Alaska's Felt Sole Ban

The Trout Underground (and Others) took note of Alaska's ban on Felt soles, beginning in 2012. Trout Unlimited offers praise for the ban, citing the "Proactive Step" to end this source of transmission of invasive species from watershed to watershed.

 I don't want to say I disagree, but I'm getting close. It seems like this is the resource management equivalent of diet pill, offering great promise and intentions, but being far too narrow and simplified to offer any real benefit, but coming with a whole host of negatives - specifically a potential loss in awareness and a culture of complacency.

Defending against invasive species is about awareness and education. A felt ban just feels like a band-aid that will do little to protect waterways. It could, in fact, work in the opposite direction by creating a false sense of security. The boots still have laces, the waders are made of fabric and have neoprene booties, but it’s the felt soles that get treated like the big-bad-wolf that needs to be killed.

Something seems fishy here to me, the manufacturers seem to be willingly abandoning felt, but the customers (me included) are much less willing, I suppose the rubber soles are much easier or more profitable to make vs. the felt soles. Simms abandoned felt long before any bans went into place (as far as I know), so there's certainly some financial incentive to the boot makers to move in this direction.

(No Tom, you weren't the only one to notice their bizarre willingness to abandon felt over customers' objections.)

San Joaquin River Reaches Pacific Ocean.

In an obviously important step towards the restoration of Chinook Salmon to the San Joaquin River, the River's waters are now reaching the Pacific Ocean.

Salmon will be reintroduced by Dec. 31, 2012. The restoration cost over the next several years is estimated between $250 million and $800 million.

A lot of that money might be spent on preparing the river channel about 99 miles downstream of Friant Dam. At the moment, the river runs into a massive channel called the East Side Bypass, designed to carry flood water.

Near the bypass, many miles of the native river channel have been closed off for decades, and in places crops are grown right up to the banks. Officials need to pick either the bypass or the native channel for the river's route.

If the native channel is used, it would have to be widened and deepened. If the bypass channel is used, it would have to be redesigned with trees and shrubs along the banks to help keep the water cool for the fish.

For now, the reconnection of the river between Friant and the ocean is getting a lot of attention.

"It means everything," said Chris Acree, executive director of Revive the San Joaquin, based in Fresno. "This is a turning point on a restoration that can work for everybody."

Full Article @ The Fresno Bee.

(Credit Aquafornia)