Southern Oregon: , by Dax Messett: Sign this petition to save Wild Steelhead: 5 stars
Hello everyone,
This is the most important fishing report we will post all year, and will impact reports for years to come. I am asking all of you to sign this very important petition to help protect wild steelhead on the Southern Oregon Coast. It is very easy, just follow the link below. For a little background, there are only twelve rivers left in the lower 48 states and Canada where anglers can still legally harvest an amazing wild steelhead. All twelve of these rivers are in Oregon, and ten of those rivers are in the Southwest Zone where we regularly fish and enjoy. We don't need to catch them to enjoy our experience, but we need to know they are there, and sadly, there are fewer around each year. The sad reality on the coast is that the wild steelhead populations are drastically decreasing, with harvest rates increasing. This is obviously unsustainable. We need to ask the ODFW Commission to require the release of all wild steelhead in this region if we wish to preserve this magnificent resource for the future. Please sign this petition, it only takes a minute. If you have any questions regarding this issue, please feel free to contact me directly.
https://www.change.org/p/oregon-fish-and-wildlife-commission-catch-release-for-wild-steelhead-in-southwest-oregon Thanks everyone, and you can do more! See below...
From Charles Gehr:
Along with signing the petition, you can also help by taking a few more steps:
1. The ODFW Commission is taking public comment on the petition. You can email your comments to
odfw.commission@state.or.us (respectful language please). Comments submitted before close of business tomorrow (Nov. 20) will be printed out and given to the commissioners in their pre-meeting packets (preferred). Comments submitted after tomorrow up until 48 hours before the meeting will be printed the day of the meeting and given to the Commissioners in attendance. Obviously, they will not be reading a stack of printed emails the day of the meeting, but they'll see the size of the stack of comments for the petition.
2. If you want to have the most impact possible, you can attend the Commissioners meeting in Salem, OR on December 6 at 8am. The more people we can have in attendance the better. To give perspective on this, we tried to get this regulation change made last year. We had significantly more petition signatures and public comments than our counterparts. At the commissioners meeting it was an even split, 12 people testifying for the petition and 12 against. End result was, we lost and here we are again. I understand and respect everyone's busy schedules and time for this effort, but if we can pack the room with people testifying for this petition it will be very difficult for the Commissioners to deny it.
https://www.change.org/p/oregon-fish-and-wildlife-commission-catch-release-for-wild-steelhead-in-southwest-oregon