The Middle River Group, LLC

fly fishing, conservation and politics.

Conservation

What’s Wrong with Outdoor Recreation Jobs?

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Tom Wharton of the The Salt Lake Tribune recently asked, “When was the last time a Utah politician has done anything to help the state’s tourism and outdoor recreation industry?”

Fishing on the Green River

Readers know that I am a strong subscriber to the habitat = opportunity = economic activity equation (didn’t know that? click here).  The outdoor recreation economy is a bright light in these troubled economic times not just in Utah but across the country, yet as Wharton aptly notes:

“It almost seems as though the money generated by tourism and outdoor recreation doesn’t matter or that our politicians view the jobs these industries create as not worthy of support. This attitude could have a negative impact on our state economy.”

Wharton points to figures from the Utah Tourism Industry Coalition that show tourism is a $6.23 billion industry in Utah which created 110,000 jobs and reduced, yup you read that correctly, reduced taxes for Utah household by $703.

According to the Outdoor Industry Foundation, outdoor activities like fishing, paddling, camping, hunting, climbing, hiking, backcountry skiing, mountain biking, and wildlife viewing contribute a total of $730 billion annually to the economy, supporting 6.5 million jobs (1 of every 20 jobs in the U.S.) and stimulating 8% of all consumer spending.

Outdoor recreation creates sustainable jobs and long term societal benefits for our nation, yet our elected officials seem tone deaf to this economic reality.

Check out Wharton’s column (click here).

 

Hold Them Accountable

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Montanan Tony Bynum see danger in Congress and their attack on our public lands. Bynum expresses his concern about the Wilderness and Roadless Release Act and the points out how the recent demonizing of the Antiquities Act is so much pandering to right wing nit wits and really a diservice to hunters and anglers.

He talks about how the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument is a prime hunting destination this time of year and because of the Antiquities Act it will still be that way 100 years from now.

Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument (courtesy BLM)

Pretty hard to recruit and retain hunters and anglers when we lose venues to irrational demonization of laws that create and protect these prime hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation places. As Bynum puts it,

“Let’s remember what matters most. What legacy shall we leave our children and theirs? Public land, open hunting for the common man is a tradition out west. I wish to leave that legacy to my children and, when this heritage is threatened by bad leadership decisions, we need to hold our leaders’ feet to the fire. It is far better to manage wisely and preserve our intact systems than it is to dismantle and try to rebuild them later.”

When the political carnival barkers start braying about access it is time to ask them if creating more venues might not be a pretty good way to create more access?

Read Bynum’s opinion piece in the Missoulian (click here).

Roadless wolves invoke “access” shibboleth

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I don’t know Ben Long but I like the way he thinks. Over the years I have heard the “access” dodge employed by politicians to justify tearing hell out of the public lands. They like to don the camo cloak and rant and foam about the lack of access. Long writes:

“America’s national forests belong to everyone, and all Americans deserve and rightfully demand access to this national birthright. Such access is like oxygen for hunters and anglers, but beware: Industry barracudas and their pals in Congress are trying to hoodwink sportsmen into supporting bad legislation by promising more lenient access.”

Dig a little deeper and you find the access issue is a little more complicated then the politicians would have you believe. Especially with legislation like the Wilderness and Roadless Release Act. Legislation that is opposed by TRCP, TU, AFFTA, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and RMEF (they originally supported it, but to their credit changed their stance when their members raised hell).

 

Read Long’s piece (click here) on why this legislation is not the “access” panacea the proponents claim.

Conservation Funding and “It’s All About the Water, Stupid…”

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Since striking up an on-line friendship that lead to a two part interview on their blog (click here and here to read them) Chi Wulff has become one of my daily must reads.

Mark has a excelllent post about a a recent conversation (or conservation as it is written in the post, in this case pretty much the same thing) with his mentor Ed.

Ed makes three important points about the state of economic affairs and ends with this:

“Both parties have shit on their hands when it comes to sins agains the environment and sheer economic stupidity. Folks bitching about how evil one party is over the other are falling prey to the useful idiot trap and miss the point entirely. We need to figure out how to do the right thing to protect key environmental treasures regardless of what party happens to be in power.”

Headwaters of Flat Creek

Click here and read Chi Wulff’s Three Things From Ed: It’s All About the Water, Stupid……

The entire post is worth the read. Ed has both common sense and economic standing on his side. Ed makes a very compelling case for the habitat equals opportunity equals economic activity equation and joins the growing chorus of voices saying those in outdoor recreation better pay more attention to what is going on.

Unfortunately our elected officials in the U.S. Senate don’t read Chi Wulff or know Ed. They decided to follow the lead of the U.S. House of Representative and take the budget axe to conservation funding in the Agricultural Appropriations bill last week.

Click here and read the details from Ducks Unlimited’s “Senate committee votes to cut funding for farm conservation programs”.

Worth the Read: 20 ?’s with Craig Mathews on Eat More Brook Trout blog

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My good friend Chris Hunt who blogs at Eat More Brook Trout has started interviewing some fly fishing notables. Last week he interviewed another good friend, Craig Mathews.

Chris writes:

“In addition to being one of the country’s fly fishing elite, Craig is a staunch conservationist who, over the years, has been able to speak truth to power in a way that is constructive and helpful. And he puts his money where his mouth is–in partnership with Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, Craig helped start the “1% for the Planet” program, where businesses and industry could earmark 1 percent of their profits to conservation-centric the non-profits of their choice.”

Click here to read the entire interview: Eat More Brook Trout: 20 Questions: Craig Mathews.

Craig is responsible for my getting me started on tenkara and it was a treat to spend some time with him at the tenkara summit last month.

He also shares a very special place in the Sadler household having officiated at our wedding 5 years ago.

Craig, Beth and Tom at $3 Bridge 08/09/06

 

Why we fish: Tom McGuane

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“We have reached the time in the life of the planet and humanities demands upon it when every fisherman will have to be a river keeper, a steward of marine shallows and a watchman on the high seas. We are beyond having to put back what we have taken out. We must put back more than we take out. We must make holy war on the enemies of aquatic life as we have gillnetters, polluters and drainers of wetlands. Otherwise, as you have already learned, these creatures will continue to disappear at an alarming rate. We will lose as much as we have already lost already and there will be next to nothing, remnant populations, put-and-take, dim bulbs following the tank truck.”  –Tom McGuane writing in the Some Remarks section of his outstanding book The Longest Silence.