Slobs Return to Trash Lakes

They were a little late this year, because of a cool spring. But the pigs finally have arrived.  This morning, I picked up this wad of monofilament line (above) left by one of them at a lake near my house. A litter barrel was less than 10 feet away.

Am I upset? Yes, I am. Jerks who do these types of things give anglers a bad name --- and they kill.

Think I’m exaggerating?

Awhile back, I took this photo (below) of a great blue heron that died because of entanglement in discarded fishing line.

If you haven’t already, please take Recycled Fish’s Stewardship Pledge. Following it will be good for you, anglers in general, our waters, and our wildlife.

Photo by Robert Montgomery Okay, now that I have that out of my system.

For the past couple of years, I’ve picked up trash at the access areas at a couple of lakes near my home, once the summer season starts. Mostly I pick up discarded drink containers, fast-food wrappers, and fishing line.

Now that I have Pippa, my new canine companion, she will accompany me on these cleanups. And she seems eager to help.

This morning, she picked up a used feminine hygiene product. Fortunately, I was able to grab the dangling string and pull it out of her mouth.

Ah, yes, I love the pigs.

RF's Stouffer Honored as Hero of Conservation by Field & Stream

One of the best guys in the business is being honored by Field & Stream. In its June issue, the magazine profiles Teeg Stouffer as one of its Heroes of Conservation.

Stouffer is founder and CEO of Recycled Fish, and, I’m proud to say, a good friend of mine. As the latter, I can tell you that no one cares more about stewardship of our fisheries than Teeg, and that is reflected in the prime message of Recycled Fish: “Our lifestyle runs downstream.”

Here’s more from Field & Stream:

 “Hunters and fishermen have never been afraid to roll up their sleeves and get to work in the name of protecting America’s wildlife and wild places, and Teeg is a great example of that ethos hard at work," says Anthony Licata, Editorial Director of Field & Stream. "Conservation is and will always be an integral part of hunting and fishing, and men and women like Teeg are crucial to keeping our traditions alive for generations to come.”

Now in its eighth year, Field & Stream's Heroes of Conservation program is dedicated to honoring individuals involved in grassroots projects to preserve the land, water and wildlife vital to sportsman’s pursuits. Every month the magazine highlights three “Heroes of Conservation,” who each receive a $500 grant from program partner Toyota.  To be considered for the program, individuals must be involved in a hunting- and/or fishing-related conservation project that is well under way with outstanding results. Selections are based on a number of factors, including leadership, commitment and project growth.

  Field & Stream’s Heroes of Conservation program culminates each fall when the magazine names the “Conservation Hero of the Year” and awards him or her a new Toyota Tundra. Six finalists, selected from the Heroes profiled in the monthly editions of the magazine, are selected and flown to Washington D.C. for an awards gala where the Hero of the Year is named and each finalist receives a $5,000 conservation grant from Toyota.

FIELD & STREAM’S June HEROES OF CONSERVATION:

Teeg Stouffer, Bellevue, Neb.

Ten years ago, Stouffer created the nonprofit Recycled Fish, which is devoted to the stewardship of all fish species and fishing waters nationwide. With the help of 120 volunteers around the country, the organization’s educational outreach has influenced 15,000-plus people to take its Sportsman’s Stewardship Pledge. The group’s Recycled Fish on Ice Tour has distributed 10,000 heavy-duty cleanup bags at ice fishing tournaments over the past six years.

David McNeal, St. George, Kan.

For the past six years, McNeal has guided hunters, free of charge, on Kansas’s Fort Riley, where he served as a first sergeant in the U.S. Army. Through his role on the board of the Fort Riley Outdoorsmen Group (FROG), he recently ran an annual turkey hunt for 17 children of soldiers deployed overseas. “I know every inch of this post,” he says, “and I apply that knowledge to getting young people involved.”

Jeff Turner, Sedley, Va.

A largemouth bass fisherman, Turner created the first Waterkeeper Alliance chapter in Virginia 12 years ago to protect the Blackwater and Nottoway Rivers. Turner gives presentations about the rivers’ key species, organizes an annual trash cleanup, guides researchers surveying mussels and striped bass, and reports on his regular patrols of the waterways and their resources. “It’s like preventative medicine,” says Turner. Through his presentations, he was recently instrumental in helping the Nature Conservancy acquire 250 acres at Byrd Point for permanent protection.

CALL FOR ENTRIES:

“This is a great opportunity to recognize conservationists in your area,” says Licata. “From the guy down the street who has been quietly removing trash from a trout stream for 20 years to someone building duck habitat, we know there are countless people who are working to make our country’s wildlife and wild places better.  We’re honoring these outdoorsmen and -women for actively preserving our heritage and letting them know their efforts have not gone unnoticed.”

Activist Anglers Needed to Help Combat 'Sinking Your Empties'

Photos of Clackamas cleanup by Dave Eng.

As you fish our rivers, lakes and coastal waters, this season, please also help care for them. And I’m not talking about just properly disposing of your own trash; I’m talking about helping counter a nationwide epidemic of shameful behavior.

As the photo above reveals, our fisheries are being buried in empty cans and bottles by slob recreationists. When they take to the water, their main concerns are drinking to excess and then discarding the evidence so that they won’t be ticketed and/or arrested for driving a boat while under the influence or some other charge related to possession of alcohol.

Rudy Socha at Wounded Nature --- Working Veterans recently alerted me to this problem. On many waters, he says, the perpetrators even have a term for this strategy: “Sinking your empties.”

He also told me, “It seems to be the skeleton in the closet that everyone knows is there and yet no one has wanted to discuss it.”

It’s going to be discussed at Activist Angler. And one of the first things I want to emphasize is that I do not believe that fishermen are a major contributor to this problem, especially those who belong to such conservation organizations as B.A.S.S., Trout Unlimited, Recycled Fish, Coastal Conservation Association, and National Wildlife Federation.

I won’t point fingers at those whom I suspect. I’ll leave that to anglers and their specific waters. They know them better than I.

Dave Eng knows the Clackamas River in Oregon, and here is what he says:

“The Clackamas is widely used in summer, as it is near Portland and allows people to float on anything from tubes to pool toys. We will have several thousand users on a hot day.”

They leave behind their cans and bottles, he adds, “as it is against the law to have alcohol in the county parks and a large bunch of users are under-age as well.”

 And the second thing that I want to emphasize is that we, as anglers, are stewards for these waters. We were the first conservationists and we remain the most important.

What can you do about this problem? Well, plenty of anglers, through various clubs and chapters, already are picking up trash along shorelines and around launch ramps. Extend that cleanup into the water, as Eng and his friend Joe do on the Clackamas. Depending on the water, you might want to coordinate the effort with your state wildlife agency or local government.

Also, if you see people trashing our fisheries with cans and bottles, report them. Thanks to cell phones, you can immediately contact authorities.

Finally, talk about the problem. Shameful behavior can be difficult to continue when exposed to public scrutiny and criticism.

Let’s not keep this skeleton in the closer any longer. 

State Funds Needed in Nebraska to Fight Invasive Species

Editor's Note: This is a speech that Teeg Stouffer of Recycled Fish prepared in support for state funding to fight invasive species in Nebraska. His actual presentation differed a bit, but not the message: State money is needed to combat mussels, carp, and other invasive threats to Nebraska waters.

My name is Teeg Stouffer, I’m the Executive Director of a non-profit fisheries conservation organization called Recycled Fish. Although our work is national in scope, we’re proudly centered right here in Nebraska. I appreciate the opportunity to testify in support of LB 63.

Since our organization is national in scope, I see the threat of invasive species all over the country firsthand.  It’s to our shame as Nebraskans that it’s a problem that’s being better addressed elsewhere than it is here, and we need more comprehensive support in our state.

LB63 is an important step in that direction. When federal funding runs out, we will be left defenseless against threats like zebra mussels and quagga mussels, which we’ve been able to keep out of our waters for now.

The thing with these invasive species is that once they’re established, there’s virtually no getting rid of them. Smart money chooses low costs today to prevent a problem rather than high costs tomorrow to solve a problem. LB63 is smart money, and that’s why we support it, and we hope you will, too.

Let me paint a quick picture – some of you have seen it. Imagine a lake floor that spans for hundreds of acres. Every rock, every log, every wrecked boat on the bottom is coated, blanketed, with dime-sized mussels – like little clams. They breed by releasing veligers --- little larvae that float in the water. A current pulls them into a pipe --- like the outlet at Lake McConaughy.  And all of a sudden, they’re headed downstream, to cling to a rock, or an irrigation intake, to start a new colony. That’s how it happens. Or it could start with one uninspected boat. The solution is simple. But it’s not free. LB 63 provides the funds.

Colorado invests millions in the prevention of these invaders because of how that state moves water in big concrete tubes between its reservoirs to provide a water supply for their cities. If they get an infestation, the removal costs could 10-times everybody’s water bills.

Imagine what an infestation in the Tri-County Canal systems might look like, and how that would impact farmers. In the span of a couple of years you can have mussels clinging to mussels --- choking out a three-foot diameter tube, so water can’t flow. Sounds like a horrible impact for Nebraska’s farmers, who are reliant on irrigation, doesn’t it?   

Now, I don’t speak for the Nebraska Fish & Game Association, but I’m a member, and I do know that in a poll of its members, anglers in this state supported LB 63 with about a 2/3 majority. That’s a strong show of support from the state’s sportsmen, and it speaks to the fact that sportsmen want to see our natural and wild places protected. They’re counting on you.

I speak for Recycled Fish and our 15,000 stewards across America --- perhaps 500 of which are in Nebraska --- when I ask you to support the bill on behalf of anglers.

But in closing, I speak for myself --- not for my organization --- but for myself, when I say that I’m a person of faith, and I bet some of you are, too. Way back there in Genesis God said to us, “Hey, take care of this place that I made,” and in the time since, we’ve done a pretty terrible job caring for His Creation. This is a chance we’ve all got to do one thing right, so let’s do it. The generations to come are counting on us. 

Funds Needed to Combat Invasive Species in Nebraska, but 'Nobody Cares'

In Nebraska, those who care about protecting the state’s waters from invasive species are trying to raise awareness and obtain funding to do battle. The legislature tasked the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission with the job, but provided no money.

As proposed in Legislative Bill 63, introduced by Sen. Ken Schliz, $1.2 million from taxes generated by motorboat sales or leases would fund a program to monitor and control aquatic invasive species.  

“What it comes down to is that the bill's sponsors feel that this allocation of sales tax revenue on boats is the best way to get the measly $1.2 million to at least get some education programs going, start some inspections, and maybe get a few wash out-stations set up at some lakes around the state,” a source told Activist Angler.

Teeg Stouffer, executive director of Recycled Fish, was one of those testifying on behalf of the proposal in a committee hearing.
“There were a bunch of testimonies for our bill and none against it, so these Senators would really have to have an agenda to not pass it out of committee and onto the floor,” he said.

He also made another observation, one that troubles, but does not surprise me:

“When I walked into the hearing room at 1:05, I was the first one there for a 1:30 hearing. Perhaps 1 out of 10 seats wound up being filled in the room.

“Meanwhile, there was a sea of people clogging one hallway --- more than could fit in a hearing room. That’s the difference between a hearing on a gay adoption bill and a natural resources bill.

“The thing that's a shame to me is that most people will never have anything to do with gay adoption, but we all drink water, eat food, and power our homes. Zebra mussel infestations could decimate our irrigation systems and heap more hardship on our farmers, which translates to higher food prices. Zebra mussels could 10x our water bills, and 10x our power bills. Nobody knows. Nobody cares.”