2013 Regs For The Upper Red Deer River

[hatman]

More info about this year's new regs for the Upper Red Deer River from the Forestry trunk road to the Glennifer dam and all of the tributaries such as the Fallen Timber, the Raven, the James and all steams that flow into the big Red since the oil spill of last year the Government has made these rivers catch and release for all species and no maggots or live bait allowed as they wish to check the population of all the species in the river shed after the oil spill down steam of the Sundre area

[DonAndersen]

Wonderful idea!

 

Management by oil spill.

 

 

Don

[wingshooter]

Now we need some no biased inventory of the impact on the invertebrates and a decent population estimate done using the reach upstream of Sundre as a control. No bioprostitutes making up what plains midstream wants to hear. If there damages let the hounds out and fine them dearly and do something positive with the money.

[albertatrout]

Now we need some no biased inventory of the impact on the invertebrates and a decent population estimate done using the reach upstream of Sundre as a control. No bioprostitutes making up what plains midstream wants to hear. If there damages let the hounds out and fine them dearly and do something positive with the money.

Problem is the stretch upstream of town is so different, they would pretty much have to look at the few sampling events completed in the past few decades to get much of an idea. That river changes every year too, especially downstream of Sundre, its like a new stream every summer. I may make a run up in mid April to see how the fishing is, i used to fish the upper Red Deer a lot and it had really high trout densities, some of the best action to be had in Alberta. Access is really limited by the dangerous nature of the wading and the ability of flows to increase very quickly during the day, not sure how much of a difference catch and release will make during the monitoring period anyways.

[DaveJensen]

What this truly smacks at is what has been needed in Alberta for so long: baseline ecological data. I'm starting to feel like a broken record on these forums - every time I post now I reference how Fisheries are managed and the hope for the best - react to a crisis - hope for the best - react to a crisis... ongoing cycle. At some point, we need to stop the downward spiral of generational amnesia (how good it used to be and the acceptance of the lower standard) that has seen things deteriorate. We need to know the baseline data on things like bugs, water quality, influence of perpetual clear cut logging on in stream flows at critical flow periods (high and low) and restrict logging companies' AACs where necessarry, and begin to restrict road/pipeline construction to reduce the amount of sedimentation/pollution/seepage in our waters. We need true biology to occur with annual fish populations and angler surveys that draw us all out to share our experiences in a tangible manner that can reflect, over time, the trends and the why behind the declines in our fisheries' ecosystems.

This would be a massive over haul in our Fisheries Management. Without it, however, we will continue the decline.

Alberta is running the risk of becoming the sacrificial lamb for N American energy. While all things ecological can recover, why run ourselves into the ground just to prove that point? Anybody can Google that, so what makes our govt so special it needs to re-learn what the world already knows?