Felt banning

[Betty Hiner]

JC's piece was good and thought provoking today. However ...

Felt wouldn't need to be banned, or feared, if people would take responsibility for themselves, and disinfect their equipment; boots, lines, waders, boats, etc., each time they were used. People who are so VERY particular about the rods they use (read: brand name), and the waders they use (again read: brand name), and the boots they use (yep, got cha again!), are so totally lax in the prevention of the spread of insidious water-born infestations.

Don't go tromping through infected waters, and proceed directly to other waters. Don't drag your boat, or pontoon, or any other water craft, out of one area, and directly in to another. Clean everything as though the life of the river/stream/lake depended on it. Because, it does.

[Big Bad Wulff]

I guess we need to disinfect those great blue herons and ducks and geese and bears and deer and..............anything else that travels to and from different waters.

[Buddy Sanders]

I read someplace that 'life finds a way' (Michael Crighton in Jurrassic Park, I think?). It's pretty obvious to anyone that will take the time to look at the history of life that this is true.

We as a species have had zero success stopping the 'spread' of anything.

Primarily because it's beyond both our control and our abilities.

Even the things that directly affect our lives tend to have to be allowed to 'run their course'.

The nasty stuff WILL get to the places where it can thrive. It will kill some fish, change some things. But the environment will survive it. The fish that live will be stronger. We'll learn to deal with the changes.

We are quick to believe that we are 'responsible' for everything bad that happens, a form of our basic conceit. We are also conceited to the point of idiocy if we think that something as silly as a 'law' can stop the spread of a life form.

Pass the laws. Clean until you are wrinkled and everything shines like a new penny.

May slow things down. But the 'bad stuff' will come. Life finds a way.

Buddy

[jeffnles1]

The Camel's nose is now under the corner of the tent. The list of evils the enviro-whackos and animal rights whackos are going to find to ban and villify will be endless to the point we will be banned from using the waters alltogether.

Most every evil that has been perpetrated upon society has been "for our own good".

Jeff

[Betty Hiner]

Come on, you guys! Obviously we can't eliminate ALL the horrid things that befall us, but if one little umpff that we can do will slow it down, and maybe ONLY transmitted by the herons, moose, etc, than wouldn't that make it a BIT better? Maybe prolong the day, or make the infestation less, wouldn't it be worth TRYING?

Yes, we do have a personal responsibility.

<just cuz you know death is inevitable, doesn't mean you should aim your car at the pedestrian today!!>

[Buddy Sanders]

Betty,

There in lies the 'problem'.

Will everyone 'clean' as you suggest? No. It would be 'nice', but the facts are the facts. Responsible fishermen do. Not all of us are responsible. (I'm not saying we shouldn't clean our gear and just give up. I will, you will, but many just won't).

So, 'passing a law' is what comes next. 'If those darn folks won't even clean their gear, we'll have to punish them by making it illegal for them to use X'.

Then, when the infestation occurs, as it surely will, the blame comes back to us, because we had to have just 'ignored' the law (they never add money for enforcement of such things, so since they didn't check everyone's gear, the assumption is that lots of folks disobeyed the new 'law', thus 'causing' the problem).

So, we couldn't stop it. We are going to get blamed for it regardless. AND, we are losing some of our freedom to no good purpose.

THAT is the larger issue here. Freedom is what is important to me. Not the fish. Not the stream.

We have too many odd, useless, but well intentioned 'laws' out there. All of them infringe a bit on our most precious resource, freedom.

We all seem to want things to either remain as they are or go back to what they 'were' when it was 'better'. Change is a fact. We didn't cause it. We can't stop it. All we can do is deal with it as it comes.

Buddy

[Greg F]

Yes, we are responsible for spreading "nasty stuff". New Zealand mud snails did not get here by themselves. I keep an extra pair of boots for use only on infested streams in my area.

" It will kill some fish, change some things. But the environment will survive it. The fish that live will be stronger."

That might only take a few hundred years. And the fish that survive might all be catfish and suckers.

[t_loop]

I'm not sure government regulation will do anything to stop or even slow down the didymo algae. Undoubtly nature will find a way to adapt. But we as
sportsmen/sportswomen still have to at least try to do our part to protect a dwindling resorce

[t_loop]

In the readers cast section of this weeks FAOL i wrote on this subject . I contacted local ,state and federal agencies ,to date there is no bans proposed, because like us they are dealing with to many unknowns. TU has asked wader manufactures to volentarly stop making felt soled waders by 2012

[jeffnles1]

Is there any proof that didymo alge or mud snails, or any other nasties have been spread by felt soled boots or have been introduced to new waters by felt soled boots?

Now, when I go tracking sand across my wife's clean kitchen floor, there are nasty things said, but has there really been evidence that these things are being introduced by the use of felt soles?'

I'm asking seriously. I do not know the answer and reckon I could go google it and read up on it, but I am assuming some of the folks here have already done the research.

thanks,


Jeff