jpinkster

I know it doesn't answer your questions at all, but check the video that Humble did a few years back.

This entire debacle was very personal for me and my fishing buddies. We routinely fish the Oldman upstream from 22, and it is depressing to think that fish we may have encountered on a regular basis have been poached. A truly sad situation.

From My Wild Alberta: Waterbody Closures Fishing Effective August 21, 2015 all previously closed areas have reopened, with the exception of the St. Mary River downstream of the St. Mary Reservoir and its tributaries. This will remain closed until further notice. Remember folks, just because the closure is lifted doesn't mean the fish are out of the woods yet. Be respectful out there.

I appreciate your exaggeration. I'm not just talking to members of Council, I'm the direct adviser to one of them. This is what I do for work, and I get the time to interact with these folks on a daily basis. Are there some bad apples? Sure there are. For as many bad apples as there are, there are just as many who are just trying to make a positive difference. I look at work being done on the Green Line LRT for instance. Lots of political skin put in the game there, and it won't be privately benefiting any specific member of Council. There will likely be some public money spent on this project. That being said, I don't think anyone on that Council feels strongly about the first crack at it.

Folks, Fabulous debate here, great to see so many informed perspectives. We released some details from our office about CalgaryNEXT today. For those of you who live in Calgary it is CRITICALLY important that you let your Councillor know where you stand on this issue. From walking the halls here at City Hall I can tell you that there is very little appetite on Council to support the current proposal as it stands. If public money is going to be dedicated to a project, it is important that we find corresponding public benefit. Right now there are so many questions that still need to be answered. If the Flames are going to make an ask of public funds, we need to be transparent about the dollar figure. The price tag is not just the $200 million, it would be drastically higher. http://shanekeating.ca/calgarynext-whats-next/

We aren't facing the exact same circumstance here, but Oliver hits hard on this issue.

Development would not be allowed without remediation of the contaminated land.

There is a small portion of the Oldman is closed. From Highway 22 down to 510.

The City of Calgary already has plans to build a Field House. The public Field House would cost $200M. In this case, the only City contribution would be to cover the costs of a facility they were already planning. The entire facility would be on City land and the state of the art facility would be a City owned asset which the Flames would be leasing. I'm still uneasy about the public burden on this, especially since there are some serious concerns about the remediation of the land.

Today the Calgary Flames unveiled plans for the new stadium plans: http://globalnews.ca/news/2171041/calgary-flames-arena-announcement-expected-tuesday/ The public burden on this is incredible. To recap: - $240M Community Revitalization Levy. This is a burden on tax payers, as this is valuable tax base that could be used on something that contributes to a greater public need. - $200M City of Calgary Field House. Direct burden on the tax payer. Sure we need the public field house, but is it worth $200M? - $250M ticket tax. Who is going to pay this tax? The consumer. Great vision, horrid funding model.

Yup. Thanks for tipping me off that they had a FB page. Glad to see they at least responded with some action.

Sounds like an amazing trip! Looks like my blog has some competition

A closure is a closure. Just because some people may disagree with it, doesn't change the fact that the river is closed.

Saw two anglers fishing downstream of Ivor Strong bridge this afternoon. Called RAP immediately.

Here's some adversity for the new look Jays, let's see how they handle it. They have to win that big game tomorrow.

Not sure the previous comment deserved that level of response. I'm simply sharing what I've heard. I'm sympathetic to both sides of this argument, and have never once pretended otherwise.

Another point to consider is our level of enforcement. Sure we have legislation in place, but is it actually enforced? I've spoken with more than a few biologists that work in the patch. They suggest that the rules don't really seem to matter since many of them are blatantly ignored. We can't pat ourselves on the back for our great policies if we don't find a way to enforce them.

I don't have much of a response to that, but I'll leave you with this thought: For 43 years we had a "conservative" (and I use that phrase lightly, especially in the last 8 years) government in this province. Throughout that times we kept taxation low and created a very business friendly environment. In order to do this we often mortgaged things like the environment. I would love to see a scenario where we keep taxes low and keep a conscience when it comes to environmental issues, but the two seem to almost always be at odds with one another. The previous government failed on the environment file. We absolutely need to find a way to pay for things, and I'm hopeful this government can find a way to get us closer to the best of both worlds. Conservative governments are all fine and good until they stop actually being conservative.

Thanks for this Mike. I mentioned this to a few other guides/shops on another space, but I'm so grateful to see how you folks in the industry really understand the bigger picture here.

I talked to a biologist who is up there today that is doing some stream level/temperature checks on the Upper Oldman. Results may influence further closures, but we'll see I suppose.

I really do not think this is the next biggest issue facing our fisheries right now. I'd like to see them beef up F&W with a few more COs and specifically target irresponsible OHV use.

Here's the most up to date list that I could find: Effective August 11, 2015 the following waters have been closed to all fishing; due to high water temperatures, until further notice: Sheep River from headwaters to Highwood River; Highwood River from headwaters to Bow River; St. Mary River, downstream of the St. Mary Reservoir and tributaries; Belly River, downstream of Secondary Road 800; Bow River from Bearspaw Reservoir to the W.H.D. Weir; Bow River from W.H.D Weir to the Carseland Weir; Bow River from Carseland Weir to Highway 24 bridge; Bow River from Highway 24 bridge downstream to Bassano Dam; and Elbow River from Glenmore Reservoir to the Bow River confluence. The following areas are not yet closed, but we are asking people to carefully monitor and use safe handling practices for the following as well: Castle River and tributaries from Highway 3 upstream to Westcastle River; Oldman River from Racehorse Creek downstream to Oldman Reservoir; and from Highway 2 near Fort Macleod downstream to Secondary Road 509; Crowsnest River from Crowsnest Lake downstream to Oldman Reservoir; Belly River, downstream of Secondary Road 800; Waterton River, downstream of Waterton Reservoir; Waterton River, upstream of the Waterton Reservoir including tributaries; and St. Mary River upstream, of the St. Mary Reservoir, including Lee Creek. The fact that tributaries are not explicitly included is worrisome. Those skinny tribs (Jumpingpound, Gorge, etc) are in worse condition than the major rivers right now.

This is still a trend in the right direction. If this government is willing to listen to biologists to benefit the fisheries, maybe they will also listen to biologists that recommend more enforcement on ATVs, poachers, etc.

So today was a pretty huge day for anglers in this province. I've seen what happens when we mix politics with fishing here, but here are a few of my thoughts on what transpired today: Today the Provincial Government did something that hasn't happened in a VERY long time. On the advice of dedicated anglers and biologists it was agreed that a fishing closure would be introduced on a number of sensitive fisheries in Southern Alberta. I have had the opportunity to speak with a lot of people about this today. The overarching sense is that this likely would not have happened under the previous government. The previous government took a very hands off approach to our fisheries, and often did much more harm than good. I have my share of issues with the political dynamic in Alberta, but for me today was a really big win. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done on the fisheries file, but today proved that responsible anglers in Alberta have an ally with this government. Let's hope this is the first of many wise decision on the Alberta fisheries file.

We had a big long post on here earlier about this, not sure what happened to it.