Coolness courtesy of the Library of Congress collection, the Works Projects Administration, and Lithgow Osborne, Commissioner of the New York State Conservation Department, 1933-1938.

We print this for your consideration and then, considerate comment, Buster readers.

In a brief nutshell, recent summer steelhead returns (or lackthereof) on the fabled and highly regulated North Umpqua apparently churned up the idea machine down in Douglas County, Oregon and a few folks are fixing to fix things.

Talk from a number of folks—some of which are high-profile guides, others are anglers with much history on the river—has proposed moving the stocking of hatchery fish up into the flywater to both maximize the economic output of the present hatchery effort (currently below the flywater) and to relieve pressure on the wild fish. Given scientific findings behind hatchery fish genetic introgression into the wild fish life history, this idea is strongly opposed by others. Trust me when I say I’ve attempted to write this last paragraph as objectively as possible.

Whether you’re a proponent of hatchery salmonids or an ardent supporter of wild, native fish, I urge you to read and re-read this. Many interesting points made, a few lines that can be read between and at the end, a calm, thoughtful discussion of opinions. Props to the interviewer for calling the interviewee out on his stance, and at the same time, respect to the interviewee for nutting up and answering the tough questions.

That’s a great example of discussion between opposing parties, folks, and we need a lot more of it if we’re going to get anywhere worth going.

Notes:

-No, not I, nor any of the handsome bastards at Buster were involved with any of this interview. I simply received a copy.

-I’ve removed the names of both the interviewer and the interviewee, as it’s not the people that matter. Its the ideals, motivations and potential for common ground.

Comments on this interview absolutely welcomed and encouraged below. 

Q & A with XXXXNameRedactedXXXXXX, North Umpqua Guide:

Q: I heard through the grapevine that you are advocating bringing hatchery summers back to the fly water. Is that true, and if so, what is your reasoning?

A: Well, I don’t know how much you know about the North Umpqua, but it’s just the last few years that we’ve stopped seeing hatchery summers in the fly water. The hatchery fish that were up there weren’t a problem, since they were mainstem spawners. I grew up on the Umpqua, and I can tell you that 99% of Umpqua summer steelhead are creek spawners. The hatchery fish spawned in the mainstem, where they were acclimated. Back then you might have seen one or two hatchery fish up at Lee’s pool.

My real issue is I don’t think the wild run can handle all the pressure. I mean, we have more guys coming up here every year. But we only have a couple thousand wild steelhead. Without the hatchery fish, guys are figuring out where the natives hang out and they are pounding on them every single day. Meanwhile, ODFW is planting hatchery summers in places where nobody fishes. I’d say 2/3 of the Umpqua’s hatchery fish aren’t even getting fished for. A third of them are planted below the I-5 bridge. Another third is planted at Whistler’s Bend, and the last third at Rock Creek. But nobody fishes below I-5 bridge. Look at Whistler’s Bend. I drive by there every day, and if you see one guy fishing there it’s a rarity. Two guys I know run down there in the fall. The fly water is the only good summer water, and without some hatchery fish up there, the wild fish take the brunt of the pressure.

Q: So you think that by adding a hatchery program above Rock Creek you’ll be decreasing pressure on the wild fish? I don’t think you could find any examples of that correlation. Hatchery programs result in an increase in angling pressure on wild fish. That’s according to Oregon’s leading biologists and decades of research.

A: I think people are over thinking this whole thing. I mean, do we have a true “wild” run in the Umpqua? With all the hatchery influences over the last century, are these fish really wild?

Q: Umpqua steelhead are wild as they come. Has nobody shared with you the DNA analysis on wild steelhead in Oregon? I can send you the graphs that show the distinct genetic groupings of hatchery and wild fish.

A: Well I haven’t seen what you are talking about, but you just said yourself that the wild fish weren’t harmed by all those decades of hatchery mixing, right? So what’s the problem? Your own data says the wild fish are fine. We had hatchery fish all over up here. All the way up to the dam.

Q: What I’m saying is that there has been very little, if any, genetic introgression from interbreeding. But we know the presence of hatchery adults on the spawning grounds reduces overall numbers of wild fish. So you’re going to have a hard time convincing wild-fish advocates that there is an acceptable risk, at any level.

A: I just don’t see it that way. I don’t think there was much, if any mixing. And if the wild fish are as pure as you say they are, that proves it, right? All I’m saying is if you’re going to have hatchery fish in the Umpqua, put them in the places where people fish! Or get rid of all the hatchery fish, and take the money and use it to repair lost spawning and rearing habitat. One or the other. But it doesn’t make sense to spend all this money and resources on a program that nobody can benefit from.

I’m all for wild fish. But right now we aren’t getting the numbers of wild steelhead we used to see. We’re under 5,000 fish. We need 7,000 to 9,000 fish to handle all the pressure on the fly water. The only way we’re going to get that is if they either let us have some hatchery fish or reclaim the lost habitat. Like Canton Creek. There used to be over a thousand wild fish in there. But it was wiped out when they built that road. It’s never recovered. So if ODFW took all the money from hatcheries and used it to bring back wild fish, I could get behind that.

Now our winter steelhead in the Umpqua really need protection. In the winter we get 10,000 to 14,000 wild fish. And ODFW wants to institute a hatchery program and a kill fishery! All of us guides are against it. ODFW makes no sense. You can’t kill wild fish!

Q: But, XXXX, you just said you’re against killing wild fish, but hatchery programs kill wild fish. Isn’t that an inconsistency?

A: I hear what you’re saying, and I could get behind a wild-only Umpqua. But it’s got to be one or the other. The way things are going now, I can’t make any money. I’m not ashamed to say it’s a money thing for me. If we’re going to have hatchery fish, let’s acclimate a third of them from Wright Creek down and offer people a little more opportunity in the summer. We don’t even need to increase the numbers. Just put them where they can be used. Or get rid of them altogether.

Q: Do you think you would feel the same way about this if you weren’t guiding?

A: I don’t know. The summer hatchery program, the way they’re running it now, just doesn’t make good economic sense. So I think I would be frustrated even if I wasn’t guiding. I’d still be up here in the canyon. It’s the only part of the river you can consistently get fish on dries throughout the summer.

Even dead, he can still kick Tie Domi’s ass.

Stumbled into a pretty cool little photo joint called the William Joseph Gallery yesterday and among the billion sweet historical shots of the American West, including work by the legendary Ray Atkeson (Warren Miller’s contemporary, considered by many the Ansel Adams of the Northwest), Larry Olson and the badass Umpqua photog Dan Callaghan, i found this shot from Allen deLay. Always suspected Wreck Rapid was named such because of an um, wreck or something, but it’s pretty bomber to actually see.

Description reads: Maupin train wreck. a head-on collision between northbound steam engine 3128 and southbound diesel engine 440 occurred 57.6 miles up the Deschutes River on the west bank rail tracks. The location is 3.8 miles up the river from Sherars Bridge, which is near Maupin, Oregon. Since then, this site has been called Wreck Rapids. Three men running the trains died. Train 440 was carrying a load of horses and only one survived in good condition.

Anyway, anyone in PDX oughta stop in there sometime and chat up the guy behind the counter. Fella knows a ton of cool stuff about the history behind a ton of killer old river shots.

of reading history where the events happened. Particularly high up on the east face of the Cochise Stronghold.

When I felt like a break, too bad the view totally sucked [/that's a joke]

My only complaint being that the bro-brah brigade came through sometime earlier and scarred a rockface with sport climbing bolts. Pricks

In the Days of Victorio; Recollections of a Warm Springs Apache by Eve Ball, Narrated by James Kaywaykla

(The Narrator as a Child, with his mother Gouyen and stepfather Kaytennae)

I first heard of Eve Ball through Dan Carlin’s excellent podcast series ”Hardcore History” when he had an episode entitled “Apache Tears”. I was able to locally track down a copy of one of her books, namely the one you are reading about now.  In it James Kaywaykla describes his youth until about the age of ten as a free Warm Springs Apache in Victorio’s band. His grandfather was the Chief Nana, whom despite an advanced age and a broken foot, fought until the end against the Mexicans and Americans. At the time of the writing, Kaywaykla was the last survivor of the battle (or massacre) at Tres Castillos where Victorio died by his own hand rather than be captured.

Now that the brief summary is over with, the first thing that struck me about the book is that this is an old man describing his childhood as a participant in the last Western Indian War. The passage below is from the introduction by Kaywaykla and sets the tone for his history:

“Until I was about ten years old, I did not know that people died except by violence. That is because I am an Apache, a Warm Springs Apache, whose first vivid memories are of being driven from our reservation near Ojo Caliente with fire and sword.”

That is almost a borderline mind fuck when you consider that he sat down with Eve Ball in the 1950′s to recount his childhood.

To me, what was different about this book is that it is one of the few about the Indian wars from a participant’s perspective. Kaywaykla’s narrative is clear and many of his childhood memories are in alignment with historical records and other accounts. His description of the contrast between living as freemen or softly imprisoned at the San Carlos Reservation leaves little doubt about why the Apache resisted “pacification” until they were almost exterminated as a people.

I highly recommend this one.

Another fine offering from Married to the Sea:

“In these sad and ominous days of mad fortune-chasing, every patriotic and thoughtful citizen, whether he fishes not, should lament that we have not among our countrymen more fishermen.”

- Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States

(Herbert Hoover fishing at Brown’s Camp in California, 1928)

“Fishing is great discipline in the equality of men – for all men are equal before fish!”

- Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States

“As President I was able with the stroke of a pen to save a hundred million acres of wilderness in Alaska. This is the kind of thing that is gratifying to a President, but to be on a solitary stream with good friends, with a fly rod in your hand, and to have a successful or even an unsuccessful day – they’re all successful – is an even greater delight.”

- Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States

“A dolphin we catchd at noon, but cou’d not entice with a baited hook two baricootas, which played under our stern for some hours.”

- George Washington, 1st President of the United States (from his time in Barbados at age 19)

“I think I need to learn fly fishing. Get some waders, go out there, clear my head.”

- Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s President’s Day. Without a long history of Presidents who hunted and fished, we wouldn’t have the unique legacy of public lands that we have today. Give ‘em thanks by getting out and enjoying them as they were intended, and defend them with your life, for nothing less is at stake.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.
–James Madison

America is a willingness of the heart.
–F. Scott Fitzgerald

We’d heard rumors that the selling of the Canyon River Ranch along the banks of the Yakima River had been going a bit slowly. Perhaps it was the ridiculous prices, perhaps it was the cheezy “timeshare” feel of the thing or maybe — just maybe — it was that fact that it was being built on a 40-year flood plain. With the Yak now running around 30K , looks like them soggy chickens have come home to roost. Good luck selling that bullshit now!

*Note: The photos previously appended to this post were taken from a post on Westfly. The photographer has requested that these be photos removed from BWTF. Other photos of Yakima River flood damage can be viewed at the Red’s Fly Shop site.

**Note Note: Fixed.

“If we find our government in all its branches rushing headlong… into the arms of monarchy, if we find them violating our dearest rights, the trial by jury, the freedom of the press, the freedom of opinion, civil or religious, or opening on our peace of mind or personal safety the sluices of terrorism, if we see them raising standing armies, when the absence of all other danger points to these as the sole objects on which they are to be employed, then indeed let us withdraw and call the nation to its tents. But while our functionaries are wise, and honest, and vigilant, let us move compactly under their guidance, and we have nothing to fear. Things may here and there go a little wrong. It is not in their power to prevent it. But all will be right in the end, though not perhaps by the shortest means.” - Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 1811

Politico says that McCain leads Obama among sportsmen

According to a Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation poll to be released Wednesday, John McCain leads Obama by 45 percent to 31 percent. That’s only about half the 27-point edge respondents say they gave George W. Bush over Kerry four years ago and far short of the 65 percent gun owners gave to Bush over Gore’s 15 percent in 2000….  Fishermen are a little more Obama friendly, but favor the Arizona senator by a 44-to-31 margin.

Obama talks to Outdoor Life

OL: It’s been said that the collapse of the West Coast ocean salmon fishery (a $150-million industry) may be a graver threat to our economy than the Bear Stearns collapse. What steps should the federal government take to help salmon stocks recover?

Read more »

“The time to guard against corruption and tyranny is before they shall have gotten hold of us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold than to trust him not to draw his teeth and talons after he shall have entered.”

-Thomas Jefferson

From the LAT:

“Frank Mundus, shown in 2005, was thought by many to have been the model for Capt. Quint in ‘Jaws.’ Peter Benchley, who wrote the novel and co-wrote the movie, fished with Mundus in the late ’60s. Over the decades, Mundus caught a number of great white sharks, including harpooning a 4,500-pound great white in 1964 and helping catch a 3,427-pound great white on a rod and reel in 1986. “Shark fishing with a legend like Frank Mundus, the best at what he does, is like playing baseball with Mickey Mantle,” writer Russell Drumm told the New York Times in 1998.”

Full obit here and if you haven’t, read Russell Drumm’s “In the Slick of the Cricket”

for years I have relied on the “go back and get yr big brother” line, but had — tragically — forgotten its source. after viewing this, i feel whole again.

*hilite: curly’s “fly fishing” scene

so, what’ll it be alaska?

another dollar that’ll just go away? or your cultural legacy?

(Cochise Stronghold, Southeastern Arizona. Burial place of Cochise)

“When I was young I walked all over this country, east and west, and saw no other people than the Apaches. After many summers I walked again and found another race of people had come to take it. How is it? Why is it that the Apache wait to die- that they carry their lives on their fingernails. They roam over the hills and plains and want the heavens to fall on them. The Apaches were once a great nation; they are now but few, and because of this they want to die and so carry their lives on their fingernails… I have no father nor mother; I am alone in the world. No one cares for Cochise; that is why I do not care to live and wish the rocks to fall on me and cover me up.”

-Spoken by Cochise to General Gordon Granger during peace talks at Canada Alamosa, New Mexico. (Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Owl Books, 1970. pages 209-210)

“Take up the White man’s burden –
Send forth the best ye breed –
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild –
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.”

 -Rudyard Kipling “The White Man’s Burden”

Warning thematic and historical convergence straight ahead.

Via the excellent Mine Watch.org, comes the unsurprising revelation that Anglo American (parent company of Northern Dynasty/ Pebble Project) is one of the largest financial supporters of Robert Mugabe, “President” of Zimbabwe. Apparently while the rest of the world is pulling out of Zimbabwe, Anglo American just poured another $400 million into a platinum mine there.

(Cecil Rhodes)

Here’s where the rabbit goes down the hole and we follow. Anglo American also owns a 45% stake in DeBeers Corp, “the Diamonds are forever” jackals. DeBeers also once had a 90% market share of the world’s diamonds, but now trades around 40% of them. The mining firm was started by John Cecil Rhodes in South Africa in 1880 and he did such a great job with exploiting the locals resources, he was granted a charter by the British Government to create his own personal fiefdom, Rhodesia.

Rhodes, who later endowed the Rhode’s Scholarships, said of the British Race “I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race.” Clearly this guy thought the non-Anglo incapable of governing themselves.

Eventually Rhodesia, which had an apartheid government that even neighboring white led South Africa eventually declined to support, went through a civil war and transition to majority rule. The nation renamed itself, wait for it, Zimbabwe.

Circling back to Anglo American and the Pebble Mine, the clear imprint of colonialism is inherent in the updated corporate speak of the Project’s, ahem, “Guiding Principals“, which include “Pebble will benefit people. Pebble is for Alaskans” and “Pebble will build sustainable communities”.

It seems that Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carrol has shouldered Rhode’s heavy load of the white man’s burden.

(Meet your new overlord, same as the old one)

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Full Text Here