, before we can come up with a case against them.
I am only 22 years old, but love to fish more then anything in this world. I am sick and tired of hearing about gill netting, hatcheries closing, fisheries going to garbage.
I will be willing to take time out of my schedule to help a group of people who are 100% dedicated to putting a stop to some of this stuff that is going on.
I hope that you guys read this, because this is how we can truly put our word out about how we feel. We would be an educated group, who was respectful, and truly cared for about what was going on. At the meetings, the officials would dread having this group of guys show up every time, who had so much against them.
Maybe the group could include someone with a biology degree, a retired fish and game guy, some retired guys who have time to research and talk to people who can make a difference. Some avid fisherman who really want to improve the fisheries. Maybe some of the guides on the board could provide us with fishing changes, or things that they hear. There are some great guys, Scott Amerman, Kevin Lund, David Johnson, John Barth, Chris Vertopoulos, Scott (Get Bent) and Grant, etc.
Kinebra offered a $5,000.00 donation towards green peace. Maybe it would be better spent toward a group of guys who are dedicated to improving things, I don’t know but it is my suggestion.
I hope this information is useful, and look forward to working with many of you guys to improve our fishery. Thank you for reading. Jeff.
__________________
Just one more cast.
|
Navigator
Linear Mode
