MARCH 2002 TROUT UNLIMITED CALENDAR

March 13th Meeting Program -- An Alaska fly fishing venue will be shown in a slide presentation given by Pat Robbins at the March 13 joint BVFF/TU meeting. Pat is co-owner of the Italio River Adventures which guides clients on a system of small coastal rivers in Alaska about 25 miles southeast of Yakatat. The setting here is in the Tongass National Forest, on a narrow coastal plain between the St. Elias Mountain Range and the ocean. After flying into Pat's camp from Yakatat, several close by streams of the Italio River drainage can be accessed. Fish species featured here are cutthroat trout, all five salmon stocks, plus steelhead. The rivers are small, easily waded and clear, perfect for fly fishing. The September and October silver salmon fishing is particularly notable and will be covered in Pat's presentation. These two programs won't help us get over our wintertime cabin fever, that's for sure!

April 10th Meeting Program -- TU member Keith Kiler will present a show about fly fishing the Florida Everglades. Keith is retired from Idaho Department of Fish and Game. He is a professional guide in the Florida everglades part of the year.

Meeting Location -- The meeting is at the Idaho Department of Transportation building located at 3311 W. State Street. Parking is limited in front of the building so park on the right side of the building. You must enter through the front door, and the auditorium is immediately to the right of the front door.

Thanks to all for a successful TROUT ON TUESDAY event at the Big Easy Concert Hall February 26. The more than 200 who made it had a great time and we raised some funds to carry forward the cause of native trout in Idaho!

Idaho Trout Unlimited
2002 Spring Meeting

March 16, 2002
Salmon River Lodge, Riggins

Call Ken Retallic for more information eken2@aol.com

FISH AND GAME INITIATIVE
By Don Clower

In 1938 Idaho citizens passed an initiative that created a F&G Commission that was to be free of partisan politics. It also required that all Commissioners have certain qualifications to be commissioners.

In the last 30 years or so the intent of that law has slowly been eroded. Term lengths for commissioners have been changed, the number of commissioners have been changed, commissioner dismissal procedures are changed and the qualifications for being a commissioner are being ignored.

The forced resignation of Director Sando should be a wake up call for all of us. When the politicians decide the fate of a F&G Director then we are in trouble. The reason for the 1938 law was to establish continuity of the Department to insure that our wildlife was being managed with long term goals. Before 1938 every new Governor replaced the Director and the management of the resource suffered. If you look at what has happened in the last 6 years we have had 3 Directors forced to leave. There can be no long term planning when there is constant turmoil at the Department.

This proposed initiative will better insulate the Commission from the politics and the politicians. With stronger Commissioners there will not be this revolving door policy for Directors. Reducing Commissioner back to 5 will require Commissioners to look beyond the borders of their own regions and make decisions that are in the best interest of the whole state. Regional rules like the Clearwater Deer tag and the S E Idaho deer tag would have never happened if Commissioners were thinking about all of Idaho's sportsmen.

Changing the term lengths will not allow every new Governor to replace commissioners and gain "control" of the commission in his first year. The last two Governors have done that. You may like our present Governor but at some point and time we will have a Governor who opposes hunting and you had better have a system in place that that offers some protection for the Department.

I would ask you to help with this process. We have about 50 days to get 43,000 signatures. That may sound tough but if you look at it this way it isn't that big a deal. If 50 people across the state get 20 signatures for 50 days that is 50x20=1,000x50=50,000. If we all get behind this we can make a difference and show the politicians that sportsmen are not going to sit around and let them destroy our wildlife and our hunting and fishing heritage in Idaho. If you want to help call me and I will help get you started with petitions and instructions on how to gather signatures. Everyone of you should be able to get your 20 signatures and somewhere along the line get one of your friends to help by getting involved and gathering signatures.

Don Clower 888-7020 or cwdxer@aol.com

Ted Trueblood Chapter website
Trout Unlimited National website

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