Guys,
I agree that there is some language in that link that is a bit out in left field. However, I am willing to overlook that fact for two reasons:
First, the petition has been around since March and was started by Scott Howell and a few other guides. The flowery words were just added by this guy to help get people motivated, I think he meant well but perhaps overstepped his bounds. But if you read his letter to Mr. Muck his points ring true. The bottom line is I have been talking to Scott about this and writing letters to ODFW for a couple years. These guys have level heads and good, sound reasons for the petition. Not all are sceintific...some are philisophical, some emotional, but I think that's OK because these fish are really, really special and need protection.
Second, my gut feeling from the time I've spent on the Umpqua is that it is the sort of fishery that deserves the same kind of protection a national park does. You don't go shooting deer in a national park, nor do you log in it, or strip mine it. And in the more famous fisheries (yellowstone) you don't kill fish in them, easier. That's how I feel about the fishery. Leave the wild fish alone, as God intended them to be, and leave it at that. Plenty of other places to meat fish. Go fish the Cowlitz or the Nestucca if you want to fill the freezer but leave those Umpqua fish alone. Obviously I'm not alone in this opinion as a big section of the NU has been fly only for something like 70 years. How fired up would everybody be to start allowing selected harvest in old-growth redwoods or Sequoia National Park? Sure, the trees will grow back just fine, the forest can stand the harvest and one might even argue scientifically that cutting trees "is healthier for the environment". But on the other hand, why not give some things a bit of a break? Do we have to mess with everything, put our fingerprints on everywhere in the world? I say enough is enough, let's give this river the protection it deserves.
So anyway I'm willing to overlook some overzealous BS for the simple fact that the idea is a sound one...protect the Umpqua and its wild fishery. I'm not gonna let some flowery words get in the way of doing that.
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