His name is Ralph Heinert and is a Republican legislator from Libby. He is also the ass-face that is proposing/sponsoring legislation to implement a permit system for floating Rock Creek in Granite Co. As you all know, when there is a permit system, there are implementation and administrative costs, so there will need to be fees. Here is the link to the bill:
http://laws.leg.mt.gov/pls/laws07/LAW0210w$BSIV.ActionQuery?P_BILL_DFT_NO5=LC0972&Z_ACTION=Find
As proven above, the Groove is not lying to you. Potentially next spring you will have to be rewarded a permit and then pay fees to float Rock Creek. Float fishing the salmon fly hatch could be a thing of the past, or similar to getting a July Middle Fork Salmon Permit. So you ask what you can do about this...write/talk to your legislators and get this bill stopped! Maybe Jester can get something published and even interview this pole-smoker.
Remember, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem!
12 comments:
Haven't been there during the salmon fly hatch in a couple years. If it is the non-residents and outfitters that are causing the problems, then maybe the legislation should be about banning nonresidents and outfitters from certain stretches on certain days of the week, similar to the Big Hole.
The downside of a permit system is that you may not be given your one day, and I can gurantee that outfitters will be guranteed a certain number of days.
What if Idaho bans out-of-staters from floating their rivers?
How about Missoula County folks only...or we dam the bottom, flood the valley, produce power, and create room for all fishing folks.
Let’s expand a little on this “non-resident” issue. Ed are you saying since Hefe, Doc (I could keep going)…don’t pay income tax that they are considered “non-residents” and should be banned from floating the Creek? If that’s the case, you’re talking about half of Missoula. I might vote for that one!
Solutions? Let’s let the outfitters foot the bill for management of the resource. Let them be the first ones to lose some of the privileges.
You know what? Fuck it! I say let’s get rid of all the white folks and give the land back to the Natives.
Sounds like it was a bad day at the office Walt. This is the kind of good verbal abuse I expect to hear around the fire after some whiskey. Yep, I miss boating season.
If we give the land back to the natives, then how is the Bison range going to be managed to the the federal Fish and Wildlife Service standards?
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006/12/13/news/top/news01.txt
You can't pass laws that would saddle fees on outfitters, their lobby group is a well funded well oiled machine. If only us non money making fisherpeople could organize. . .
Besides if George Bush has taught us one thing, the way to solve these problems is not through passing laws in the dark of night, but building some sort of consesus on solutions to the problems. In the Rock Creek example, polling both groups of users, those who cash in and those who don't. Then propose laws or rules based on some sort of consesus.
P.S. people from Libby are EVIL. Not to be trusted.
Maybe if you guys ate the shit you caught you would be more "well oiled", I hear fish oil is good for you. Maybe they should loosen the fishing regulations allowing people to keep more fish out of the river. Then when the fishery is depleted, all you wanna-be "river runs thru it" types will have to search elsewhere for kicks, i'm sure there is another groovy "montana" type activity that you could do. Cause a new movement, create a bumper sticker and entice all the stupid college kids to go ruin another resource. I would venture that the U of M causes more resource damage and contributes less per capita than the "well oiled" outfitter community. Enough of this shit, you're really pissing me off and we've been thru it all before. I wholly support regulated, permitted, paid for use by locals, outfitters and any other responsible party. Wanna be part of solution than fucking recycle your god damned cans when your on the Lochsa. You are the problem, Ed. You and me and every other goon (gee that's pretty much EVERYONE we know, connie is exempt) who moved to Montana because we thought it would be cool. We've all caused our share of resource damage, pissed off locals, neighboring campers (gunfire in the middle of the night) and other sportsmen. Get off your self righteous high horses and pull your head out of your ass. the days of unrestricted use and share and share alike are over...ever hear of the TRADGEDY OF THE COMMONS????
Just cause you don't get "your day" Ed, that doesn't mean the system is flawed. There is still the intrinsic value of knowing that the resource is there, protected from overuse, keeping you applying for a permit and keeping us entertained with your blogging about it.
Karen and Angela also did not move to Montana because they thought it would be cool.
I moved to Montana because I like outdoor recreation. I post these blogs because I try to raise the awareness of people with similar interests.
I am not anti-outfitter; however, I believe that since they are the ones that are making money off of natural public resources, they should be the ones that incur any additional costs. If someone is going to pay $500 for a day of fishing, an extra $20 in use fees is not going to break the deal, where an extra $20 may make the difference as to whether a poor family can go tubing or canoeing on a sunny weekend day. I believe they call the decision between feeding your family or paying a recreactional use fee "Opportunity Cost."
Philly, I haven't read all of your ramblings on the Poker Joe Blog, so I should do that before I use up my good material.
what would a poor family be doing driving all the way up to rock creek to float during the salmonfly hatch??? isn't it pretty cold then???
glad to see you sticking up for the little guy.
Again, I'm late on the uptake but I think you might want to know - Madison River is next on the permit system line. I wouldn't be surprised if Rock Creek was already in line there as well given what Walt mentioned (long ago) in his first comment.
Also, outfitters will soon pay a fee to float any river - commercial use fees. It passed last week at the last Commission meeting. Outfitters actually supported the rule. They pay for every river they outfit upon. Finally, if you want solutions, you should probably be involved in the process to implement the permit systems on the rivers you float. I know I sound like a beauraucrat (though I can't spell it), but having just come from the process involved in adopting the Commercial Use Rules, it really does make a difference to have people that know what they're talking about be involved in the process. The dude in charge of river rec management is a goog guy that, to my chagrin sometimes, will listen to EVERYONE and take it all in... It's time-consuming though ... I'll let you all know when the process begins.
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