A centrist will not do

Advice from those radicals at Mother Jones

The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect public health and the environment. Yet the agency has not done much protection of the environment, public health or the public interest in many, many years. The President-elect's pick for the agency is going to have to turn around an environmental crisis that mirrors the financial one. While Obama's rumored cabinet picks are largely people who cut their teeth in the Clinton administration, or showed rare bipartisanship over the past eight years, one place a centrist will not do is the Environmental Protection Agency.

There are some good environmental laws on the books; the problem is enforcement. The Bush administration has encouraged the worst industrial practices by, for example, refusing to regulate mercury from power plants or allowing mountaintop removal mining—and the incrementalists who ran EPA during the Clinton administration bear at least some responsibility. They should not be invited back.

The new EPA leadership is going to have to do two things.

The first is to throw the moneychangers out of the temple, literally: Replace Bush's corporate goons with public servants who will put science first, and rebuild the agency's enforcement capability and take on corporate interests who, not unlike the financial industry, have operated in an anything-goes world. The second, and perhaps more important role, will be to rebuild confidence in the agency and in the federal government's commitment to protect our citizens and our environment.

read the rest here...

U.P. Report: The Triple AAA Road

The Kennecott Eagle sulfide mine project is looking like is it is going to happen in Marquette County. All that is left is the ruling by the state supreme court. I figured I should get up there one more time, as i haven't fished there in a while. Saw some of these along the way.



So I had along my handmade map to get us out there from Big Bay. Don't know why but the Triple AAA road is really well known in the U.P. Say - "I'm going up by the Triple AAA" and every one knows where you're going.



The trackless forest primeval, the Yellow Dog Plains, headwaters of three great watersheds, the Salmon Trout River, The Yellow Dog River and the Escanaba. It look pretty good from the map book even.



But the Google tells a different tale. The MDNR, and the MDEQ haven't yet met a logger they don't like. Lots of good toilet paper there yah know. Notice the interesting pattern of cutting and how it looks so much like the Escanaba River state forest outline ?



On the ground the jack pine plains don't look so bad, but its one of those things. What did it look like before it had been parcelled out, and parcelled out again, and parcelled out again.



The rivers that cut through the forest were super pretty.












Caught a ton of these little guys. There were alot of foot prints on the bank. A lot of expensive new cabins along the river, too.









Packed a righteous snad for dinner.



So I imagine I'll be posting about the acid rock runoff flowing into these streams, putting three watersheds at jeopardy, including one with the last moderately healthy run of coasters on the south coast. I have some pictures to look at now.

a flawed equation: corn equals green

From todays NYTIMES ...

Editorial

Corn-Phone

Published: August 15, 2008

Samsung has announced the latest model in its lineup of “eco-phones” — one of the dozens of new electronics products from manufacturers striving to be green. Samsung says the new phone is made in ways that cut down on the use of environmentally harmful materials and is packaged in recycled materials. But what really makes this model different is that its case is made of bioplastic — with materials extracted from corn.

The electronics industry has been a major polluter, from the manufacturing end to the landfill. The dizzying pace at which consumer electronics become obsolete (What, you’re still using that old phone?) compounds the problem. And increasingly rich countries are offloading the disposing, and often the incinerating, of phones and computers to poorer countries.

Unfortunately Samsung’s new cellphone relies on a flawed equation: corn equals green. It is really time to throw out this formula for good. Bioplastic derived from corn requires special handling in recycling, and the difficulty of those processes makes them energy inefficient.

Bioplastic also creates another market for corn — a much smaller market than the ethanol market, but growing nonetheless. New industrial demands for corn are driving up world food prices and are increasing the pressure to convert more nonagricultural land to corn production.

The truly green solution for electronics makers is to close the loop between manufacturing and recycling: reusing the plastics we so quickly and happily toss away to make new cellphones.

A version of this article appeared in print on August 16, 2008, on page A18 of the New York edition.

More mining "truth" - if you call it that.

Well, I'm on vacation and the hdw-mobile blog has not been updated - so rather than write something new - I'm just plagiarizing quoting with extreme prejudice Troutunderground and Buster wants to fish, cause they both say it, better than I would anyway.

from the Troutunderground:

The Pebble Partnership’s hoping to reassure us sporting types that no way their giant open-pit mine - and all the toxic tailings associated with it - are going to harm wildlife in the area because, you know, they say so right in the ad.

Wow. If only they’d been this clear earlier, I’m sure the salmon themselves would have welcomed them with open arms.

My favorite line? “Pebble is just an exploratory project today. But already we’re setting new standards for environmental care.”

I’d like to point out that setting “new standards for environmental care” isn’t particularly difficult, given that prior open-pit mines have absolutely devastated the surrounding environment.

It’s a little like saying “Stalin set new standards in the creation of unpopulated territory” or “Donald Trump set new standards in hair styling.”

Meanwhile, the Sportsmen’s Alliance for Alaska continues its eBay fundraising auctions, so stop by and make a bid.

Until then, see you on the river, Tom Chandler.



From Buster wants to fish:

wherein we come to view the enemy’s face

The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.
–from the Chomsky/Herman theory of propaganda

What we've lost - Michigan Grayling

If you want a really good read about what it was like in 1879 and what we've lost:



From the Cornell University "Making of America Project", a destination article about the fabulous Grayling fishing in Northern Michigan, for Scribners in 1879. The whole article is linked from the image above.

A determined and serious effort was undertaken to re-introduce Thymallus in the late 80's and early 90's - statewide, and it failed.

I don't beleive it can be conclusively said why the fish disappeared, beyond of course overfishing, destructive logging practices and introduction of exotics.



For me, this is what I think:

When the glaciers receded from Michigan 13000 years a relict population of grayling found a niche, that was allowed to gently and gradually evolve to fit an ecosystem that was unique, for them. This subspecies perfectly fit the rivers and streams that it had evolved into. Due to all of the above reasons, which simultaneously coincided with the widespread settling of Europeans in the area the fish didn't stand a chance. It was an ineffable expression of chance and evolution that is now gone - but maybe not for good.

At least with coming of the next ice age, which some say is imminent, the mile thick sheets of ice will come down from the artic in the next 5000 years or so, pushing the grayling in front of it, bringing it back to Michigan.

In 1920 on the Otter river in the U.P. an angler caught the same Grayling three times, and then no more, that was the end. That was less than 100 years ago.

So, the Michigan grayling is gone, but I think it is coming back. Maybe next time... things will be different.

Hard rains gonna fall

June 8

Some things I thought I was gonna do didn't happen, others fell into place in a vague way. A bit of a window opened for take off Sat morning and the radar looked mostly not good. A single line of storms on sw to ne diagonal was looking to cross the driftless and so I figured I'd gamble on coulee hopping keeping an eye on the thunder heads and headed off for a June fish on the spring creeks. In the car at 11AM had me on the first stream at 2:30PM. I figured I'd play to hit the headwaters and watch the radar on the phone and jump the ridges looking for clear water to try to avoid being struck by lightning.

I knew that there was some H.I. bank work happening on the first spot on a largish drainage south of the sconny river, but apparently dropped in right at the top of the work. This is what spring creek bank restoration looks like when it is just a couple of weeks old.


This spot used to look very different.

Although very natural looking, in 2005 when this pic was taken it had had extensive brushing the previous season, including placing that log. The new bank work looks pretty raw. I could always get a brook trout or two from this spot - and apparently still could.
This is a brown from the next pool upstream.
Tucked into the bank and waited out the rain from an isolated thunderhead. The lightning wasn't too close.
15 minutes later 90 degrees and 100% humidity on cold spring water.


Another nicer brook trout amongst many.

Here's my June submission for the Calendar fundraiser. This is bank work that is one year old.

Another thunderhead rolled in from the south and I followed it up and over the sconny river to fish a different stream. Stopped to set up the tent, at the highest point on a little county campground, next to a dandy spring and hopped a ridge to another stream.

There was fish.



A little after 7PM the steady wind from the south stopped, and it was all perfectly still, and hot, sticky, and the sulfers started popping off the surface, and a cloud wall came bearing down the valley at about 50 miles an hour - from the north. After all this regular summer storms from the south - this had bad news written all over it. I didn't make it back to the car before the driving rain hit.
I made it back to the tent, had a couple of cheese snadwiches and drank the majority of the pilsner 6-pack and settled in with the lightning overhead and the first glo bugs of the season blinking down below and rain pounding on the tent.

Sometime in the night, I heard something a little different than the steady rain. Went down with the flash light and the creek had backed all the way into the spring head. It was topping the bridge and going over a few inches. I moved the car to higher ground and went back and figured I'd wait it out - went back to sleep in the tent. At dawn the rain had stopped and the river dropped down under the bridge. I tossed the wet gear in the back and took off driving in a non-stop hard rain all the way back to the state border.

The briefly back under the bridge river.

This is usually about 18 inches deep here and crystal clear, about 9/10 feet deep.

The sand on top of the bridge from the night's flash flood.
It rained six more inches that day after I left.

Kennecott thugs strike U.P. activist

from SAVE THE WILD U.P.


Since the shameful decision of Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to approve permits to Kennecott’s controversial nickel sulfide mine on the Upper Peninsula’s Yellow Dog Plains, the opposition has mounted a variety of legal, administrative, and political challenges that have delayed the project. Despite growing public opposition to the project, Kennecott has tried to portray the opposition as an unrepresentative minority. This is exactly what Kennecott tried to do in Ladysmith. In both cases, the tactics of the company divided neighbor against neighbor and split the community into hostile factions.

In Michigan, these tactics have led to a violent assault on Cynthia Pryor’s husband, Robert, while Cynthia was attending a contested case hearing challenging MDEQ’s decision to permit Kennecott’s sulfide mine. He was assaulted by three unknown males in the late hours of the evening at his cabin which is located in a remote area near Big Bay. The three identified themselves by asking if he “was one of those anti-mining guys.” When he asked them to leave they knocked him to the ground and beat him, leaving him unconscious outside in the freezing rain. Cynthia, one of the most outspoken critics of the proposed mine, called the crime “beyond appalling, shocking and distressing – in my mind it is attempted murder. Bob is 60 years old, was attacked by three younger men and left to the elements…The fear and shock reverberating through our small community is something that should make everyone take note. What are the stakes in this project that would lead to such violence against a citizen of this state – unprovoked and at their home?”

Mining companies have increasingly resorted to violent tactics against opponents to mining projects in the Third World, but this is the first instance where pro-mining individuals have used violence to intimidate those who dare criticize ecologically dangerous mining projects in Michigan, Wisconsin or Minnesota. It is important that bureaucrats, company officials and politicians hear from citizens who are outraged at this assault. Their names and phone numbers are:

Governor Jennifer Granholm 517 373-3400

DEQ Director Steve Chester 517 373-7917

DNR Director Rebecca Humphries 517 373-2329

Jon Cherry – Kennecott Minerals 906 225-5791

Tom Albanese – CEO Rio Tinto (Kennecott’s parent company) 011 44 20 7781-2000 (London Main #)

The Fishing Pause Ends: Part 3

So this morning the fishing pause ends.

What is the fishing pause ? In Wisconsin the early season catch and release inland trout season ends a week before the regular season starts. Last week all fishing for trout was closed on the inland streams. This morning the regular season starts, and one might be sure that most of the catch and kill that occurs throughout the season will happen in the next couple of weeks across the states trout streams. If science mattered we would know that the continued selection of the largest classes of fish for harvest have destabilizing effects on the stream populations and ultimately are negatively selecting for large fish, as those are the ones that are generation after generation failing to reproduce. We can also know that across the board hatchery fish are no replacement for wild fish. Hatchery fish have smaller brains, and reproduce at a vastly lower rate in the wild. A recent study indicates that the Chinook salmon runs in California had as few as 10% wild fish, with the concomitant problems that comes both in putting a far weaker fish into the environment and masking the collapse of the wild fish population. Yesterday all fishing for salmon on the west coast was closed:

All salmon fishing banned on West Coast

Salmon fishing was banned along the West Coast for the first time in 160 years Thursday, a decision that is expected to have a devastating economic impact on fishermen, dozens of businesses, tourism and boating.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez immediately declared a commercial fishery disaster, opening the door for Congress to appropriate money for anyone who will be economically harmed.

The closure of commercial and recreational fishing for chinook salmon in the ocean off California and most of Oregon was announced by the National Marine Fishery Service.

It followed the recommendation last month of the Pacific Fishery Management Council after the catastrophic disappearance of California's fabled fall run of the pink fish popularly known as king salmon.

It is the first total closure since commercial fishing started in the Bay Area in 1848.

It isn't as if this should be a surprise. We consistently pay no attention to the facts as they sit in front of us regarding management of these resources. These are not isolated scientific data sets. The recent article in National Geographic about the the collapse of the international fish stocks had this quote:

For reasons not fully understood, when areas are closed to fishing, snapper aggregate within them, forming large resident populations. Spiny rock lobsters ("crayfish" to New Zealanders) do the same. Their density inside the reserve is about 15 times higher than outside. Commercial crayfishermen have cashed in on the reserve's success because the outward migration of crayfish—a process marine biologists call spillover—brings the crustaceans to their pots, strategically placed just outside the boundary. These former skeptics are now some of the reserve's staunchest defenders. They refer to it as "our reserve" and act as marine minutemen, reporting poachers and boundary cheats.

S0 do these macro systems say anything about the rivers of the Midwest ? Our own history of the elimination of species, the Michigan Grayling, the Lake Superior Coaster and the Lake Michigan Lake trout all speak to the fact that all of these natural systems have been damaged and continue to be the wanton acts and policy of who and what we are as the alpha predator.

A curious thing happens when fish stocks decline: People who aren't aware of the old levels accept the new ones as normal. Over generations, societies adjust their expectations downward to match prevailing conditions. The concept of a healthy ocean drifts from greater to lesser abundance, richer to poorer biodiversity.

So today the fishing pause ends.

The Fishing pause: Part 2, more Damn Science

From the Science Daily


Fishing Throws Targeted Species Off Balance, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2008) — Fishing activities can provoke volatile fluctuations in the populations they target, but it's not often clear why. A new study published in the journal Nature by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and colleagues has identified the general underlying mechanism.

Research led at Scripps with a distinguished team of government and international experts (including two chief scientific advisors to the United Kingdom) demonstrates that fishing can throw targeted fish populations off kilter. Fishing can alter the "age pyramid" by lopping off the few large, older fish that make up the top of the pyramid, leaving a broad base of faster-growing small younglings. The team found that this rapidly growing and transitory base is dynamically unstable-a finding having profound implications for the ecosystem and the fishing industries built upon it.

"The data show that fished species appear to be significantly more nonlinear and less stable than unfished species," said Professor George Sugihara of Scripps. "We think the mechanism involves systematic alteration of the demographic parameters-and especially increases in growth rates that magnify destabilization in many ways-which can happen as fishing truncates the age structure."



How exploited and unexploited fish populations differ. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - San Diego)

Read the whole article here

The fishing pause: Part 1- Damn Science

From the Science Daily

Fewer Fish Eggs, Smaller Fish Result From Over-fishing

ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2006) — The practice of harvesting the largest individuals from a fish population introduces genetic changes that harm the overall fish population, a UC Riverside graduate student and colleagues have determined. Removing the large fish over several generations of fish causes the remaining fish in the populations to become progressively smaller, have fewer and smaller eggs with lower survival and growth, and have lower foraging and feeding rates, the researchers report.

The figure shows the decrease in body size in Atlantic silverside as found by a research team led by UCR graduate student Matthew Walsh. The silverside, having been reared for five generations in laboratory experiments, are all the same age. The fish shown here are from the fifth generation. The fish on the left are from populations from which large individuals were harvested over five generations; the fish in the middle are from populations from which fish were harvested at random over five generations; and the fish on the right are from populations from which only small fish were harvested over five generations. (Photo credit: M. Walsh)

Well, it was only advisory ...

The WDNR board met today and decided to not take the advice of the Conservation Congress advisory vote last week on the Prairie River quality trout fishing regulations. Despite the fact that the vote carried in 47 counties and by a 2024 to 1494 plurality, the regulations were overturned by a vote at the WDNR board hearing today.

This of course does not bode well for the future of the enlightened system of regulations currently in place in the state. This is decidedly an anti-resource decision, completely based outside the normal set of scientific principles at work on managing cold-water resources.

Triploid Browns and Native Trout

Fish biology tells us that streams have specific holding capacity. Won't these trips' still displace the natives ?
from the pages at Fish Farmer magazine
22 April, 2008 -

PROTECTING native brown trout is at the heart of a new Environment Agency approach that it says will benefit both anglers and the native trout population in rivers and lakes throughout England and Wales.
Angling is one of the most popular outdoor pursuits, bringing many social and economic benefits. Every year, fishery owners and clubs introduce almost 700,000 fertile farmed trout into rivers and lakes to supplement stocks for anglers.
Under the new policy, infertile triploid brown trout will be used to stock these waters in a move to protect wild trout (including sea trout) stocks. The Environment Agency will stop giving consent to stock fertile farmed brown trout into rivers and most lakes in England and Wales from 2015. Targets have been set to encourage fishery managers to progressively switch to the use of infertile triploid fish to supplement trout stocks in these waters.

2024/1494

So I've been ruminating about the vote last week. I was thinking about writing this and kept getting stopped looking for something better in it all and figured I'd just post the picks and bag the analysis as the best I could come up with is, its all about the numbers. These are from tax day April 15 2008.

I put the gear and the dog in the car before I drove up to Rock County to vote last Monday night but even though I was not planned to fish Tuesday the plans seemed to happen anyway. I was pretty sure that the vote was a lost cause, but nothing seems to attract me like a fight for a lost cause especially when its right. I heard a folksy and eloquent defense of the regs at the Janesville Moose Lodge and then voted and drove on to a cheap hotel on hway 18 in the SW. I knew that the place had wireless so I brought my compy only to find the laptop crapped out sometime during the drive. I ended up at dawn in the cold on one river. By about mid morning it had warmed up and I tagged a few.






It was the first 68 degree day of the year and the first caddis fly I had seen and the first trout on a dry caddis fly of 2008.




There was still some small snow patches on the north side of the hills.



At this point I didn't know that the vote had carried. I was just out enjoying the day, and the streams and the dog and the trouts.





Some recent habitat improvement that came through the floods last summer just fine.








The votes on the Prarie regs last lost year by a little less than 500 votes, they carried this year by a little more than 500 votes. Its all about the numbers.

Thar's gold in them thar troot streams ...

Spending by Trout Anglers in the Driftless Area Adds $1.1 Billion to the Local Economy



From the latest TU news

"A report commissioned by TU shows that recreational angling in the Driftless Area of southeast Minnesota, southwest Wisconsin, northeast Iowa and northwest Illinois generates $1.1 billion to the local economy. For every dollar spent on stream restoration, an additional $25 is returned to the regional economy each year thereafter..."

more here

A handout from the "no" on 36 faction

The Results:

Question 36 had :

2024 yes votes
1494 no votes

carried in 47 counties.

The results.

yes

on 36