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Old 02-20-2018, 08:10 PM
alberta_bha alberta_bha is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
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We released this today. In conjunction, we've also setup a website so people can email the AEP Minister and AEP Deputy Minister directly, as this has proven to be an effective way to apply pressure. Please share freely.

Thank you for all your help!

Survey: https://www.backcountryhunters.org/take_action#/34

Alberta closing popular trout rivers to anglers for five-year period without action on underlying threats

Feb. 20, 2018 - The Alberta provincial government is set to announce the closure of five of Alberta's trout fishing rivers despite lack a of stakeholder consultation, and no visible coordination among the government departments, in order to protect threatened native trout species.

“Native cutthroat and bull trout need action to ensure their survival – but instead of protecting rivers from the effects of poorly designed roads or logging practices, the government has decided to penalize anglers as a token of action,” says Jordan Pinkster of the Alberta Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA).

“It starts with the Ram, the Clearwater and North Saskatchewan rivers, but we fear that other rivers in Southern Alberta could be next.”

Presented as part of the overdue North Central Native Trout Recovery plan (NCNT) Alberta Environment and Parks models show minimal benefit to trout survival as a result of banning catch and release fishing, whereas the same models show the impacts of public roads, industrial disturbances and forestry as having a major effect on the survival of native trout species.

“While we support expanded protections – including restricting fishing methods and creating a classified waters system similar to British Columbia's – there is no indication the province is taking the real threats to native cutthroat and bull trout survival seriously,” says Pinkster.

“The problem has been left with Alberta Environment and Parks without any sign that Energy and Infrastructure, Agriculture and Forestry or Alberta Transportation are taking responsibility for their role in protecting the province's aquatic ecosystems.”

Consultations with the public took place in December but further planned meetings were never held. A survey only reached a small portion (0.4%) of Alberta anglers through Facebook, inexplicably ignoring the established email survey system used successfully every year to measure fishing and hunting success rates. If there was a real desire for angler feedback, the proven system would have been used.

“I disagree with the proposed closures as there is no publicly available baseline data to support them” says outdoor writer and photographer Duane Radford.

Carl Hunt, retired eastern slopes fisheries biologist, added “addressing hanging culverts, sedimentation causes, and restricting herbicide spraying are all easy fixes that would be far more meaningful towards an important environmental issue.”

The Alberta BHA urges the province to keep the Ram, Clearwater, Kakwa, Berland and North Saskatchewan rivers systems open to anglers, to re-open consultation with conservation groups and anglers, and lastly, to take real action on the underlying threats to Alberta's native trout species before it's too late, in the form of initiatives focused on long-term habitat quality and sustainability.
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