They've banned felt soles here in New Zealand in response to Didymo. The arguement is that, although yes, things like the boots and reels, etc, also can transmit didymo (in this case) they are also relatively easy to treat. Dry them out for 48 hours, or wash them in warm soapy (dish detergent) water, and that does it. As long as you take care of things between water systems, you can greatly reduce the spread of didymo from one to the other this way, except for the didymo in the felt. When you walk along the river bottom, it gets pushed into the felt soles, which can stay wet enough to keep it alive well beyond 48 hours (apparently) but more importantly, keeps it safe from the washing routine when you go from one water system to another.

Ok, but there's no ban on hiker's wearing wool socks as they go through a moutain range. That would do the same thing. No ban on boats, who's engines transmit water, etc. Here, only the anglers were targeted. I think in part because anglers tend to be concerned about such things, so in order to make it look like something is being done, we had our felt boots banned. I wouldn't mind anglers having to do our part, if our part wasn't the only part being done.

- Jeff