Trout Wars in California

I'll get plenty of crap for admitting this, but I am a transplant from the bay area who just completed his 8th year here. I tend to go back to trusty, reliable sources from the BA on occasion to read about the old haunt and what is going on. The following link is to an article in the SF Chronicle by Tom Stienstra, a well-respected journalist and naturalist from the BA. While I might not agree with everything this man says, he is a wise person and of sound intellect, and most interstingly, he is a practicing sportsman. Read the following article and decide for yourself if something seems wrong in this decision. Most of the lakes in question are man made and a host of far more aggressive introduced species (bass, bluegill, etc.) are resident there as well. The unfortunate play here is that DFG in CA cannot afford to litigate this battle. Pretty soon they'll be penniless and completely ineffective at managing special interests like this from running the 'outdoors' according to their plan and theirs alone. What is startling here (or not) is that the directive from this organization is keenly aware of the DFG financial position.

Groups like this do plenty of good work. Groups like this also tend to take your taxpayer money to court rather than allowing it to work within itself and find reasonable, accountable initiatives. If DFG could use this money on actually improving and restoring habitat, rather than paying for a legal mouthpiece, we all might come to a compromise and be better off. I am rarely against an organization for attempting to better a situation, however, a targeted campaign in this manner does less for their credibility than it does for their integrity.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/11/SPUJ14K8B0.DTL

Contact Noah Greenwald at:

503.484.7495, ngreenwald@biologicaldiversity.org