From The Comments: March 2022 -Episode 2, Volume I
It won’t be news to anyone when we say the modern digital world - especially social media - can be a double-edge sword.
The way we see it, enhancing hunting and angling opportunities, influencing public land management, strengthening fish and wildlife populations, expanding public access and conserving habitat isn’t enough.
We’re committed to supporting, enabling, educating, engaging and often inspiring our supporters with timely, informative and often fun content for our supporters.
Nine times out of ten a hot cup of coffee or a cold beer is a superior way to sort through respectful disagreements or brainstorm potential solutions than across the world wide web.
But, Idaho’s a big, wild place and face-to-face interactions can be tough sometimes.
Great conversations, connections and educational moments can and do occur in that deep, dark hole otherwise known as the comments section.
That’s why in our new series, ‘From The Comments’ we’re cherry picking the most valuable questions, and IWF’s candid responses from the last month.
You know, just in case you missed it the first time. “One more time, for anyone in the back,” as the kids say.
Here’s March, 2022, ‘From The Comments.”
“Huge Runs”
We’ve had huge runs on the Clearwater and the salmon with those dams in.
IWF’s Response:
We hear a lot about those "huge" runs and they have very important context to consider:
1) The two highest return years, 2001 and 2009, we did not get 2/3rds of our minimum recovery goal. They were "huge" in the context of being the largest since the dams were built, but nowhere near our goals or pre-dam numbers.
2) Those were two years out of 35+ years. A roll of the dice produced excellent conditions and did not sustain, unfortunately not resulting in a recovery trend. Luck will not keep our fish from going extinct.
3) Those runs were primarily good because of ocean conditions and snowpack. While those two issues grow far less predictable, we need to focus on making the river corridor conditions as predictable as possible, by removing the LSRDs.
4) Lastly, the dams cost an enormous amount of rate and taxpayer dollars to maintain. Let's replace their services now, with modern and cost-effective infrastructure, while it still benefits our fish, not after they are gone.
Whodunnit!?
(Asking about HB643 and HB587) Who sponsored these bills? We as sportsmen and women need names. They need to be brought into the spotlight.
IWF’s Response:
Rep. Terry Gestrin (R- Donnelly) sponsored both of the bills. To be clear, he also pulled both of them back after
almost instant local public outcry from various stakeholder groups, which we did and do appreciate.