Irishrover
Holy Akensen and Michael Finley are good choices and have the background for the position. Finley had quite the job as head of Yellowstone Park. Bob Weber an attorney on the commission is a good guy. I've gone to a couple commission meetings and watched him dig into the issues. jhop111 you are correct and should have some level of concern regarding Mr. Buckmaster. Salmon For All, the board he sits on, fought hard to stop SB 830, the bill that was intended to remove gillnets from the mainstream of the Columbia River. It was through their lobbyist that the Youngs Bay exclusionary zone was put into SB830. Our ODF&W system has the task of administering the resources to provide for both sports and commercial. It is a hard task. Sometimes the commission can become prone to protecting the commercial side of things. It's my opinion that we as sportsmen tend to subsidize the commercial side. Case in point would be the $10 Columbia River endorsement fee. That fee is collected from all sports fishermen who fish any waters that flow to the Columbia and 100% of it goes to a fund for the benefit of the commercial gillnet fleet. Buckmaster and Anderson will work hard to protect the commercial interest, that is understandable, I hope there is enough representation for the sports interest to help balance things out.
Now here comes my syndical side, I'm chuckling as I type. Governor Brown will stand for re-election in 2016, so she puts Atkinson on the ODF&W commission to sort of put him on ice as he could be a viable opponent in that election.
This is clipped from the ODF&W Commission web site regarding Holly Akensen "Holly Akenson has been a wildlife biologist and educator, primarily working in rural areas of Eastern Oregon and Idaho. She received her M.S. in Wildlife Resources from University of Idaho and B.S. in Biology and B.S. in Education from Eastern Oregon University. Most recently she worked for Wallowa Resources, providing education and field experiences for youth, university students and the community on stewardship of the natural resources of Wallowa County. Prior to that Holly taught field programs for University of Idaho students and conducted research and monitoring on wolves, cougars, bighorn sheep, bald eagles, and Oregon’s nongame Conservation Strategy Species for ODFW, IDF&G, and the Forest Service. She is a certified Wildlife Biologist. Holly currently works as a wildlife consultant and with her husband Jim, manages their tree farm. She serves on a local board promoting logging history. Holly is an avid archery and rifle big game hunter, angler, and wildlife photographer. She enjoys riding mules and taking a pack string into the mountains" Not a bad resume.
Now remember Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican and he was the guy who really got the conservation thing going. He even hung out with John Muir down at Yosemite.
...Seeing the declines in returns along with increased fees, angler pressure, and decreased angler opportunities makes me wonder if having a pro sport fishery board would be a nice change.
On Wednesday April 29th at 3pm in Salem at the state library the Coastal Conservation Association, NW Steelheaders Association, and the Northwest Sports Industry Association are having a rally to oppose this nomination. I'll be down there to support their point of view. This is what retired guys do when they are not fishing.
Way to go. I've done the same.excellent, I have seen some good stuff on the CCA...and I have sent the Gov. my suggestion that she reconsider whether Mr. Buckmaster is really a good choice for the commission...cheers, roger