Had an old pair of 'felt' wading boots...

Worked okay just about everywhere....Then a few years back I got invited to the San Juan in N/W New Mexico...I'd been there before..never had a problem.

Water was high...slippery snot like coating on the cap rock that the river flows over...could hardly stand up. Scary..could barely move without slipping...fell a couple of times... wasn't fun. My friend, who was guide there at the time, had a pair of studded felt soles on his boots..he could move around just fine.

Decided that , if I was going to continue to fish there, I'd need better boots....went to the fly shop...got the spiel about the 'new' rubber soles...guy was pretty confident...said if they didn't hold on the San Juan rock, I could bring them back.

Tried them..way worse than the simple felt..couldn't even fish...took the boots back and bought a pair of studded felt sole boots.

Those worked and I could fish without being in danger of injury.

They tell me that it's difficult to 'clean' felt soles, and thus hard to prevent transfering unwanted organisms from one place to the other. For that reason, they want me and other anglers to use different boots.

I tell them that the risk of injuring myself is unaceptable. If they don't want the stuff moved from one watershed to another, CLOSE the infected area to all use until they figure out a solution that doesn't put PEOPLE At risk.

They can 'ban' felt in those areas if they think it's the issue (I doubt that it's just felt, though). I just won't fish there.

If they really believe that it's just anglers and their boots causing the spread of whatever they are trying to limit, they are deluded anyway. Most of these banns and media pushes are just typical 'knee jerk' reactions to a problem way beyond the control of simple legislation.

Regardless of what we as anglers may do, the stuff will spread to every place it can survive. It won't spread to areas where conditions don't allow it to live. Humans are the only species that can do that.

Life finds a way. Regardless of our incredible hubris, this isn't a human 'problem'. It's the way ALL life works on this planet...we may be part of the medium used to 'spread' something, and thus may effect the timetable involved, but all life will keep expanding until something larger and more significant than us causes it to stop. Whatever it is, it will spread whether or not we are there, whether or not we 'want' it to, and regardless of any of our attempts to stop it.

In the meantime, I'll keep my felt boots, so that I can stay uninjured. THAT is more immediately important to 'me and mine' than whatever 'big bad thing' they are pratting about today.

Buddy